Seven days left in The City of Vermilion Kickstarter from The Merciless Merchants.

I am a big fan of their modules (well, mostly by one guy, Malrex, whose Patreon I have a link to), but they never really seem to have gotten much traction in the OSR community. Maybe because they aren't artsy or pretentious but just good? Especially good to actually run and not just read?. Maybe because they use the AD&D rules (2E for most of them, For Gold & Glory)

Anyway, presumably for that reason, they started a kickstarter for their latest module, The City of Vermilion 

However, the KS is only about halfway funded with a week left to go.  It's reasonably priced, too. $12 for a PDF of a 165 page adventure, $25 for softcover (at cost printing at DTRPG)

New Module from the Merciless Merchants

While I could wait until my weekly update, this is notable because a) they make really good modules and b) it's also available at Lulu.   Price is $5 PDF at DTPRG or $10 for print (at Lulu or DTRPG)

Also, amusingly it uses that piece of art I mentioned from my recent review of the Ruined City Cywhatzit, which I thought must be stock art since it didn't depect anything from the module. Does it depict anything here? I don't know, but I will find out...

One of the Merciless Merchants is making modules on Patreon

I don't follow Patreon much, much like I don't follow G+, Instagram, ham radio, the Kardashians, etc. I vaguely know they exist and are popular for reasons I don't grok, but I normally just let it filter in and out of my consciousness without it registering.

One on a while though something makes me notice and in this case, it's that Malrex, aka Aaron Fairbrook of the Merciless Merchants is now making modules on Patreon.

If you aren't familiar with them, they have released a small number of modules for the 2e retroclone For Gold and Glory. I reviewed one of them, Nevermore Mines, but have the rest. They are really quick good adventures (if a bit heavy on the stock art), not just interesting adventures to read, but ones you might actually run (which is kinda rare among OSR modules, IMHO).

Anyway, it's only a $1 a module and seems to put out one every month or two (hard to see how many he's made so far, 3 or 4 it seems) so worth a look if you like adventures. He's got a very good track record.

The Nevermore Mines — Excellent Halloween Themed Adventure

The Nevermore Mines is an adventure module from The Merciless Merchants for the AD&D 2e retroclone For Gold & Glory, meant for characters 4th to 7th level. Unlike a lot of OSR projects that are single person efforts, it's actually done by a number of people, written by Jon Bertani with Aaron Fairbrook and Mark McAllister, who also do maps and editing respectively.  An OSR product with editing? Who'd have thought. It's 56 pages and ordinarily goes for $5.95 in PDF, but I got it on sale for only $3.

It's meant to be a Halloween themed module, or at least inspired by it. The basic premise is that ages ago, some dwarves imprisoned an ancient evil in some mines, which they then abandoned. Then humans came along and re-opened the mines, including breaking open the sealed "Do Not Open" area and of course, the ancient evil ran amok. But they eventually realized their mistake and re-imprisoned the ancient evil. Only they didn't do as good a job of it as the dwarves and the ancient evil can get loose every "Harvest Moon". And he does, not just committing atrocities, but recruiting evil followers that can harass the nearby town year round.

The Merciless Merchants discount their products for Father's Day weekend

As near as I can tell, they are reducing their two adventures from $5.95 each to $3 each (they also have a PWYW one).

That's one of the annoying things about publishers who use DTPRG's feature to put a higher list price, then put a lower real price just to make it seem like they are giving you a big discount. Because when they actually do give a discount, you aren't sure how much the actual discount is.

The Ranger's Hideout, PWYW Adventure, is now available for For Gold & Glory

For Gold & Glory, the 2e retroclone, has seen a fair number of products lately. Almost all have been pay, but this one, The Rangers Hideout,  is PWYW.

Despite the odd name, it's basically a sandbox style adventure, a small wilderness area for characters to explore.

It's well worth a look. As most of the changes in 2e were to character classes, this is probably entirely compatible with older editions. And the creator probably spent a good $30 on stock art.

The Merciless Merchants bring out some 2E compatible modules

I missed this in my last update or two, but a couple of new guys, The Merciless Merchants (which makes me picture them as Ferrengi),  have released a couple of modules over at DTRPG for the 2e Retroclone For Gold & Glory.

Although I was a fan of Spelljammer and Birthright, the 2e rules always just felt "wrong" to me, though in retrospect, not nearly as wrong as later editions. It certainly does clean up a lot of the issues with 1e, though not all. So it has its points.

Anyway, the first module, shown above, is The Willowmere Vagabonds for levels 2-4, which sounds like the PCs must deal with bandits in a forest (hopefully more than that).

Their second is The Nevermore Mines, which seems to be horror themed and is for levels 4-7.

Both are a bit pricey at $8.40 a pop, but also are about 60 pages each and from looking at the previews, seem to have a good chunk of stock art, which adds up