Saturday, December 29, 2018

The OSR News: December 29, 2018

Gregorius21778 continues to publish their ass off, various post-apoc items are released and re-released. Some discounted Frog God Bundles and quite a bit of free stuff from around the OSR webs, plus more this week in the News. Happy Holidays!

New Releases


Gregorius21778: Examples of the Dark Arts Vol.04 by Kai Pütz a.k.a Gregorius21778. Available from DriveThruRPG in PDF for $1.75. 16 pages.
Examples of the Dark Arts Vol.04 provides new options for the Summon spell found in the LotFP Player Core Rules.

She-Demons wait to be summoned, either in their common form or in one of eight variations: the Amazon, the Angel, the Succubus, the Crone, the Mother, the Maiden, the Whore and the Fury. New sub-tables for their features are included as well as a d100 table with 91 powers arranged to match their theme.

Seven Gifts of the She-Demons may be acquired by summoning or destroying them.

Two detailed, powerful She-Demons, to be summoned or encountered: the Princess of the Cannibal Night and She who Sees wait to be unleashed onto your game world.

Nine Spells of the Cannibal Night, as the Princess is able to teach them.

All page references in this title refer to the LotFP Player Core Rules.

Have fun!
Swords & Six-Siders Companion by Steve Robertson, Brett M. Bernstein. Published by Precis Intermedia. Available from DriveThruRPG in PDF for Free. 32 pages.
Add new options to Swords & Six-Siders (S&SS) with this companion book.
Features:
 
  • Two new classes: Pathfinder and Cleric.
  • Notes on Alignment and Languages.
  • New options for ability checks, spells, combat, and movement.
  • Rules for Fumbles/Criticals and Special Situations/Damage.
  • Advancement beyond Level 6 without using levels.
  • Rules for Traps
  • New monsters, optional monster rules, and the Master List of Monsters.
New Race and Class Compendium for Fantasy Adventures by Thredith Undomiel. Published by Eryssel 's Journeys. Available from DriveThruRPG in PDF for $2.99. 38 pages. 
The New Race and Class Compendium for Fantasy Adventures is a supplement that offers 20 new races and 5 new classes (with their corresponding subclass tag for easier character creation) for Labyrinth Lord™ and Advanced Labyrinth Lord ™. 
Some of the exciting new possibilities that are included in this supplement are: 
  • Light and Dark Aasimars
  • 4 types of Genasi (Air, Fire, Earth, and Water)
  • Tieflings
  • Kobolds
  • Aquatic species for underwater adventures
  • Goliaths
  • Half-dwarves (or Muls) 
And more!!
All entries and charts have been carefully formatted to resemble entries from the original LL books and to be read in the same manner as the official supplements.
Creatures of the Wastelands: Random Encounters by Derek Holland and the Skirmisher Game Development Group. Published by Skirmisher Publishing. Available from DriveThruRPG in PDF for Free. 12 pages.
Creatures of the Wastelands: Random Encounters contains 15 random encounter tables designed for use with Goblinoid Games' Mutant Future post-apocalyptic role-playing game. These tables incorporate monsters primarily from the Skirmisher Publishing book Creatures of the Wastelands: A Menagerie of Mutants & Mutations, a licensed supplement to Mutant Future, along with some from Skirmisher's Creatures of the Wastelands: Mutational Evolution and a handful from the Mutant Future core rulebook. It is fully compatible with Mutant Future, as well as Labyrinth Lord and other games that use the familiar and easy-to-use "Basic D&D" rules introduced in the 1980s.
The Sepulcher of the Burning King by WR Beatty. Published by Rosethrone Publishing. Available from DriveThruRPG in PDF for $1.99. 20 pages.
Long forgotten, the Mage King Althos, Lord of the Northlands, Vanquisher of the pagan hills, Destroyer of the Aberthine Demon was once a great hero in the land. He wielded magic and a sword in powerful combination to drive out the forces of the Outer Darkness. Tempted by the magic of nature, he stole the words from the priests of the Old Gods which would enslave a Fiery Spirit, binding it to Althos’ body. He became the Burning King.
Dabbling in old magics took their toll on King Althos’ mind and, in the end, the Fiery Spirit took over and all but destroyed him. In the end, he fell to St. Garamon the Pious’ sword and was buried in a secret vault, locked away in the Northern Tier of the Rosewood Highlands.

The madness of the Fiery Spirit was such that it possesses the King even in death.

The Sepulcher of the Burning King is a Highlands Location, found at Hex 5A in the Northern Tier Hexcrawl. The Northern Tier is a sub-region of the Highlands. On the larger Rosewood Highlands map this region is just north and west of the city of Newtown, on the border between the Drummond Clan in the east and Great Oaks, the holdings of the Firbolg King, in the west. The Northern Tier covers the northern part of Hex E-4.

The Sepulcher should provide sufficient challenge and reward for a party levels 7-9, with a balanced mix of classes advised. A cleric will be especially useful as a number of undead dwell in the depths of the Sepulcher.
In The Light Of A Ghost Star by Nate Treme. Published by Highland Paranormal Society. Available from DriveThruRPG in PDF for PWYW. Also available on Itch in PDF for PWYW. 14 pages. (Per the publisher, this will eventually be available in print.)
Earth was abandoned ages ago during the red giant expansion. Now, dimly lit by the ghost light of a dead white dwarf, it lies layered with eons of forgotten civilizations. From the warmth of Martian reactor cities, scavengers hire illegal transportation to earth to delve into its depths, looking for ancient treasures. There they must deal with ghosts, machines, and the strange life that has evolved on humankind’s abandoned home planet.

In The Light Of A Ghost Star is a rules-lite system and setting for sci-fi roleplaying. It comes with a hex crawl and random tables that can also be used with other RPG systems.

Files include the main pdf, the main pdf in spread format for easier tablet viewing, a character sheet pdf that includes the game rules on the back, and an 11x17 pdf of the sample adventure hex map.
Creature Feature Quarterly vol.1 (Black Hack Edition) by Jeremy Hart. Available from DriveThruRPG in PDF for $4.00. 30 pages.
13 new monsters with an OSR feel for your Black Hack game. I modeled the stat blocks after TBH 2e, but all these monsters should be quite compatible with TBH 1e as well. 
In addition to the usual stats, each monster has an extensive description including lore, ecology and adventure ideas. 
As this is meant to be a DIY printed book I also included two wrap covers. One black and one white. 
Each download also contains Paper Minis and VTT Tokens of the monster.
Monsters By Hit Dice 
HD2 Protocol Imp
HD4 Unseelie Psychopomp
HD5 Arboreal Stalker
HD6 Blade Wraith, Cerberan Warlock, Lurking Glutton
HD7 Star Tyrant
HD8 Mantid Stitch Golem, Tatterdemalion Lich
HD9 Hound Of Tindalos
HD10 Twistbrute
HD12 Devourer
HD16 Enraged Fallen Celestial
The Living Building by Derek Holland, Skirmisher Game Development Group. Published by Skirmisher Publishing. Available from DriveThruRPG in PDF for $1.99. 22 pages.
“Just after dawn, a village scout dashed from the forest carrying a wondrous, and perhaps even terrifying, story of a huge, circular shell with a door, a massive coiled building that sprang up during the night. And it is still growing … ”

Whether from forgetfulness, mental blockage, or intrusions of the dread “real life,” every storyteller has probably experienced that sinking, not-so-prepared feeling before a game. This sourcebook provides a remedy for the next time that happens, and includes an adventure location that is both a little pre-generated and a little homemade, is immediately expandable and adaptable, and can be replayed without seeming like a re-run, because the building changes even as the characters explore it.

“The Living Building” includes background and physical description for the title structure; a floorplan for a particular living building; problems with living buildings that can make them interesting and dangerous places to explore; tips on using living buildings in game sessions; tables for determining the contents of rooms; hazards that characters might face in living buildings; and a section on monsters particularly likely to be encountered in living buildings that includes four new creatures and three new mutations.

Material in this publication was written specifically for the Mutant Future retroclone of Gamma World and can be used as-is with it and any other sci-fi, fantasy, or post-apocalyptic games that use the "Basic" version of the OGL system, and easily adapted to other games using the same core rules. It was written by noted game developer Derek Holland and includes cartography by artist William T. Thrasher.
Escape from Yule Mountain by David Baity. Published by Sanctum Media. Available from DriveThruRPG in PDF for PWYW. 16 pages.
- Proceeds from the sale of this adventure are donated to Feline Lifeline -

From the mind of David Baity (author of Carnival of the Damned and the forthcoming 
Dark Trails) comes this holiday funnel adventure to bedevil and delight your players.

Across the land, scores of children are swept away during the week before the Winter Solstice, never to be heard from again. Legend has it that an ancient demon is the twisted force behind these mysterious abductions. A creature still worshipped in the darkest corners of the world, known to some as...Krampus.

The week before the solstice has come to be known as Krampuslauf. A time of judgement where, legend tells, winter's demon is allowed the freedom to roam alongside its minions. Villagers who have sinned against their neighbors leave offerings of peppermint schnapps on the doorstep, in hopes of detering the malevolent spirits from bringing harm.

While good children are rewarded by Sinterklass with gifts of candies and toys, the most unruly children are left naught but a velveteen sack of coal, a bundle of gold tinted ruten, and a warning. Those children who fail to take heed? Come the next year they vanish, never to be heard from again....

Until now.
Book of Lairs: People & Places by Simon Forster. Published by theskyfullofdust. Available from DriveThruRPG in Print/PDF for $6.35 and in PDF for $3.18. 48 pages.

This is my fifth Book of Lairs: People & Places, written with the Adventurer, Conqueror, King System in mind, but easily compatible with other similar old school fantasy RPGs.
This book has ten 'lairs' and the NPCs that inhabit each, again on two-spreads: a double-page for the usual map/lair combination, and another double-page covering the NPCs and whatever treasure can be found.

I have used stock art by William McAusland, and a bit of my own (much poorer) efforts. You can tell which ones I did.

Just as the previous books have been supported by my loyal Patrons, this one is no exception. A special and most sincere thank you to everyone who has supported me over the years, past and present. I am humbled.

I hope this book finds a use at your table. Even if it just acts as a beer mat.

Cheers,

Simon.

Re-Releases, New Editions, Now in Print, etc.


Double Jeopardy by Paul Ward. Published by Matakishi's Tea House. Available in Print from Lulu for $14.63. Still available from DriveThruRPG in PDF for $3.75. 36 pages.

Double Jeopardy is an adventure written for The Cthulhu Hack but easily convertible to any other Mythos themed game. 
Double Jeopardy is suitable for beginning investigators and new players although seasoned investigators will find much to interest them. 
The setting is 1980s Britain but, again, this can easily be changed. 
An outbreak of strange disappearances and mysterious doppelgangers lead the investigators to an undreamed of alien menace beneath the streets of London. 
Double Jeopardy is a full colour, fully illustrated adventure with portraits of all the NPCs, player and gamemaster maps, player handouts and tables and charts of major plot points and people so the gamemaster can run things with the minimum of effort.
Highway Holocaust by Joe Dever. Published by Askfageln. Available from DriveThruRPG in PDF for $9.99. 251 pages.
The first choose-your-own-adventure-gamebook in Joe Dever’s post apocalyptic series.America 2033 AD.

Eight years ago the terrorist agents of H.A.V.O.C. triggered a nuclear nightmare that devastated the northern hemisphere, its radioactive aftermath claiming all but a few lucky survivors. Patiently, in scattered colonies deep underground, these survivors have been waiting for the earth to heal itself, waiting for the day when they could walk once more upon the surface of their shattered world.

That day has come …but the real battle for survival has only just begun! Highway Holocaust. You are Cal Phoenix, the Freeway Warrior, champion and protector of Dallas Colony One. A murderous gang of H.A.V.O.C. clansmen, led by the psychotic Mad Dog Michigan, are hell bent on destroying your fragile colony as it crosses the wastelands of Texas on the first stage of its life-or-death exodus to the California coast. These bike-riding clansmen are a formidable enemy: armed, cunning, and extremely dangerous, capable of launching a lightning raid at any time, day or night. You will need all your wits about you if you are to defend your people and reach your destination intact!
Slaughter Mountain Run by Joe Dever. Published by Askfageln. Available from DriveThruRPG in PDF for $9.99. 267 pages.
The second choose-your-own-adventure-gamebook in Joe Dever’s post apocalyptic series. America 2033 Ad. Eight years ago the terrorist agents of H.A.V.O.C. triggered a nuclear nightmare that devastated the northern hemisphere, its radioactive aftermath claiming all but a few lucky survivors. Patiently, in scattered colonies deep underground, these survivors have been waiting for the earth to heal itself, waiting for the day when they could walk once more upon the surface of their shattered world. That day has come …but the real battle for survival has only just begun!

Highway Holocaust. You are Cal Phoenix, the Freeway Warrior, champion and protector of Dallas Colony One. From the sanctuary of Big Spring your convoy of survivors begins the next stage of its life-or-death exodus; a journey to the fortified border town of El Paso, a destination that lies hundreds of miles beyond the sun-scorched wasteland of West Texas.

In SLAUGHTER MOUNTAIN RUN your mission is to rescue Kate Norton from the clutches of your arch enemy – the H.A.V.O.C. leader Mad Dog Michigan. You have just seven days to free her and rendezvous with the colony before it runs the gauntlet of fire which protects the only mountain road to El Paso.

The Northlands Series Adventure Six Pack (S&W) [BUNDLE] Published by Frog God Games. Available from DriveThruRPG in PDF for $24.99
The Northlands Series Adventure Six-Pack 
All six adventures in the Northlands Series now available at a deep discount! Adventure across the frozen waste of the Northlands. For use with Swords & Wizardry Complete and other old-school fantasy roleplaying games.
Hex Crawl Chronicles Six-Pack (S&W) [BUNDLE] Published by Frog God Games. Available from DriveThruRPG in PDF for $19.99.
Collected together for the first time, all six volumes of of the classic Hex Crawl Chronicles, for use with Swords & Wizardry Complete and other old-school fantasy role-playing games!

When the game was invented and sold in a little woodgrain box, the author told us a required supplement was an Avalon Hill game called Outdoor Survival. This was a wilderness survival game that consisted of a hexagonal map system that players would 
travel around, trying to find their way back to civilization, all the while trying not to die of thirst or get eaten by bears. This game map was used as the first wilderness "hex-crawl" for what eventually became D&D. Later, Judges Guild took this to a whole new level with the Wilderlands series. For many years, hex crawling was just the way the game was played. This series brings that back, or supplements existing games that use that system of travel.
What a hex crawl is, literally, is a wilderness sandbox of areas, encounters and villages that players travel around in. It provides no story line, just hundreds of story hooks and possibilities.

These books provide a sub-setting in your own campaign world. They populate the world, and allow you to let your players explore that world, rather than just "travel 20 days" to the dungeon. Written by John Stater of NOD fame, each of these supplements details an area with a specific theme. Monster and NPC statistics are provided for each encounter area detailed.

Free Gaming Stuff from the Blogosphere and Evirons


Michael "Chgowiz" Shorten continues his Three Hexes series with Babel On.




Jojiro of Dungeon Antology posted The Rift Unending.

Here's a choose your adventure type game book someone passed along as worthwhile. Heart of Ice. 



Brent Ault released an "Incomplete Work in Progress" - Ruinations. 61 page PDF. Direct Link to Google Drive file. 



James V. West of Doomslakers! made some new Character Sheets, here and again here. 

Goodman Games posted a table of Winter Themed Corruptions for DCC


MapTime





Reviews & Play Reports






GREGORIUS21778 recommends some Good RPG Music Tracks for Great Prices.




Crowdfunding Projects




And That's It for This Week...


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About The OSR News

Unless otherwise noted, all links to products and files are to the individual authors sites, pertinent posts, or sales pages. I don’t link directly to files unless that is the only link available.

I have received no remuneration from any publisher for reporting on their releases, nor is such a requirement for a product to be included in these posts. At times, an author or publisher may send me a complimentary copy of an item, for purposes of review. This is not a requirement for a product's inclusion in these posts. One Bookshelf site links are affiliate links and may provide some compensation from that retail site.

Please feel free to send me information on any new releases, events, or other items of interest, which you would like to see mentioned.