Crimson Dragon Slayer brings to mind the old gonzo days of gaming, like Rifts in my case.

Premise here is that your character is transported from 1983 to this weird world of Thule and transformed into the character you create during char gen.

Races range from your normal humans, dwarves, halflings and elves to less common infernal elves, pixie fairy princesses, reptilians, crystallines and robots.

The race examples provide enough diversity that it shouldn't be too difficult to homebrew more racial options without breaking anything.

Classes are more baseline with warrior, mage, thief and ranger. With the last two branching to different specializations as you level up.

The system itself is rules light, not as light as Alpha Blue, using pools of d6's for most things. Conversions from other OSR games shouldn't be too difficult either so this ruleset could easily be used in the OSR setting of your choice if wanting something a bit lighter but still not ready to go as far as Alpha Blue.

As a summary I'd say it is humorous, gonzo old school game with a slight modern touch in the lightness of the rules. And like with most Vengers work it is also a quick and light to read through due to it's conversational and humorous writing style.

Venger's take on OSR fantasy gaming, CDS puts you in your choice of race/class combo as you are transferred into an avatar in a video game. Six abilities, 3d6 generated scores, hit points, all familiar if you have experience with DnD/pathfinder type games and a simple advancement chart up to level 10. Warrior, wizard, thief, ranger classes with a couple subclasses and a d6 pool system make this a fairly simple game to pick up and a simple conversion rule lets you use OSR monters from similar systems, really a 40 page book thats got a game system and introductory adventure should be plenty of game time out of this product. Written in the vein of Venger's blue humor, I like this game and plan to use it for some one shots in the near future. I got the softcover and the cover has a nicely colored dragon, the interior art is b&w but very appropriate for the subject and looks like some was from a conan product.

I am fast becoming a fan of Kort’thalis Publishing. It started a couple of weeks ago with my purchase of The Outer Presence rpg and then having a great time running/playing it with friends this weekend. I’ve just now downloaded the Crimson Dragon Slayer bundle (CDS, Candy Crypts, and No Escape from New York) from DriveThruRPG.

The combination of simple, playable rules plus utterly gonzo situations is glorious. I’ve been on the rpg scene a long time (started with AD&D a loooong time ago) and this stuff is a breath of pure FUN.

Crimson Dragon Slayer adventures feel like a 1980s Conan rip-off made in the back half of a Spencer’s gift shop! Adventures that feel like a 1970s black velvet fluorescent poster lit by black light. I can get ‘somber, serious’ (aka: more muted and dull) stuff in a pile of other rpg offerings. Venger's stuff pops off the page because: a) it’s gonzo and b) he writes it very well.

The potent combination of simple, rugged rules and unchained, un-politically-correct, refreshingly original craziness has made me a fan.

Unique story, brought me back to the early days when there were no limits.

A neuronphaser.com review.

Rating: Content 4/5 and Form 3/5.

The mechanics of the game are built not around the d20 but instead around pools of 6-sided dice that you compare the highest die rolled to a rather simple table of results, where 6 is a critical success, 5 is a success, 4 a partial success, 3 a partial failure, 2 a failure, and 1 a critical failure. These results, however, aren’t entirely open-ended or “narrative” but have concrete mechanical implications. For instance, getting a 4 (partial success) means half-damage on an attack, while a 3 would be minimum damage (1 point of damage).

There are plenty of permutations, too, so this isn’t some barebones system by any means. Every 6 that comes up in your dice pool counts towards giving you bonus effects on your action, called Dominance. There are six potential effects (yay symmetry!) and if you’ve got multiple 6s, you can choose that many effects or double-up on any of the effects; basically whatever combination you want. The Dominance effects are things like triggering stunts or special abilities, imposing penalties on the victim’s next action, gaining bonus dice on your next action, increasing your damage rolls, and other things along those lines.

The number of dice rolled are determined by a graduated chart that seems simple enough to commit to memory, and each step along the path also gets a “name” of sorts so that various mechanics can refer to them easily: if you have “advantage” you are rolling 3d6, so a special ability (say from your character’s race) simply says that you have “advantage when trying to show-off or make a good impression.”

Other rules are generally very simple, and while couched in “old school” ideas they tend toward “new school” simplicity. Armor Class is actually straight-up damage reduction (+2 AC means you subtract 2 from damage that you take), healing is handled in short and long rests that recover hit points and refresh Hit Dice, and there are Death Saving Throws that occur once you’ve hit negative numbers in your current hit points.

We’ll talk more about specific rules below — character creation, magic, monsters — but it’s worth noting that this game delivers it’s rules in a minimum of words, in a fun and enthusiastic conversational tone, and is generally great about explaining everything without resorting to lots of examples. This is great for anyone passingly familiar with OSR games or any d20/OGL/SRD-based Dungeons & Dragons clone (or D&D itself, of course), but for anyone new, this book is going to rely a little bit too much on knowledge of gaming terminology. The system and everything is very simple, but if you’re not a gamer, you may get a little lost in terms like “exploding dice” and “damage reduction” that — while they are explained in the rules — sometimes seem impenetrable to newbies.

The races: Human, Elf, Infernal Elf, Dwarf, Halfling, Robot, Reptilian, Pixie Fairy Princess, Crystalline, Hybrid (half-breed combination of any of the other races)

The classes: Warrior, Wizard, Thief (with 2 specializations you can choose between at 3rd level), and Ranger (also with 2 specializations).

Warrior has the best hit die (d10) and outside of being proficient with every weapon, also can mow through multiple enemies as long as they keep hitting.

Wizards get the worst hit die (d6), proficiency in only the dagger and staff, and the ability to cast spells and practice alchemy. Starting at 5th level, though, they can create signature spells or magic items (once per level).

The thief is proficient with a decent subset of weapons and a bunch of fairly open-ended but self-explanatory “skills” such as hiding and stealing and all the other stuff thieves usually get in OSR games. They can also backstab for double damage dice by foregoing an action for one round. At 3rd level, choose a sub-class: Spell Scoundrel (wizard of 2 levels lower than your current level) or Assassin (gain a limited-use death strike attack).

Rangers get proficiency with a bunch of weapons as well as wilderness-type skills, including foraging for healing herbs and tracking. At 3rd level, choose a sub-class: Shaman (can shapeshift into animal forms) or Defender (can shield allies with defensive actions).

Levels in Crimson Dragon Slayer not only provide a pool of bonus dice usable throughout a day, but also occasionally unlock class abilities (as noted above) or translate to ultra-cool bonuses like the 10th level Dragon Slayer ability to throw a dice pool of 7d6 (A.K.A. God Mode).

But levels aren’t reached by totaling monster Experience Point rewards or some math-heavy construct, but instead are the result of in-game achievements. Everybody starts at Level 0 (“Noob”) because they just have to show up to do so, as the Experience Table shows us. Reaching Level 1 (and thus obtaining that first bonus die per day) simply requires going an adventure, doing a little exploration, and killing a humanoid or creature without aid. This sort of thing is obviously a little open-ended and prone to plenty of interpretation as to the details, but it’s strict enough that you kinda can’t get it wrong.

Wizards cast spells by spending Willpower equal to the level of the spell (if it’s of a level equal to theirs), or three times the level of the spell if it’s of a higher level. Willpower refreshes with a long rest, and better yet for this sort of setting, wizards get the obligatory ability to suck Willpower out of people by cutting them and then touching them for a time. Yay, ritual sacrifice! I mean, that’s totally in tune with this sort of game’s conceits.

Critically failing on a spell roll spells some kind of disaster as a Demon Lord reaches out to the spellcaster and asks for some specific task to appease it, or else they lose their ability to cast spells. There’s a table of example tasks (6 of them, in case you feel like rolling a die!), and they involve your typical stuff like sacrificing people, uncovering the plans of do-gooders for your Demon Lord master, or copulating in order to create a magical (likely demon-tainted) child.

The list of spells is tight at about 3 spells for every level, including zero-level spells for the Noobs, but only a single 10th level spell. If you guessed that it was Wish, you’ve been paying attention to D&D for exactly the right amount of time. Some of the spell names evoke classic OSR stuff (Read Magic, Comprehend Languages) while others call back to video games and 1980’s tropes (Missile Command instead of magic missile, Taste the Rainbow instead of color spray). Most do what you’d think, and tend to look back to OD&D’s days of incredibly brief descriptions (also found in Swords & Wizardry), so there isn’t a lot of room for interpretation unless you get really nitpicky.

The included adventure is called “The Cavern of Carnage” and takes no time to jump into things: it’s a straight-up presentation of:

1. There’s a town nearby; we name it, and that’s it!

2. Here’s a random encounter table for the dungeon; it’s astonishingly punishing if you linger in any one spot for very long.

3. A slick looking map and almost 20 fully-described encounter locations with monster stats, traps, and treasure.

This doesn’t appear to be a “starting” adventure or come with any notes on what levels it’s intended for or how to “balance” anything…some encounters are against two 1-Hit Die monsters and others are against a single 10 Hit Die monster or 1d4 flying, laser shooting aliens. Some traps require saving throws of various sorts, and others just cause you to lose a finger, no save mentioned. It’s really all over the place. But so are the ideas contained within, in a good way!

A beholder-like creature named Pacmaw in a maze filled with ability score-modifying fruit, pretzels, and cupcakes. A callout to Doctor Who. A trapped cube of Rubix. A trio of mad alchemists. A caveman orgy in service to their dark god. A treasure chest with a ring in it and a finger-eating grub. Mentions of Saving Throws (I don’t recall these coming up earlier!) and a Charisma duel (it directly notes that this is a thing you’ll have to make up on the spot).

Overall, it’s what you’d expect of a whacky and wild OSR techno-fantasy adventure steeped in 1980’s references, and buried in the brief room descriptions and NPC notes are threads of a larger tapestry that hint at the assumed campaign setting of Thule, but there’s little attempt to make any sense of the larger whole. And there’s nothing particularly geared toward making the adventure sing, or easing any prep for the Dragon Master running it (handouts, separated statblocks, summaries of the background or context of the otherwise random setting snippets).

The artwork is slick, totally fits with the content of the game, and even includes a moment or two that will remind you of the video game part of the setting’s backstory, which is nice, though I maybe wanted a little more of that. Still, it’s all relevant and of great quality, harkening back to the 1970’s and 1980’s pulp-style RPG art and the movies that obviously inspired the game’s tone, so that’s a big win.

Layout is clean, two columns, highly readable, and with several quote-like callouts and evocative little symbols baked into the pages to break up text and add to the fun prose.

Read more reviews -- and get other useful RPG resources -- at neuronphaser.com

I had pretty high hopes for this one. I am part of his target audience, I enjoyed the 80s, enjoy a gonzo edge to my games, and I don't mind mixing my genres a bit. I also don't mind doses of humor in my games. But....well maybe I just didn't "get it" in this one.

I want to start off with the things I liked. The book is gorgeous and I am happy to see that VS is spending his money on art than say orgies dedicated to Cthulhu. No idea though he might be doing both. But the art is great looking in this book. It is basically three varieties, the "Lovecraftian" art found in earlier products (ex. on p. 23), the sword & sorcery (p. 11) and the humorous (p. 14). My favorite though is on page 4. The layout is fantastic and the character sheet on page 41 is a gem. Plus that cover art. Really, really excellent. If the arrt was a problem for you in his other products then take heart here. There is nothing here that isn't PG, and dare I even say it, G rated. Even the scantily clad barbarian and maiden on page 11 are still covered more than a swimsuit issue.

While reading this I am struck with how this is the RPG version of the Heavy Metal story "Den". In the movie a kid from earth is transported to a sci-fi/S&S world where he become a might thewed (and bald) barbarian. Not a bad idea really, and something I could do more with than say Carcossa. But it is also riff on the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon.

The book itself is a bunch of house rules. Again, this is what was advertised. Many were hinted at in previous books. Some are good, many I have seen in one form or another elsewhere over the last 35 years. A couple things jump out at me. Infernal Elf: I have to admit I rather like this idea and it is something I have been toying with myself since listening to Kim Harrison's Hallows series. In that book Elves and Demons are ancient enemies, but are a little closer than they would like. This works right in with that. Robots: Hmm. No. Not really my thing, but I get why it is here.

The chapter on magic is interesting and something I might adopt. At this point I am imagining Thule as not some distant planet, but as a mystical island just south of Hyperborea.

There are some magic items, some notes on converting monsters and even a small cavern crawl.

All in all the book is fine, but nothing really extra special. Maybe I was expecting more or something different. I don't know. I am not quite sure it lived up to my expectations of it.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This pdf clocks in at 44 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page inside of front cover, 2 pages of editorial, 2 pages of quotes at the back, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 37 pages of content, so let's take a look!

This book went up on my review queue due to me receiving a print copy for the purpose of a fair and critical review.

It is the year 1983 and you pop in this awesome new game into your state of the art Commodore 64, studded with your cutting-edge Ultimax graphics card. You get ready for a truly immersive experience and let your stereo blast a wonderful mix of metal and synthesizer-infused wave-music and then, the unthinkable happens - blue laser beams blast forth from the screen and suddenly, you find yourself within the Crimson Dragon Slayer game, in the world of Thule - a powerful wizard, dying at the entrance of some ominous caves, gives you the brief run-down of the world you found yourself in:

Thule is a savage world, formerly invaded by aliens, then subject to the dread android uprising and plunged into a neo-savage post-apocalyptic bronze age that would feel like home to either Conan or Kull. Yes, Kull. I'll fight anyone bashing the gloriously cheesy movies...but back to the review. No gods can be found in this savage land - only horrific demons, and thus, the one "high" culture remaining, the Valeecians, are drowning their sorrows in excesses of wine, women, drugs and serialized entertainment. The fabled Queen of said realm is supposed to be the most gorgeous beauty in all the lands and only by vanquishing one of the legendary Crimson Dragons, employed by the dread wizard Varkon can one hope to win her hand - or be powerful enough to take her place, if female and/or not inclined to bed the queen. Of course, alternatively, destroying Varkon's legendary scepter or claiming his dread powers would also be options, but that lies far in the future - for now, you are stranded and realize that you don't even necessarily are a human anymore!

If this premise did not at least make you smile a bit, then probably because I failed to convey the subtle humor that suffuses the writing of this basic premise - and the whole book, really. After this intro, character creation is handled - under the header "You mean this game has rules? WTF!?" Yes, this is actually a good read, unlike many rules-books I've read.

Character-creation is very much traditional 3d6 for the 6 attributes Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Willpower and Charisma. Ability-scores range from 0 to 18 and provide a range of penalties and benefits ranging from - 2 to +2. Strength influences melee damage. Dexterity influences AC. Constitution influences bonus hit points per level. Intelligence influences languages known. Willpower directly influences how easily a target can be assaulted by a wizard - low scores translate to bonuses versus the character and vice versa. Charisma attracts followers and interns and obviously, your chances of getting laid. Massive tables allow you to choose previous occupations and a 3-part name-generator table provides the hilariously cheesy names - one of my players, a red-haired woman, got "Slaughter Haunt Strawberry" and almost fell off her char laughing.

The currency in Thule would be cyber crowns and all character begin play with 3d10. Characters also start the game at level 0, gaining their racial traits: Humans get +2 to two ability scores of their choosing and 10 HP. Elves get +2 Cha and Will, get an advantage when making a good impression and are resistant to the enthrall spell. Infernal Elves, essentially half-demonic elves, get +1 Int, Will and Dex and may choose a demonic patron, regardless of spellcasting ability. Both elven types get 6 starting HP. Dwarves get +2 Str and Con and 8 HP. Halflings get +4 Dex, -2 Str and may reroll 1/day a natural 1 in a non-combat situation. They get 4 HP. Robots get +4 Int and cast spells via Int, not Will and cannot be used for Will by other casters (more on that later). They get 8 HP. Reptilians get +4 Str and Dex, -4 Cha and are bad at diplomacy etc. They may attack unarmed for 1d6 damage and get 12 HP. Pixie fairy Princesses, all of them female and all of them princesses (how that works, no one knows...) get +4 Dex and Cha, -4 Str and have an advantage in convincing folks. They get 4 HP. Crystalline creatures get +2 Willpower and count as double when used to power spellcasting and take only half damage from lasers. they get 12 HP -and obviously are a good commodity for all evil sorceror tyrants out there. Finally, the book provides rules for making hybrids of the races. Do I consider the races herein perfectly balanced? No, but their unique benefits and drawbacks can be used by a good Dragon Master (this game's term for the GM) to make them all work out.

Crimson Dragon Slayer (CDS for short in this review) knows 4 base classes. When a class levels up, you roll the class HD and add the result to your hit points. Warriors have d10 and when they hit a target in melee, they may continue to attack targets in melee range until they miss. Wizards get d6 and can utilize magic and alchemy (more on magic later) and can only use daggers and staves. 5th level wizards get either a unique spell or item, creating more at a rate of one per level. Thieves can use short swords, daggers, slings, whips, clubs and crossbows. Thieves can skip their turn to attack in the following round with double the attack dice pool. At 3rd level, they can opt to become assassins or spell scoundrels - spell scoundrels act as wizards at -2 levels. Assassins can 1/day perform a death strike (2/day at 7th and 3/day at 10th level) - if they hit, it's con-based save or die. Thieves have d8. Finally, rangers have d8 and can produce healing moss in the forest, talk Lassie-style to animals and may use long swords, short swords, daggers, bows, slings, spears and polearms. At 3rd level, they can choose to become shamans or defenders - shamans can transform into a fox, deer, raccoon, badger, turkey or twin ferrets 1/day for level rounds. Defenders may protect allies within 10 ft with their shields or magic cloaks.

The game uses dice pools - d6s per level per day. These can be refreshed by resting, though recharging requires some sort of sexual gratification. Alignment is grouped in good, evil, neutral - simple. To attempt an action, you roll 6-sided dice and only take a look at the highest number - except 6s - each 6 grants a so-called dominance. These provide additional benefits that you may choose - the more, the more bonuses you can choose. A round is 20 second long. Struggling actions get 1d6. Average actions get 2d6, Easy ones 3d6. Advantages and disadvantages cancel each other out. Occasionally, you get super-disadvantages (1d6, take the lesser) or super-advantages (4d6). Special occasions can even grant 5d6, but should be accompanied by some awesome scifi/fantasy/80's reference and finally, the cap is 6d6...unless you're 10th level or a dragon - then, this is god mode.

Results are as follows: 6 is a critical success; 5 is a success, 4 is a partial success, 3 is a partial failure, 2 is a failure, 1 is a critical failure. Dominances allow you to perform special stunts, penalize foes, grant your next rolls a bonus, initiate side benefits, reroll weapon damage or add a second attack. Speaking of side benefits - these range from disarming foes to impressing fair maidens, spell durations are doubled - you get the idea. Upon reaching 0 HP r below, a character must make a death saving throw, with the dice pool being based on Con as per the regular dice pool rules. Oh, and yes, 4 sixes mean you regain full health. Somehow. And a 1 reflects a horrible death that can stun all onlookers.

Weapons are simple: Bladed weapons have exploding dice rules - i.e. max damage is rolled again and added together. Blunt weapons stun targets on max damage. Ranged weapons receive a penalty to dice pool versus more distant foes. Two-handed weapons let you reroll 1s rolled in damage. A massive list is provided, ranging from daggers to sonic switchblades and napalm grenades.

Armor Class, or AC, acts as DR. Ac starts at zero (unless your Dex is so low you take a penalty - which would mean you get MORE damage!) - the higher, the better. Cover reduces the dice pools used to attack the target. Shields stack with armor and are VERY useful in this system. Good armor does cancel out dex-bonuses, though. Default movement is 50 ft. per round, 40 ft. in chainmail, 30 ft. in scalemail and 20 ft. in platemail.

Initiative is simple: Flee or Charge first, then ranged weapons, then melee and natural weapons, then spellcasters. HP replenish after 8 hours of rest. Tending to another's wounds in battle takes a full rounds worth of actions and replenishes a single HD and can only be done once per victim until a short or long rest is taken. Experience and level-gain is tied to deeds your character must perform in-game.

Magic is simple: Each spell costs its level in willpower. Wizards may cast higher level spells, but at thrice the cost. Wizards may also use other creatures - by spilling their blood and touching it, they can siphon willpower from the creature at the rate of 1 per round and they may only store their level worth of these points. 0 willpower = unconscious for 8 hours. This means the more spells a character casts, the less willpower he'll have to resist spells himself. 3 spells per level are provided, from 0 to 9, ranging from basic detect magic to defensive force-fields, phantasm-style deadly silver balls to the cube of coitus that helps with seduction, the ice cream phantom servant (in three flavors!), great balls of fire, cylinders of fubar and finally, Power Word: Just Fuckin' Die Already! 10th level nets you Wish, obviously.

An array of magical items can also be found within these pages and a short gazetteer on prominent individuals the character may know, some information on the demon lords like Tsathag'kha or K'tulu etc. are provided. Monsters have half their HD as dice pool for attacks. Other OSR-system monsters detract 10 from AC in CDS and add it vice versa.

And that's all - all the rules required to play - simple indeed.

The pdf also sports a small introductory module, the aptly-named caverns of carnage. So, from here on out, the review will contain SPOILERS. Players should jump to the conclusion.

...

..

.

The caverns of carnage are essentially an old-school dungeon crawl in the friggin' best of ways. There's not much of a story going on, but we did not miss it for even a second. Why? Because the hilarious premise of the system, the writing that made reading the rules actually a pleasant experience, blooms to full-blown awesome-triple-plus levels here. If you have no humor, steer clear. If you do, you'll laugh more than you'll have in ages playing, as horror and comedy oscillate in a spectacle that is just FUN. What do I mean by this? The module is unabashedly, wonderfully, bonkers in the way that a self-ironic heavy metal cheese is. The random encounters include grey invaders, unholy things with too many tentacles (which may cause the characters to shit their pants), androgynous cigarette.smoking men that may prove to be Ziggy Stardust, Surf-Nazis and drum-roll PSYCHOTIC CARE-BEARS that can transform you into one of their own.

The PCs can also save gorgeous women from being sacrificed to demons (and yes, there are guidelines to which of the saviors they'll be attracted to...) - coincidentally, in my playtest,a female player scored all of them and had a total blast. So no, I do not consider this sexist - it's not mean-spirited in any way. But back to being bonkers - there is an AI-Smiley of Doom to be found herein alongside a hidden grub that just waits to bite off 1d4 fingers. Caveman-orgies, skeletal mermaids, portals into post-nuclear wastelands, including mad scavengers, demonic spider gods, cannibal zombie ninjas, a literally deadly tangerine dream, a deadly Rubix cube...there is not ONE encounter here that does not sport something utterly awesome. Oh, and there is a truly unique one that not only may net permanent bonuses (including extra lives!) that had me actually get a laughing fit - friggin' cthulhoid pacman-maze. Yes, there is a nasty maze wherein nice pretzels etc. provide bonuses while ghosts haunt you and a deadly gigantic Pacman wants to destroy you! WAKKA-WAKKA-WAKKA!!!

At the end of our playtest, we all had laughed so much, some of us had sore muscles on the following day.

The pdf also provides a nice character-sheet.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are not perfect, but still can be considered very good. Layout adheres to an easy to read two-column b/w-standard and sports A LOT of gorgeous, classic Conan-artworks as well as thematically perfectly fitting original pieces. The pdf does have layers so you can make it more printer-friendly still, but alas, it does not have bookmarks, which constitutes a comfort-detriment.

The softcover copy has a nice, glossy cover and is well-crafted -no complaints there!

When the author Venger As'Nas Satanis contacted me, I did honestly not expect much - I shrugged, sent my usual disclaimer regarding books, that I do dish out bad ratings unlike some reviewers, etc. - and promptly forgot about the matter in the daily hustle and bustle of reviewing. Then, one day, this big box with plenty of books arrived at my home and I started reading. OSR rules are nothing new to me and I use them once in a while to take a break, so yeah - again, no big expectations.

I understood almost immediately that this was not what I had expected. For once, I enjoyed reading rules. No seriously - while they could be slightly better structured here and there, as presented, they still are easy to grasp to explain them in 10 minutes, roll up characters and start playing. The system itself, isn't perfectly balanced and it's not exactly a stroke of genius or brilliant innovation - so the crunch itself is slightly above average. But roleplaying games are more than just the numbers.

The writing of the world, the blending of science-fiction and fantasy, is just downright awesome and the adventure included in this pdf is simply inspired - unlike some gory grimdark settings, this does depict a dark world, yes - but at the same time, Thule is a realm of awesomeness, where no concept is too outrageous. This book is gloriously invested in some of my favorite concepts, it resonates with a gleeful, tongue-in-cheek humor that mirrors what is awesome about movies like Heavy Metal F.A.K.K. 2 - this is utterly unapologetic cheese that manages to skirt the very close line between taking itself too seriously and not serious enough: The world and dungeon, in spite of their numerous references, still feel concise - they make sense, and left me utterly stoked to read more. This book was like reading my first Conan comic-book for the first time again, then mixing in my favorite games and scifi-novels to me - and brought my table excessive amounts of joy. So yes, the writing is absolutely superb - and unlike many "Metal"-settings, it never is mean-spirited, grimdark or bleak - it is just FUN.

Now if the premise is something that does not sound awesome to you, then this probably is not for you; if you don't have humor and get acne when reading the price of a space station among the possible things to buy (instead of going HELL YEAH!), if you're offended by curses here and there or by the aesthetics, then this may not be for you - but you'd be missing out. Unlike e.g. Lamentation of the Flame Princess' extremely bleak dark fantasy/horror (yes, will review some of those as well!), this book is never truly dark - it is a celebration of pulp aesthetics and tropes, of the 80s, of nerd-culture and it actually made my players want to play the module a second time. So yes, you'd definitely be missing something.

Now, as much as I'd like to, the base system, racial balance etc. make it impossible for me to rate this book as high as I'd like to - the components even out at 4 stars. BUT: I enjoyed this so much, both reading, re-reading and playing it, that I'll gladly slap my seal of approval on this bad boy - if the gloriously over-the-topness I tried to convey in some way, any way, appeals to you, then check this out! If your humor is like mine and you have managed to keep that pubescent geeky boy/girl inside you alive, I'm pretty positive you will have as much of a blast with this as I did.

And yes, I will review the other books as well...

Endzeitgeist out.

Far more Awesome than God-Awful.

What struck me as great about Crimson Dragon Slayer is how there is nothing mundane about it. There are no boring ponderous descriptions of game mechanics, no passages on how they might be used to fit a framework and maintain game balance. Yawn....

Everything dull has been stripped out. Everything else has been amped up to hair metal levels of intensity. I love the dice mechanic. If you're going to bother with a dice pool you might as well have one where you just roll the dice and automatically know how you did just as soon as they hit the table. I love that characters stop at level 10 and the way to increase in level is by accomplishing feats rather than by counting up experience points. How many times can the Warrior attack per round? The warrior attacks until the warrior misses which is just totally bad ass. And it's also just the tip of the iceberg.

What is there not to love? Well, it could be better organized. It would be nice to see a sample game in session. Mostly though, CDS lost a star with me because when you read it, you fall in love with it, and then it's over far too soon, but this is a conflict of interest with the game itself. CDS is meant to be short. It is made for one-shots rather than long campaigns.

Here's what it is. If you were a kid back in the 80's CDS was made for you, but it is also a game that understands that you are an adult now and your time is limited. You don't want to spend countless hours milling through an encyclopedia of rules. You just want to get the gang together, crack open a few beers, whip up some quick characters and spend a few hours gaming the way we used to. CDS gets you started quick. It doesn't try to lay down the law with its rules. And its sample module will have you laughing your ass off.

What more could you want? For me - more of it!

Nice little old school supplement that you can tack on D&D or play by itself. It has fantastic art and a real gonzo without going the way of Monty Haul dungeon to it. I full hope that the author will continue to turn this into a full fledged game.

Crimson Dragon Slayer is a homage to geeky pop culture of the 1980s and early 90s. It’s core ingredients are:

• Classic Dungeons and Dragons
• 8-bit Arcade games
• Fantasy films ranging in quality (and ratings) from well-known and beloved works such as the Never-ending Story and Conan to sleazy B movies like the Sword and the Sorcerer and Deathstalker.
• Media about mundane, real-world people being inexplicably transported into another world, such as Tron and the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon. The book itself is an entertaining read, full of humour and clever references.

The Facts

Crimson Dragon Slayer is a 42 page book that can be mostly used as a stand-alone game system. It contains many greyscale images, several of them full page. Pages 5-16 cover character creation, 16-25 are the basic rules and equipment tables, 26-28 are magic rules, 29-31 are magic items and 31 has some high level info about factions and monsters. The last pages are devoted to a dungeon that can be used right after character creation.

An Anecdotal Aside Or Preface:

(please skip if you don’t care and just want to know about this game without sentimentality)

I grew up in the 1980s and was just the right age for all manner of media and marketing. When I was a child, video games were primitive and clunky, tv cartoons were poorly animated and lousy, there was no internet and mobile phones were used exclusively as phones by the super rich and famous.

Like others of my generation, I’ve witnessed the gradual evolution of technology and entertainment (at least in terms of technical quality). Things have been getting progressively better and better. However there’s a huge pop culture revival of this primitive age of awkward electronics. Even people born in the 2000s have jumped onto this bandwagon. Everyone is cashing in on this nostalgic wave, producing works that have the veneer of the 80s but are far, far superior in quality and style. Modern indie game developers are creating “old school” video games that aren’t at all: to be old school you’d need an extremely limited colour palate, awkward, clunky controls hampered by cheap, stiff controllers and an insane difficulty setting that was implemented to separate children from their quarters, not out of some noble ideology to teach people to earn their victories.

In a way, this is very similar to the Victorian revival of the medieval “dark” ages. Those people heavily and inaccurately romanticized a time period that really wasn’t all that great. But the artists, writers and musicians produced wonderful works from this nostalgic devotion to a time period that never existed.

All that being said, I sincerely love this hype infecting everything from fashion, music, film and video games. It’s like being a child again, only everything is BETTER now, despite the frequent superficiality and cynicism.

So when I came across a role playing game that revels in this nostalgia, my interest is piqued, to say the least. Especially when your character is a regular Joe or Jane who gets an avatar in a digital fantasy world where the ultimate goal is to slay the Crimson Dragon and then marry (or become) the Queen of the world. All to the tune of wailing keytars and airbrushed laser fire.

Writing

As usual, Venger’s writing is clear and easy to understand. While he does inject humour and hyperbole it never detracts from the meaning or overall point. No problems here.

Art And Layout

In terms of layout and typesetting, this is probably my favourite of Venger’s works. His usual watermark is no longer centered and distracting to me: it is pushed off into the margins, which is both elegant and more readable. A very good choice, in my opinion.

I find that a couple of the tables or lists could have been laid out differently, such as kept to a single page or a few merged to make them easier to use. I’ll get into more detail about this below. The content of these tables and lists never disappointed, though. To be clear, it was all useful stuff; just a bit unpolished in terms of organization.

The artwork is fantastic: very well drawn and all of it helps to set the quirky mood of the game. Very tongue-in-cheek with crazy action, monstrous creatures, video game and movie references and, of course, some cheesecake.

The full-page illustrations by Benito Gallego in particular stand out. They’re incredible!

The book suffers from a lack of an index or table of contents. While the page count isn’t huge, I had to flip through all over the place to find answers to find things.

Character Creation

Character creation is fun: you create a person from the real world, determining the basics like their career and starting money (“cyber crowns”, which are directly transformed from the cash that each one has in their wallet or purse).

When the game begins, your character gets sucked into an arcade game (digitized as in Tron) and appears in a strange, weird world. If (when?) they die, they appear back in the real world, in front of the same arcade game staring at the next quarter lined up on the counter.

You generate ability scores by 3d6, in order, in the usual D&D abilities (except that Wisdom is Willpower). The resulting stats get categorized into groups instead of flat modifiers, each affecting game mechanics in unique ways. For example, a poor strength (or, “Pathetic” strength) reduces your melee damage and you cannot wield two-handed or large weapons. A below average strength just applies a small penalty to all melee damage, average gets a small bonus and extraordinary (18 or higher) gets a larger bonus.

The other ability scores behave similarly: Dexterity affects armor class, Constitution affects Hit Points etc… There’s some very interesting stuff in here that goes beyond the usual generic bonuses or penalties seen in other d20 games.

You then determine or choose your previous (mundane, real-world) career and your new name. This is done by rolling on two separate name tables which you are encouraged to mix and match into something cool. To give you an idea, I rolled three times (twice on the first and once on the second) and ended up with Fire, God and Scream, which I ended up combining into Scream Godfire, which sounds super awesome. Another attempt came up with Jackson Cybershield. To be blunt: this is an awesome name generating system.

To be super nit-picky, I think that these two d100 tables could have been combined somehow or laid out differently. Right now they trail across three pages but could have been confined into two, with each list occupying a single, full page instead of starting on one and finishing on another.

Cash is determined randomly for each character with the exact same number of dice and then you’re encouraged, rather briefly, to create “Something Interesting” about your character. This feature should be unique and set them apart from others. This has no direct mechanical benefit, but I suppose that it could be used, in conjunction with your background career, to provide bonuses to dice rolls depending on the context. They could work like Aspects in Fate, in other words.

Next you choose a race, which includes the standard fantasy tropes (Elf, Dwarf, Halfling, etc…) but also some cool, different ones, such as Robot, Reptilian and “Pixie Fairy Princess”. The choice of race affects your ability scores, your starting Hit Points and perhaps provides a special racial trait. Cool stuff, so far everything is simple and fun.

Lastly you choose one of the four classes: Warrior, Wizard, Thief and Ranger. Each provides its own hit dice which are rolled when levelling up.

• The Fighter is simple straightforward: can use all weapons and armor and is a veritable monster in combat. They never change or get better at what they do (which is very effective from the start), other than getting more hit points.

• The wizard can cast spells. The system is rather simple and easy to work with (see Magic, below). Starting at a certain level they can create a signature magic item or spell for 1,000 cyber crowns (anything that they want, once per level).

• The Thief has the usual collection of thief-y proficiencies and can do sneak attacks way. At a certain level they can specialise as either a spellcasting rogue or an assassin.

• The Ranger has several very interesting abilities (probably the most out of any class) and a choice of eventually specializing as either a shape-changing Shaman or as a stout Defender.

The classes are rather traditional, without any big surprises, but I rather liked their simplicity and the range of special abilities. Nicely done, although other critics more concerned with mechanical balance might view them differently. I “felt” no issues, personally, other than the fact that the Warrior doesn’t really get to affect the world substantially outside of combat. To be fair that’s an issue that I have with just about every fantasy game out there. Poor fighter: you’re always a little dull outside of actual fights, aren’t you?

The game is missing a character sheet. While everything could fit onto a single 3×5 cue card, I think that a full character sheet with some handy spots for reference would have been a nice addition.

Rules

CDS uses Venger’s elegantly simple d6 system. You roll a number of dice depending on the difficulty of the task at hand (fewer dice for more challenging things, more for better circumstances or context). The average difficulty is 2 or 3 dice. You only count the highest die result. 1 is a terrible failure, 2 is a straight up regular fail, 3 and 4 are successes at some cost (or partial success), 5 is a pass, 6 provides a special, extra benefit. This mechanic is consistently and universally applied to every kind of task. I’m a fan of universal dice mechanics, so this is right up my alley.

This mechanic also applies to things like Saving Throws. I could not find any mention of how to handle these in the book (but a Dexterity-based saving throw is mentioned in the dungeon at the end). I asked the author, whose answer made sense: just make a ruling on how hard the saving throw should be based on the character’s stat versus any relevant circumstances. The standard d6 mechanic still applies. That’s cool with me!

I really like this system and it’s almost deceptive simplicity. It’s all too easy to overthink the rules and search through the book for a specific answer on how to handle a specific task, but it is all pretty much covered by the basic mechanic.

Each player gets a finite source of bonus dice which can be used to boost rolls. These only recharge after a long rest but only if they get sexual gratification with another individual. This harkens back to Apocalypse World, with it’s trademark “Sex Moves”, so it will be familiar to some readers. In either game, this can be tweaked if the players aren’t comfortable with that sort of thing. One could allow a re-charge of these points for any kind of activity that fits a character’s race and class. The Barbarian-type might be fine with a riotous night of binge drinking, for example.

Armor class reduces damage, which again simplifies the system by avoiding any extra complications to the core dice mechanic. I like this as it eliminates the often-debated nature of combat in roleplaying games (as in, how armor makes you harder to hit).

Death is handled this way: if you get to zero hit points, you’re unconscious but stable. If you get into negative values, you have to make a Death Saving throw. The difficulty is directly based on your Constitution score (in retrospect, I would have liked this mentioned back in the section about Ability Scores, even just in passing). If you fail, you’re done for and you re-appear in the real world, in front of the arcade machine, ready to play again. Remarkable success means coming back to life with some or even all of your lost hit points.

Because of the slightly “video-gamey” nature that is hinted at and the implied high lethality (which is confirmed in the sample dungeon at the end), once could be merciful as a Game Master and offer the players “extra lives”, either at the very start and/or as in-game rewards. WARNING: house rules: Any penalties for this could be based on a variety of video games. Perhaps a Game Master could offer a choice upon character death:

• a loss of money, gear or even levels to let the character instantly reappear wherever they died,

• re-start at the “beginning” of the dungeon with a milder penalty

• reappear at another “save” point, such as the last Inn or tavern where they had rested: sure you’re potentially far away, but without any penalty (loss of gear or levels)

To be clear, this is my interpretation and other gamers who prefer brutal, unforgiving lethality will be happy with the default settings.

Once again, I’m expressing how much fun a group could have with this game with their own personalization. The game runs smoothly as-is, of course, but I like to contemplate these things.

Levelling Up is really, really cool. Gone are the expansive tables full of numbers: heroes and heroines go up a level once they’ve accomplished a major milestone. The ones in the book are fun enough, but therein lies the high value of this game: this chart can be modified to suit any kind of campaign or story. The Game Master could set his or her own milestones to gauge when the party members level up. One could even go a step further: each character could have their own level-up conditions, based on a mix of their race and class. The point is that this is really flexible and full of potential.

Magic

The system is also very simple: spells consume Willpower on a point-per-point basis depending on level (ex: a level 3 spell consumes 3 Willpower). It’s simple and keeps the spell-casters from spamming too much magic all of the time. It’s also flexible in that a Wizard can cast spells outside of his or her level at extra cost.

It isn’t explicitly spelled out (pun not intended), but it appears that casting magic requires a standard dice roll based on your Willpower stat, modified by the target’s Willpower. So a Wizard will have an easier time using magic on the weak willed and a duel between spell casters will be tense.

The spells are fairly standard but some are more memorable than others because of their humorous names, such as “Taste the Rainbow” and “Face Melt”.

Magic items

Just like the Spells, the magic items provided are usable enough if not unremarkable, except for their often (very) humorous names and effects.

Factions

Each player randomly determines some relationship, good, ill or just awkward, to one of six big league players of the setting. What’s fun about this is how they’re just names: freely interpreted by each Game Master (and even by the players). There’s an opportunity for some collaborative, world building here, if your group likes that sort of thing. Or, a Game Master could simply nab ideas that the players come up with, making one’s job easier and strengthening the players’ interest in the setting. All around a great idea, but I don’t understand why this bit wasn’t included in the character creation section…

Monsters

The monster section could have used a bit more detail. It is very short (two small paragraphs). It also outlines how to convert monsters from other OSR systems. It looks like it works just fine, though.

The premise is simple: it has an attack dice pool equal to half of its HD. Very simple, straightforward and minimalistic. In this game, the Game Master makes a ruling on monster stats based on the situation at hand: no need of a monster manual here. The stat blocks from Dungeon World would probably work very well in this game because they focus less on stats and more on what the creature does or how it attacks.

The only sample monsters are in the dungeon.

Dungeon

CDS includes a short dungeon delve called the Cavern of Carnage. It is chock-full of funny references and interesting encounters. Some are very deadly, others plain weird. I won’t spoil anything, but all that I can say is that there’s a good, solid evening of gonzo adventuring here, even if it makes no sense at all.

Conclusion

Crimson Dragon Slayer is a very neat, rules-light and light-hearted gonzo roleplaying game. It is well written, nicely laid-out, beautifully illustrated and it looks like it’s a blast to play. It suffers from disorganization, no index and is often deceptively simple. By that I mean that you’ll be scratching your head about what appears to be a huge gap in the rules only to realize later that it’s covered by the core dice mechanic. Pretty much everything can be summed up in the Ability Score section, really.

The game makes me think of Dungeon World and World of Dungeons: extremely simple to play, open to interpretation, Game Master Ruling and even collaborative world-building. The core concept of real-world people sucked into a crazy world of video game references and 80s sci-fi/fantasy films is super fun and full of potential.

The author states that some of the subject matter isn’t to be taken too seriously and I hope that other critics won’t immediately assume bad faith when they come across references to the retro sexism prevalent in grindhouse and b-movie fantasy, sci-fi and horror films.

All in all, I recommend this game as a worthy addition to your library because it offers lots of cool, fun ideas that are compatible with just about any edition of D&D, OSR systems and even Dungeon World and its cousins.

Retro role playing somewhere between awesome and god awful! (Nice intro).

You start off as a normal person in 1983; but while playing a video game, you are transported to a fantasy land (Thule) reminiscent of Conan the Barbarian, etc. Much pulp and cliché abound! This game may be an acquired taste (think of Bovril/Marmite) :-)

System: D6 (think of WEG, and other similar D6 RPGs, etc). Mix it with OSR. Some of the artwork does take me back to those dark days of the 80's, reading Howard, etc.

Character creation: 3D6 for STR, DEX, CON, INT, WILL, CHA. You can choose your previous career before you were transported to Thule. Page 8-10 generate your pseudonym (have fun with that). :-) P11, 17: artwork reminiscent of Conan :-)

Dwarf on P12 looks good. RACES: Apart from the usual Human, Elf, Dwarf, Halfling; there's Infernal Elf, robot, Reptilian, Pixie Fairy Princess (you heard right), Crystalline and Hybrid (have fun with that one).

CLASSES: Warrior, Wizard, Thief, Ranger.

Demons: some Lovecraft there methinks. :-)

You roll a number of D6's depending on the situation. Weapon damage is variable. Sci-fi weapons are available. Money is cyber crowns. The usual fantasy armour (and even power armour).

Spells cost spell points. Wizards can siphon the life force of another to fuel their magic.

Character sheet missing. Out of 42 pages, 36 are the actual contents.

Players could have quite an enjoyable 80's style fantasy/sci-fi romp.

Do you like old school gaming? Do you like all of those campy fantasy and sci-fi movies from the 1980's? Are you looking for something slightly irreverent with a dose of crazy? Then Crimson Dragon Slayer is what you need! This will certainly shake the cobwebs out of stagnant gaming with easy mechanics and amazingly fun role playing. Venger always puts out stuff worth looking at.

Crimson Dragon Slayer is a D6 based retroclone fantasy rpg that emulates certain bad sword & sorcery movie ideals, throws together weird Saturday morning late 70's and 80's cartoon aesthetics, brings together elements of 80's horror movies, video games, and products of your imagination thrown into a Cuisinart set on Satanic Panic! The breakdown is based loosely on the world most popular fantasy role playing game sort of. Imagine that an event happened and suddenly the modern world of 1986 or '87 was thrust into a space time vortex and all of the elements of high fantasy and sword and sorcery became reality. This is sort of the backdrop of Crimson Dragon Slay. Basically this game takes all of those totally awesome elements and pours them out into a fully functioning retroclone. Add in your favorite heavy metal hair band record cover for adventure ideas and gather your friends, quickly roll up some PC's and your off and running. Yes its made to that simple and that off the cuff dead easy to use. This game emulates everything weird, woolly, and wild in middle school style cafeteria campaigns. You know the type? The one we don't talk about because old school D&D has somehow become an art. Well forget that noise, this retroclone takes all of those terrible games made and plotted out from 80's music videos and high weirdness into a usable game. A very good usable game actually. This weird retroclone action clocks in at forty pages of awesome weirdness that hits lots of nostalgia and never existed buttons of imagination. I found myself reading this game going boy do I want to run this. According to Venger: Re-watching bad/cheesy 80's fantasy films like The Dungeon Master, Deathstalker, and Tron fueled the narrative. After all, thousands of RPGs hand you a bunch of rules and drop you in a vague setting conforming to the genre or, conversely, slathered in meta-plot. I just wanted an interesting framework and then back off to let the Dragon Master and players take it from there.Lastly, I wanted to showcase my sense of humor. Why not make it kind of funny... an occasionally silly self-parody of what we consider old school fantasy role playing? Since I've been a party to the creation of this game by the G+ Crimson Dragon Slayer group. I've seen Venger go through multiple versions, rewrites, and drafts of this the finished product. A good many of the revisions were to get the project to this point. But does it succeed in its mission? Well I believe that it does. The game works on multiple levels at the same time. While using many of the tropes of horror, sword and sorcery with added in comedy. This is a game that balances itself with a sense of high stepping weirdness. Read it and you'll find yourself going through movies to throw into your games. There's a good sense of the absurd about the game. I found myself gravitating to the HP Lovecraft horror love letter movie From The Beyond from 1986. Between the weirdness of Crimson Dragon Slayer and slime drenched ethos of the film. I found myself outlining a campaign in the world of Crimson Dragon Slayer. This isn't a game if your looking for a serious retroclone. This is a great pick up game that allows a party to dive into the deep semi consciousness weirdness of a campaign someplace between 70's trash newpapers, wrapped in trashtastic VHS's horror view point and jacked off to a bad paperback fantasy novel. In this way Crimson Dragon Slay succeeds quite nicely. This is game with all of the numbers in the right place. Now I can hear the cries and nashing of teeth over the price because this sucker clocks in at only forty pages. Now this book has wall to wall artwork most of it quite good at evoking the tongue and cheek sword and sword adventure goodness the game does well. This is of course a Venger Satanis game so there's plenty of T&A here and there. Not that I'm complaining at all because if you take stroll through the isles of any video rental stores back in the day it was wall to wall fighters in loin cloths and damsels in various states of distress. Shrugs. This is a game that can emulate Zor The Hunter From The Future or have your party facing down the slavers from dimension Z with little effort. Add in some public domain zombies and your good to go for a complete evening's entertainment. The system is tight, the PC design is loose and able to accomidate a player's high or low fantasy concepts with no problems. There's very little reason why this game be retrofitted in through the backdoor of your other favorite retroclone to add in even more action. In closing Crimson Dragon Slayer adds more then a few new tricks to the D&D style adventure game by added in both humor, high weirdness, and old school sword & sorcery in equal measure. Grab this one, some friends, and throw on some great times at the old school table with a throwback campaign of adventure and grand weirdness in the old school tradition.