IT'S reminiscent of ADnD1e DMG APPENDICES but enhanced and a great resource for lone or Solo world building adventure crafting. AS 50something genX'er re-Living and RE-visiting the 1980's and loving Gary Gygax's style, this and the previous version of this "Random Terrain Generator" was a no brainer. Joseph Bloch is dedicated to carrying that torch.

I bought this use as a zany stand-alone module for my group. It hits on some marks, and misses on others. Overall, I'd say it's worth the price and quite usable.

So the good:

1. the set pieces of the dungeon are each well put together. They are intriguing encounters and can be challenging in their own rights. I think some of them are under-levelled. But overall, enjoyable.

2. Harpocrates is an intriguing enemy. It makes for a great villain to reintroduce.

3. The world does, with some changes, feel very foreign to players. The DM has to give descriptions, but given well, the world feels alien, as a plane of music should.

4. The appendix of monsters is well crafted.

5. It is a planar module that succeeds in creating a sense of planar difference. The world really does feel like it could be the briefest of moments in a song--it reminds very much of Mary Poppins even.

So, the bad:

1. The module is a very hard railroad. The DM has to drastically alter things to make the module run in any way but the very clearly intended linear path. Of course, I invented some planar rules that the players mucked around with which helped things. Specifically, added to the plane that "space and distance are meaningless"--or simply, that players could eventually discover there was no distance. This meant all motion was perceived. And this changed how the players interacted with the world. It also made the spiral seem to make sense. If you make it so that the path seems straight, and their destination (the palace) seems to forever be on the horizon, players will get interested in that the path does curve. Especially if, as I did for my players, I let also see the palace when looking at a ninety degree angle to the path. It made them desire to follow the module's design to understand that laws of physics before deviating (without any DM prompting). I find this is the general case with the world. A lot of DM addition is needed to make the plane truly otherworldly from a mechanical perspective.

2. There is no boxed text. This is definitely an issue to run as a module itself. The DM is fully left to their devices with little to no guidance. I can see this being difficult to run for a new DM or for a DM trying to put things together.

3. Connections between set pieces suffer from a lack of obvious connection. There are often single or two lines comments about a connection. But the tenuous plot that exists in the module is not enough to connect the dots. Who is the bard in the band stand? Is it the same bard as is the ambassador? Or separate bards? We get one line of character to understand Rynhild--but nearly no background is given that allows us to understand the motivation. When it says the king has gotten the dragon to guard the treasure--what are the dragon's motivations? What and why and how are there vampire instruments? There's a lot left out, that requires a DM to think on their feet. Which is really strange given the exceedingly linear approach the module takes.

4. There is only one means of real egress from this plane for characters of the appropriate level. That this means is guarded by the innocent inhabitants of the plane is, I think, an issue for any party of good-aligned folks. Stealing from the rightful owners doesn't seem good. Further, there is clear and evident ability to get to the plane, given the present NPCs.

5. Some of the planar rules, while cool, do not have their intended effect. The rule about travel in the plane theoretically applies equally to all beings. As such, a dragon chasing a group of characters is only changed from normal in that the dragon won't catch up. I.e., if you can get a head start, you will always be ahead of your opponent. But otherwise, since there are no random encounters, has little impact on the overall mechanical play. How long it takes to get to a new destination doesn't matter, since it really only makes sense to time advance through it. There are ways to fix this, and I implemented a few. But the planar rules need some playtesting to create more robust and interesting mechanics.

Overall, I think the module is good. Not for new DMs, though. Very usable material. Definitely glad I bought it. The players all enjoyed it. It does need a fair amount of DM addition. Will definitely use it again.

Just a perfect gem. This is our go to rule set for out OSE game. Cannot recommend this enough.

I have been using the Adventures Dark and Deep rule set in my campaign for some time - we migrated from 1st Edition Dungeons & Dragons to this rule set. I really like the expansion of ideas from items that are are 1st edition, and some clarification of rules. These are well written and illustrated. I have the full rule sets (Game Masters Toolkit and Bestiary as well, and also almost all of the other BRW material). Very happy with my purchases.

Very good adventure! Love the faction play in it, treasure is interesting, enemies are challenging, some rooms have weird/mysterious things in it that will keep the players guessing (in my game, I didn't elaborate on those and let the player ponder and make wrong guesses, but you could certainly riff on those to expand on other things).

Played it in my S&W campaign and, to make a follow-up on my earlier comment here, I don't remember the XP... I do remember that R1 and R2 had more magic item and monster XP than I thought. But anyways, my players were starting to be serious in the domain game at that point and in the end, they did not care at all about the loot and didn't get much.

They were just really excited by the premise! And to get to see many big dinosaurs (with which to make polymorph shenanigans, as S&W has vague spells and our ruling of Polymorph Other makes it really strong if you can capture strong HD but kinda passive creatures). Then, after the adventure, when they realized the time warp, they just got crazy about it. They love it. Had to put a limit saying its magic was fading (either due to the gem breaking the barrier or the Dinosaur Lord death because yeah that happened too).

Anyways... The lesson is, loot don't matter that much when you creative players and a creative adventure to break the routine. Thanks for the fun it brought to our table. Cheers!

This was a great resource for the nautical themed game I DM. I needed a bit of filler between story arches and this was a perfect fit. Here’s is what I used from it:

1. Tension between the crew of NPCs and the players.
2. Gambling
3. Cafeteria brawl.
4. The list of names and stats of the NPC crew. I plan on using the Storm & weather encounter. Well worth the money.

Another fantastic piece of work from Joe Bloch. There are a few good reviews online if you are curious about the content. There is a fantastic level of detail, an extensive new spell list, some fantastic illustrations, campaign types, dreamlands, races, insanity system, etc. I'm familiar with his work through his articles for Dragon magazine and his continued free OGL work in the World of Greyhawk. This book can add some excellent elements to a Greyhawk campaign (Or..any other campaign world) if you wish to make it more Cthuluhawk or add some dark elder god components to your world.....oh and almost forgot...DEFINITELY worth buying in hardcover

This was a fun one. Any quibbles I have with it are minor, but the praise I have for it is major. In a series of scenarios, this adventure will make sure your players know what it is like to deal with the dangers of the seas. There should be more adventures that really put players in representative experiences for different terrain types that emphasize what being there is like. Highly recommend. Here's a walkthrough and review video: https://rumble.com/v3suo79-pirates-of-the-airdish-main-from-od-and-d-rpg-review.html

Imagine "Oriental Adventures" being done better, with better stats, better character options, better monsters, and then imagine it is a huge book with beautiful art. That is what we have here, by the master of going back and fixing old settings and adventures.campaigns, Joseph "Greyhawk Grognard" Bloch. You have to get this book if you have even a pssing interest in 1e, 2e, the OSR, or playing D&D in Asian cultures. This book literally fixes the Monk, the Mystic, and the Thief-Acrobat as well as making other classes more palatable, such as the Bard! I rarely say a book is a must-buy, but this is a MUST-BUY!

If you want to add some Mythos to your OSR you cant go wrong with this book. lots of useful tables, spells and classes.

I've been playing the original first edition AD&D rules system since 1982 and LOVED it! With that being said I have to applaud BRW Games and Joseph Bloch for this amazing rules system. It has everything that an old school gamer like myself absolutely loved about the original AD&D game. I cannot highly recommend this product enough. 5 out of 5 stars.

Well, you do get a ton of dungeon jam packed into this product. Unfortunately, it's not particularly inspired, evocative or easy to use. Indeed, mega-dungeons like this help give the whole genre a bad reputation. There's just not much here to get you excited about running it. The back story is vanilla and cliched. The maps are fine, but nothing special. Most rooms have virtually no description; just a name, which more often than not simply describes the contents such as "Skeletons," "Orcs," etc. Any tween from the 80s could come up with that. Even worse, there aren't full stat blocks, just lists of hit points. So you'll need whatever old school monster book/stats you rely on to run encounters then have to calculate all the XP yourself.

As for the dungeons themselves, they're just okay. There are feeble attempts at creating factions, but much of it doesn't make much sense. And he doesn't really lean much into the Mad Archmage trope with a few exceptions. Traps and tricks tend to be underwhelming too. There is a lame effort to insert orc "work crews" into the dungeon that I just ignored. The sample rival NPC adventuring parties are a bit better done and showcase some of the character classes created for Adventures Dark & Deep, the author's OSR imagining of what 2nd edition AD&D might have been. I also like the "Dungeon Dressing" tables, though they could be expanded.

There is a book of illustrations, but they're pretty amateurish. Better than nothing, but since the room descriptions themselves are generally so lacking, cool images would have helped immensely. There are some new monsters and magic items, but again, nothing especially interesting or inspiring.

All of this is disappointing because in watching the author's youtube videos I was really excited to get this product. But it's just kind of meh. You can at least crib thre maps and adapt the dungeons for something else, which is what I'm doing, basically linking this to the far more interesting Undermountain.

So if you want to put in the work, you do get a lot of potential with this for a decent price. But if you're looking for something exciting to run right out of the box, there are far better megadungeon options out there.

Well, I'm blown away. I'd just like to say this is the most beautiful book I've purchased in a long time. On recieving it, the beautiful cover, the spine matching my old 1st books, and the incredible sense of nostalgia when I opened it - all entries laid out in 1st ed style.. I could have been back in '85 with that same sense of wonder as I opened Unearthed Arcana for the first time. And the content.. superb. If I could only ask for one thing, it would be more. Another volume please! Thank you for the time and care and obvious devotion put into this work, Mr Bloch.

Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2022/10/100-days-of-halloween-adventure-module.html

Adventure Module V3 - Toil and Trouble

PDF and softcover book. 20 pages. Color cover, black & white interior art.

Designed for 4 to 6 characters of 3rd to 5th level.

For this one I have both the PDF and softcover versions. Also, we are given our first real and proper introduction to the "Witch Queen" none other than Natasha. It has everything a good adventure should have. Plots and intrigue, a ruined tower, cultists, caves, giant bugs, new monsters and new spells.

In this one, you have to stop the Dark Star coven dedicated to Natasha.

Again the witches of Natasha are presented as clerics or you can use the BRW Witch class.

I also admit I find the modules colored in Red, Blue, and Green to be very esthetically pleasing.