Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2024/03/review-return-to-world-of-maximum-mayhem.html

You all know I am a fan of Mark Taormino's Maximum Mayhem adventures from Dark Wizard Games. I have been getting his latest adventures in both the 1st Ed and 5th Ed versions, one for me and one for my kids. I have also mentioned that while they are designed overtly for "First Edition Rules" or what I call "The Advanced Era" the adventures top off at the 14th level, making them compatible "in spirit" with my beloved B/X rules. Thankfully with the way he writes and produces these just about any "old-school" rules system is going to work.

Maximum Mayhem Dungeons #6: Moving Maze of the Mad Master

by Alan Chamberlain, 40 pages. For levels 6-10. Art by Jacob Blackmon, Alan Chamberlain, Ed Lacabanne, Mark Lyons, Brian McCranie, and Phil Stone.

This one is by Alan Chamberlain, who was also on The Dread Swamp of the Banshee and Vault of the Dwarven King. So the feel is right. In fact, until Mark kickstarted his Maximum Mayhem #8: Funhouse Dungeon of the Puppet Jester, THIS was the funhouse dungeon.

The premise is simple but very effective. A bunch of metal monsters are attacking small towns and villages, and the PCs decide to help. What we get is an honest-to-Gary, Mad Scientist building all sorts of clockwork and autonomous horrors. To get to him, you need to get through his maze of deadly traps and clockwork terrors.

If the other adventure is a meat grinder, then this one is a food processor. It's brutal, but of course, the fun is just as great.

You could get this one for the circular maze map and all the stats of the clockwork creatures alone (6) for a total of 11 new monsters.

It's insane, really.

Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2024/03/review-return-to-world-of-maximum-mayhem.html

You all know I am a fan of Mark Taormino's Maximum Mayhem adventures from Dark Wizard Games. I have been getting his latest adventures in both the 1st Ed and 5th Ed versions, one for me and one for my kids. I have also mentioned that while they are designed overtly for "First Edition Rules" or what I call "The Advanced Era" the adventures top off at the 14th level, making them compatible "in spirit" with my beloved B/X rules. Thankfully with the way he writes and produces these just about any "old-school" rules system is going to work.

Maximum Mayhem Dungeons #7: Dread Swamp of the Banshee

by Mark Taormino and Alan Chamberlain, 48 pages. For levels 4-8. Art by Jacob Blackmon, Brian Brinlee, Ed Lacabanne, Mark Lyons, Brian McCranie, Matthew Ray, and Phil Stone.

A noblewoman has returned to her family estate and finds it has been taken over by a swamp. Worse, there is an evil banshee stalking the lands. But what is the noblewoman hiding?

This adventure is for characters of 4th to 8th level. But I will say this. 4th and 5th level characters are going to die. This is not a meat-grinder like Hanging Coffins, but it is deadly. There is a mystery here too so, so it is not all fireballs and swordplay. But there is a lot of that too.

Like the adventures of old, there are also new monsters here. Mark always adds a little something like that. I also get the vibe that Mark and Alan were reading a lot of B3 Palace of the Silver Princess. Not for the plot but just the feeling. It works here to be honest.

In the series, I would run this one after Vault of the Dwarven King and have the characters between the 5th and 8th levels. Not that Vault is easier, just not as deadly as this one.

Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2024/03/review-return-to-world-of-maximum-mayhem.html

You all know I am a fan of Mark Taormino's Maximum Mayhem adventures from Dark Wizard Games. I have been getting his latest adventures in both the 1st Ed and 5th Ed versions, one for me and one for my kids. I have also mentioned that while they are designed overtly for "First Edition Rules" or what I call "The Advanced Era" the adventures top off at the 14th level, making them compatible "in spirit" with my beloved B/X rules. Thankfully with the way he writes and produces these just about any "old-school" rules system is going to work.

Maximum Mayhem Dungeons Mini Adventure #1: Shadow of the Necromancer

by Mark Taormino, 16 pages. For levels 1-3. Art by Phred Rawles, Chet Minton, Adam Black, Brian Brinlee, Carlos Castilho, Bradley McDevitt, and Phred Rawles.

The first edition has "blue" maps, and the fifth edition has full-color maps.

This is a mini adventure, and the first one Mark has done. Much like his Vampire Queen adventure I have used a figure called "The Necromancer" in my own games. Get out of my head Mark!!

These are designed to be played in one or two sessions. We managed to get through it in three short sessions. It has a great "Hammer Horror" vibe to it, and honestly, I rather love it.

The adventure comes with a map, in beautiful old-school blue for the 1st ed version and full color for the 5th edition version. The module is 16 pages (one page for title and credits, one page for OGL , and one-page blank). The adventure is a simple "strange things are going on! The PCs must investigate!" situation. It turns into "stop the minion of the Necromancer from finishing his evil plans." It's tried and true, and it works fine here. As with many of the Darl Wizard/Maximum Mayhem Dungeons, the adventure is a deadly affair. Not as deadly as the Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Queen, but it is not a walk in the graveyard either. It is a fun romp and really captures the feel of old-school playing. Both versions are great, and I can keep the 1st-ed version for myself and give the 5th-ed version to my kids to run. Exactly what you want in an adventure. Despite the size and scope Mark gives this one the same love and attention he does to all his larger adventures.

The plot and organization of the first and fifth editions are the same. The Fifth edition version features color maps.

Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2024/03/review-return-to-world-of-maximum-mayhem.html

You all know I am a fan of Mark Taormino's Maximum Mayhem adventures from Dark Wizard Games. I have been getting his latest adventures in both the 1st Ed and 5th Ed versions, one for me and one for my kids. I have also mentioned that while they are designed overtly for "First Edition Rules" or what I call "The Advanced Era" the adventures top off at the 14th level, making them compatible "in spirit" with my beloved B/X rules. Thankfully with the way he writes and produces these just about any "old-school" rules system is going to work.

Maximum Mayhem Dungeons Mini Adventure #1: Shadow of the Necromancer

by Mark Taormino, 16 pages. For levels 1-3. Art by Phred Rawles, Chet Minton, Adam Black, Brian Brinlee, Carlos Castilho, Bradley McDevitt, and Phred Rawles.

The first edition has "blue" maps, and the fifth edition has full-color maps.

This is a mini adventure, and the first one Mark has done. Much like his Vampire Queen adventure I have used a figure called "The Necromancer" in my own games. Get out of my head Mark!!

These are designed to be played in one or two sessions. We managed to get through it in three short sessions. It has a great "Hammer Horror" vibe to it, and honestly, I rather love it.

The adventure comes with a map, in beautiful old-school blue for the 1st ed version and full color for the 5th edition version. The module is 16 pages (one page for title and credits, one page for OGL , and one-page blank). The adventure is a simple "strange things are going on! The PCs must investigate!" situation. It turns into "stop the minion of the Necromancer from finishing his evil plans." It's tried and true, and it works fine here. As with many of the Darl Wizard/Maximum Mayhem Dungeons, the adventure is a deadly affair. Not as deadly as the Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Queen, but it is not a walk in the graveyard either. It is a fun romp and really captures the feel of old-school playing. Both versions are great, and I can keep the 1st-ed version for myself and give the 5th-ed version to my kids to run. Exactly what you want in an adventure. Despite the size and scope Mark gives this one the same love and attention he does to all his larger adventures.

The plot and organization of the first and fifth editions are the same. The Fifth edition version features color maps.

Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2024/03/review-return-to-world-of-maximum-mayhem.html

You all know I am a fan of Mark Taormino's Maximum Mayhem adventures from Dark Wizard Games. I have been getting his latest adventures in both the 1st Ed and 5th Ed versions, one for me and one for my kids. I have also mentioned that while they are designed overtly for "First Edition Rules" or what I call "The Advanced Era" the adventures top off at the 14th level, making them compatible "in spirit" with my beloved B/X rules. Thankfully with the way he writes and produces these just about any "old-school" rules system is going to work.

Maximum Mayhem Dungeons #0: Village on the Borderlands

by Mark Taormino, 64 pages. For levels 1-3. Art by Justin Davis, Jacob Blackmon, Carlos Castilho, Daniel Commerci, Jeff Dee, Felipe Faria, Mark Lyons, William McAusland, Brian McCranie, Matt Morrow and JE Shields. (How's that for a who's-who among OSR artists?)

The first edition has "blue" maps, and the fifth edition has full-color maps.

A lot of us freely mixed Basic D&D and Advanced D&D back in the early 80s. It was not uncommon then to find groups that had gone through B2 Keep on the Borderlands and T1 The Village of Hommlet. Mark knows this, and this adventure is a nod and homage to that experience. This is also Mark's biggest adventure to date.

While this could have come off as pastiche or, even worse, a bunch of hamfisted clichés, instead it is a nod and even an homage to not just how much fun those old adventures were, but also to the experiences we all had. Don't get me wrong, there is a great a adventure here; but if you were playing the Keep or the Village or Giants series back in the early 1980s then this will hit differently.

The is best described as "what if the Village of Hommlet was set outside the Cave of Chaos and not the Keep?" You have a local village in need of help. There are roving bands of ogres and weird fungi and skeletons. Whats a local farmer to do? Easy, call upon some brave, and expendable, adventurers for help.

There are some hooks for the adventure but for me they are unneeded. THOUGH I will add that the whole Valley of the Moon was a great hook for me. Not just because the name is similar enough to where my characters Maryah and Asabalom were from, but it is nothing if not a nod to one of my earliest crushes, Moon Unit Zappa.

We have all sorts of classic monsters, rumor tables, nods to (in)famous NPCs, tarot readings, standing stones, name puns, an inn to meet in, places to buy equipment and weapons.

The Inn of the Whistling Pig is wonderfully detailed and loaded with all sorts of characters. In fact, while reading, I half expected to see stand-ins for Duchess and Candella.

I said, "Caves of Chaos," but there are only a few caves where a lot of the "out of town" action takes place, and that is plenty. The Hill Giant cave is the first. There is also the Forest of Fallen Oaks, the Ruins of Sternholm Keep, and the Caverns of the Wicked Peaks.

A great non-linear adventure where the party can start at the Inn and head out in any direction to find adventure. They can come back, heal up, spend their loot and go back out, OR keep going. That last one is not advisable as everything here has a good reason to see the PCs dead.

There are hooks here to other Maximum Mayhem adventures, too.

The plot and organization of the first and fifth editions are the same. The Fifth edition version features color maps.

Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2024/03/review-return-to-world-of-maximum-mayhem.html

You all know I am a fan of Mark Taormino's Maximum Mayhem adventures from Dark Wizard Games. I have been getting his latest adventures in both the 1st Ed and 5th Ed versions, one for me and one for my kids. I have also mentioned that while they are designed overtly for "First Edition Rules" or what I call "The Advanced Era" the adventures top off at the 14th level, making them compatible "in spirit" with my beloved B/X rules. Thankfully with the way he writes and produces these just about any "old-school" rules system is going to work.

Maximum Mayhem Dungeons #0: Village on the Borderlands

by Mark Taormino, 64 pages. For levels 1-3. Art by Justin Davis, Jacob Blackmon, Carlos Castilho, Daniel Commerci, Jeff Dee, Felipe Faria, Mark Lyons, William McAusland, Brian McCranie, Matt Morrow and JE Shields. (How's that for a who's-who among OSR artists?)

The first edition has "blue" maps, and the fifth edition has full-color maps.

A lot of us freely mixed Basic D&D and Advanced D&D back in the early 80s. It was not uncommon then to find groups that had gone through B2 Keep on the Borderlands and T1 The Village of Hommlet. Mark knows this, and this adventure is a nod and homage to that experience. This is also Mark's biggest adventure to date.

While this could have come off as pastiche or, even worse, a bunch of hamfisted clichés, instead it is a nod and even an homage to not just how much fun those old adventures were, but also to the experiences we all had. Don't get me wrong, there is a great a adventure here; but if you were playing the Keep or the Village or Giants series back in the early 1980s then this will hit differently.

The is best described as "what if the Village of Hommlet was set outside the Cave of Chaos and not the Keep?" You have a local village in need of help. There are roving bands of ogres and weird fungi and skeletons. Whats a local farmer to do? Easy, call upon some brave, and expendable, adventurers for help.

There are some hooks for the adventure but for me they are unneeded. THOUGH I will add that the whole Valley of the Moon was a great hook for me. Not just because the name is similar enough to where my characters Maryah and Asabalom were from, but it is nothing if not a nod to one of my earliest crushes, Moon Unit Zappa.

We have all sorts of classic monsters, rumor tables, nods to (in)famous NPCs, tarot readings, standing stones, name puns, an inn to meet in, places to buy equipment and weapons.

The Inn of the Whistling Pig is wonderfully detailed and loaded with all sorts of characters. In fact, while reading, I half expected to see stand-ins for Duchess and Candella.

I said, "Caves of Chaos," but there are only a few caves where a lot of the "out of town" action takes place, and that is plenty. The Hill Giant cave is the first. There is also the Forest of Fallen Oaks, the Ruins of Sternholm Keep, and the Caverns of the Wicked Peaks.

A great non-linear adventure where the party can start at the Inn and head out in any direction to find adventure. They can come back, heal up, spend their loot and go back out, OR keep going. That last one is not advisable as everything here has a good reason to see the PCs dead.

There are hooks here to other Maximum Mayhem adventures, too.

The plot and organization of the first and fifth editions are the same. The Fifth edition version features color maps.

A neat little sandbox for use with a new/low level party. I will most likely make use of this module, but it is not without flaws. There are many spelling errors, and the boxed text is kind of a slog. Considering the hamlet of Taldren takes up more than half of the page count, there is not a lot going on there. I'm not entirely happy paying £12 for this product, so I would definetely recommend waiting for sale.

I used this adventure in my HackMaster 4th campaign and the truth is that it has very good. Interesting challenges and good treasure for a group of 7 players.

Shadow of the Necromancer lovingly harkens back to the Dungeons and Dragons of the early 1980s. The plot is straightforward - stop a necormancer from raising an army of undead minions. The execution of that tried-and-true story is pretty fun. The adventure jumps straight into the action with the adventurers exploring a ruined keep reminiscent (one assumes purposefully) of the keep from T1 Village of Hommlet. It then delves into a short dungeon. Along the way there are exciting fights, devious traps, some 'eek moments' of unsettling horror, and even some levity to break up the levity.

The maps are beautifully rendered, coming in both the classic 'blue' format of the early 80s and the style more common in modern adventures. Artwork is plentiful and well done. And as an added bonus, we get characterful (if you pardon the pun) character sheets, one per class.

Two quibbles. The adventure begins with a lengthy prose story by way of background. On the plus side, this makes it easy to roleplay the villain as we understand his motivation and his slide into insanity. GMs are in his head. But the story is probably too long, taking up around a quarter of this 14-page adventure. Shortening this to provide additional encounters and a thorough edit of the adventure to tidy up the text would have raised this 4 stars.

If you're looking for a short but memorable 1st level adventure, you could do far, far worse than Shadows of the Necromancer.

Full marks! For me, these capture the spirit of wonder and fun that initially drew me to fantasy roleplaying in the first place! Since, oh, 1983 or so, I have seen other custom character sheets along these lines- some were great, others less so. These sheets elicited a goofy grin from the first moment we met, and again, as I review them!

Palace of the Dragon's Princess might be my second favorite adventure in this whole series right after Hanging Coffins. The premise is very similar to the classic Palace of the Silver Princess. In this case, the Princess is trapped by a green dragon and you must go rescue her. Sound easy? You obviously have not paid any attention to the other four adventures in this series.

This one has a lot of background information, more so than the others. We know a lot more about Princess Francessca than we do about Lady Neeblack the Vampire Queen (Could Lady Neeblack be Princess Francessa's dead mother??!!?). There is a knight, a dragon and Torgo. Yup, a nice riff on MST3k with Torgo and the Master. But is the princess REALLY in danger? That will be up to the Gamemaster to decide. There is a lot going on here and because of the backstory a lot more that a crafty DM can add. I am a touch disappointed there were no three-headed creatures like the Ubues, but that is fine. They were silly enough then.

Like the Vault of the Dwarven King this one is more classically fantasy and it is also one best ones in the series to "run straight". Meaning you could strip out some of the silliness and have a pretty deadly, serious adventure if you wanted.

In any case, this is one is a lot of fun and a worthy addition to the line of Maximum Mayhem Dungeons.

Mark Taormino is like some sort of mad genius. I love his Maximum Mayhem Dungeons and each one "delivers the goods" in terms of hitting that nostalgia feel. Here is a what if scenario for you. What if the dwarves of Moria were completely crazy for Indiana Jones? Well, you might get something like Vault of the Dwarven King. There is the aforementioned vault, part of a vast underground dwarven city. There is a giant monster that's on fire. There are also mine-cars, goblin moonshiners, blue trolls and dwarf tossing.

There is a thin coating of silliness over a really fun and REALLY deadly adventure here. All to reclaim the lost dwarven artifact, the Fireheart. But does it belong to the dwarves or the goblins? Will you even live long enough to find out?

Like the adventures that came before it, it is an unapologetic romp down memory lane. This adventure though, maybe more so than any of the others might be more accessible to anyone that didn't grow up in the 80s. The biggest nostalgia pull is, of course, the Lord of the Rings movies, in particular, Fellowship of the Ring, but that is only one (though very loud) note. There is enough going on here to keep every player on their toes and their characters running. This one is also the most classically "fantasy" than the others which also draw on sci-fi, horror and crazy humor.

Monsters of Mayhem #1 is the latest monster tome from the Mad Wizard himself, Mark Taormino. Mark has made a good name for himself in the Old School D&D scene producing some top rated gonzo adventures. So it should only seem natural that he would turn his attention to making an equally gonzo and fun monster book. Which is exactly what he did. Monsters of Mayhem is 36 pages of monsters for old school games using OSRIC, coughAD&Dcough. I am reviewing both the physical book and the PDF. The book is black & white with color covers and "blue map" inside covers. There are 48 monsters here, most illustrated. The monsters themselves are all fun and all of them are very deadly, or at least they could be in the hands of a sadist DM.

Many have appeared in his adventures, but there are some new faces here as well. Also many will invoke a feeling of nostalgia for anyone that played AD&D back int he 80s. Some are fun, like "The Little Green Bastards" (aliens), some are nostalgic like the "Astral Drifter" and "Star Spawn", and others are just plain disgusting (in a great way) like the "Block of Hungry Flesh". Others still are very deadly like the infamous "Vampire Lich".

Our cover girl is a Demonia Gigantica which was one of the very first monsters I used from this book. The style reminds you of the old school, early 80s, style of books. Save for how over the top everything is it could pass for an 80s book. Well, that and the production values are top-notch.

I high recommend this book. There is a lot packed into 36 pages here. For $10.00 you get a lot and will really spice up your game a little.

Originally posted here: http://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2019/05/monstrous-monday-review-monsters-of.html

“Locals have been hearing whispers of strange happenings around the Ancient Volcano. Rumors over the last several years of an unspeakable evil that has risen up inside. An evil that “fell from the stars.” There is something wicked and devilish going on inside. Highwaymen report of strange creatures, mechanical monsters, horrible beasts and “little green men” that are roaming the land. You are your stalwart adventurers have decided to take on the challenge of plundering the mountain for the treasure within! Oh and get to the bottom of these dastardly stories as well!”

These are the words on the cover beneath a picture of a Mind Flayer shooting lighting out of his hand at a sword wielding barbarian. His other hand shoots magic green missiles at a bikini clad woman with a ginormous afro, who is returning fire with her laser rifle.

This sets the scene for a more updated version of Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. S3 was written back in the 1970s before Star Wars. It has a look and feel that is heavily influenced by Star Trek, Lost in Space, 2001: a Space Oddesey, and Space:1999.

This module, on the other hand, is heavily influenced by the Sci-Fi tropes of the 1980s. Written for OSRIC, it is fully compatible with AD&D. The maps are in blue ink and the pictures look like something in the TSR 1.5 era. The Hype in the cover blurb underplays just how awesome this dungeon is! It’s Totally Tubular! Reading through it, I found my self smiling as I read it and even snickering at times. It really made me feel good to discover a fun treasure like this!

It’s 44 pages of gonzo goodness including 10 new monsters, Flying Saucer Hanger 51, The Eternity Machine, Buck Starblaster, the Main Brain Machine and the Alien Autopsy room! There are large amounts of treasure hidden in almost every room. But if the DM doesn’t let them find it with a wizbro die roll, makes them actually Old School search for the treasure, they may not find a lot of it. . . . which is a good thing!

I highly recommend this module for as perhaps a prequel to S3. But it is great all on its’ on!

I loved the adventure! But I had not noticed that the first level has most of the rooms along a single path. I did notice that the room numbers were in apparently random order. That made it really hard to find a room on the map as I was reading through it.

Also, the teleporter is an issue. While reading through it, I didn't think most parties would ever make it to the spaceship part of the module. I hadn't noticed that there were no stats for the Star Spawn. But there were a few rooms where the PC's are supposed to meet him. While reading these sections, I was thinking my players will attack as soon as they seen him! Not go along with this show/race!

Still, I continue to recommend it. It was a joy to read and looks like fun to play.

Mark Taormino is like some sort of mad genius. I love his Maximum Mayhem Dungeons and each one "delivers the goods" in terms of hitting that nostalgia feel. What if the Keep on the Borderlands was destroyed and then humans came in and built a new keep on top of the ruins. Let's also say the caves of Chaos have been cleared, but not all the monsters were killed. Where did they go? What did they do? Now invite the Slave Lords from the A series over. You would get Villains of the Undercity! This adventure is an ode and homage to the great dungeon crawls of the day. While this adventure fits the gonzo style of the other Maximum Mayhem Dungeons this one can also be played straight. Well...sorta. There is a crazy Halfling Illusionist Assassin, but that is for the players to figure out. With this one anyone that has ever been inside a classic dungeon will find something to love. There are lots of deadly traps, monsters and puzzles to figure out. Of course plenty of treasure too. This adventure is also the one that I can see fitting into a larger campaign, even with adventures from other publishers. I was mentally placing it in Greyhawk or even Dolmvay. Just really a lot of fun.