DriveThruRPG.com
Browse Categories
$ to $















Back
pixel_trans.gif
Other comments left for this publisher:
You must be logged in to rate this
pixel_trans.gif
Worm Witch: The Life and Death of Belinda Blood
by Timothy B. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 10/27/2022 14:37:18

Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2022/09/100-days-of-halloween-worm-witch-life.html

Worm Witch: The Life and Death of Belinda Blood

PDF. 73 pages. Color cover, black & white interior art.

This book is a sequel and elaboration on The Chaos Gods Come to Meatlandia. I don't know much about that other product save that it seems to be a wild "anything goes" sort of setting. This has a similar feel.

This product includes both the Worm Witch and Worm Warden, classes. Witches and Wardens are classes I have also explored in my various book so I am quite excited to see these.

The Worm Warden is like a paladin, ranger, or guardian for the witch cult. They are fighter types. Their primes are Strength and Charisma.

The Worm Witch is a witch class and it shares many similarities with other witch classes. This is largely due to books we all read and the various means we all use to make classes. Personally, I find this great. The Worm Witch could fit in well with all the witches I have played and still have enough unique features to make her special. What makes her special of course is her connection to worms. Even the worm witch's special abilities could be mapped on to my Occult Powers.

Both the Warden and the Witch share a secret language.

The Worm Witch also gains witch spells. And there are some great ones here. There is the expected ones like Animal Friendship and Charm Animal, and some really interesting ones like Infect with Worms, Mass of Maggots, Wave of Worms, and more. Yeah, they do pretty much what you expect.

This is all about one-third of the book. And this was all then I would be really happy. I am glad someone wrote this book. This is a needed sort of witch that I would not likely write. Ok. I would have never done this one. Worms are great for my wife's garden, and that is about all the use I have for them. So kudos to Wind Lothamer and Ahimsa Kerp for doing this.

We still have the rest of the book.

Belinda Blood The next section covers the land of Annalida, a land near Meatlandia. This is another third of the book and it is interesting, but I have no context for it. Still, the Witch Wood is very cool. The last third (or so) covers the monsters of the land, which as you can imagine, is full of worms.

The NPC witch, Belinda Blood, is also presented. She was a very powerful Worm Witch and could fit the bill as a Witch Queen for my War of the Witch Queen Campaign. It is also all written for Old School Essentials so that is another good fit. Alive or dead she would be a great Witch Queen.

As I mentioned this book is written for OSE and fits well.

So I bought this hoping for a class and a few new spells. I got that. I also got another class, a campaign setting, some monsters, AND a new Witch Queen to add to my Old-School Essentials campaign.

That's pretty nice if you ask me.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Worm Witch: The Life and Death of Belinda Blood
Click to show product description

Add to DriveThruRPG.com Order

pixel_trans.gif
Arete
by Dani J. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 08/07/2022 12:33:52

아힘사씨가 나눠주신 리뷰 카피를 읽고 부족하지만 써 봅니다.

개요

아레테는 OSE 전용 원샷 어드밴처 모듈으로, 하데스의 파수견 케로베로스가 탈출해버리는 통에 지옥에 묶여있던 괴수들이 필멸자들이 사는 이승에 풀려 파괴를 일삼고 그것을 막고자 하데스가 신화속의 위대한 영웅들을 지상으로 돌려보내는 이야기입니다.

영웅들로는오르페우스, 메데아, 테세우스, 아틀란타 그리고 벨레로폰이 있습니다. 각 인물들은 OSE Advance Fantasy 룰의 클래스를 기반으로 작성됐으며, 강한 스탯 뿐만 아니라, 신화 고증에 충실히 따른 특수 능력, 한 종류의 적에 대한 우위, 그리고 한 종류의 적에 대한 약점 기믹을 가미합니다.

여러분들은 이들을 통해 지상에 고삐풀린 괴수들을 하나둘 제압하고, 케로베로스를 다시 저승으로 인도하는 목적을 달성하고자 합니다.

게임 메카닉

OSE 룰을 사용합니다. Advanced Fantasy 플레이어 책까지는 가지고 계시는 걸 추천합니다.

신의 개입

우리는 그리스 로마 신화를 읽을때 결정적인 장면에서 데우스 엑스 마키나의 개입을 목도하게 됩니다. 아레테에선 이것을 시스템으로 구현했습니다. 신에게 도와주소서 하고 빌고, d4부터 d20까지 모든 주사위를 굴려 나온 합을 더해 나온 결과에 따라 신이 벌을 내릴지, 신이 직접 개입하여 여러분을 결정적으로 돕는 메카닉입니다. 15이하 가 나오면 신이 여러분을 즉시 죽이고, 22 이하가 나오면 다시는 신의 힘을 기대할 수 없으며 23과 42 사이에선 아무 일도 안 일어나고 43이상이 나오면 신의 가호가 내려집니다. 예를들어 포세이돈은 산을 들어올려 pc가 원하는 곳엔 던질수 있는데 그 위력은 절륜합니다. 무려 1d100×100씩이나 나옵니다.

폴리스NPC 여러분은 다양한 도시를 돌아다니게 될테지요. 그에 맞춰 즉흥적으로 여러분과 상호작용하거나 도움을 줄 수 있는 NPC를 랜덤으로 제작할 수 있도록 테이블들이 마련돼 있고, 대장장이나 상인 따위의 특수 기능이 있는 NPC나 고용할 수 있는 전사들은 상세 스탯도 제공됩니다.

괴물들이 떨어뜨리는 무기. 캐로베로스로 가는길은 멀고도 험난한데, 차라리 신의 개입을 믿고 바로 케로베로스로 찾아가면 안 되냐? 싶을겁니다. 원샷치고 상당히 볼륨이 있는 모험집인데, 각 괴수들을 처치해야할 동기를 여러분에게 제공합니다. 각 괴물들을 쓰러뜨리면서 얻는 재보들입니다. 마치 캡콤의 메가멘을 할 때 각 보스를 잡으면 얻는 기술이 특정 몬스터나 보스에 대한 특수 기믹이 있듯이, 이들 아이템들은 앞으로 만날 괴물들에게 대항할때 매우 유용할 것입니다

내가 좋아하는점 각 페이지마다 일러스트가 있는점, 역시 나이트아울퍼블리싱 답게 레이아웃이 한눈에 보기 좋다는 점, 그리고 OSE에서 1레벨리 에픽 플레이를 할 수 있도록 몬스터 스텟이나 프리 젠 캐릭터들에게 이런저런 영웅적 기믹을 추가한 점 등입니다. 또 간편한 테이블은 별 준비없이 바로 게임을 시작 할 수 있도록 하죠.

딜럭스 인쇄도 할 계획이라고 얼핏 들었는데, 그때 몇가지 추가 했으면 하는 바램이 있습니다. 추가 영웅들 또는 직접 영웅을 만들 수 있는 Power, Advantage, Disadavantage table을 추가해줬으면 해요. 물론 한눈에 보일정도로 자작은 쉽겠지만요.

5점 만점에 5점 드립니다.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Arete
Click to show product description

Add to DriveThruRPG.com Order

pixel_trans.gif
Invasion of the Tuber Dudes
by Bob V. G. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 05/18/2022 17:24:24

Invasion of the Tuber Dudes (24 pages) is a fun adventure for OSR RPGs. I used Dungeon Crawl Classics as the RPG, but I did change the magic system. I used my six (now level one) characters that are cult members (Athax). I used the FlexTale Solo Adventuring Toolkit to solo this adventure. So, the cult sent them on a quest to get a magic ring that is owned by Khale. He usually keeps it in his bedroom at his fortress.

The PCs arrived at the town of Sun Radive. Soon they met with the Three Sisters who gave them a quest to kill Khale. To help them, the Sisters gave each one of the characters a magic item, but they would have to return it or suffer the consequences. The adventurers then traveled through various types of terrain before they were ambushed by carrot folk (warriors). The halfling used his new spellbook, charmed the leader, and this enabled them to make their escape. Later, they ran into mandrakes (wizards). Five of the characters became charmed. Rey the nature wizard resisted the charm, turned herself into an eagle, and flew to Khale’s fortress. She flew into his bedroom (using an open window), found the ring, took it back to the cultists, returned her borrowed item back to The Sisters, and went home. The other five characters were taken to the fortress and locked in a cell. They did manage to overcome the human guard. On this same dungeon level they found a secret door and started climbing the stairs up. Next, they encountered a thief who gave them directions on escaping the fortress. On the way back to The Sisters they set up a camp, but were attacked by celery folk (berserkers). The PCs won that battle. The next morning they continued back to Sun Radive. There they discovered that the town was under attack by Khale and his forces. The PCs sat back and watched. The Sisters and the town were defeated. This enabled the PCs to keep the items that they had borrowed. Yay! So now the six characters need to get together and exchange stories over a meal of celery soup. - -



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Invasion of the Tuber Dudes
Click to show product description

Add to DriveThruRPG.com Order

pixel_trans.gif
1985
by Marshall H. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 01/19/2022 00:35:28

Very useful supplement for running 80s games. I have run 80s games and wish i had this supplement before. The maps and ling o and at a glance pages are great. love mall maps.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
1985
Click to show product description

Add to DriveThruRPG.com Order

pixel_trans.gif
Invasion of the Tuber Dudes
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 08/13/2021 06:55:56

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This module clocks in at 27 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page playtester thanks, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD, 1 page advertisement, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 20 pages of content, so let’s take a look.

This review was prioritized at the request of my supporters.

This module was designed for Old-School Essentials as the target rules-system, with the module intended to be used for first-level characters, either as a one-shot, or as a kick-off for a new campaign.

And yes, theme-wise, this is WEIRD; one could call it gonzo, but the module does not engage in the all-too-common “Look at me, I’m topical/reference pop-culture”-shenanigans that so many comparable modules dubbed “gonzo” engage in. The adventure is actually pretty darn serious, one could even say grim. In many ways, this did remind me of the Dark Tower-series; there is a certain melancholy in the set-up that is contrasted successfully (!!!) with the utterly audacious concept you could read in the title. That is a feat indeed.

The module is set in the Sage Desert and feels steeped in Americana in its aesthetics, something also underlined by the public domain artwork that is used to supplement (successfully) the b/w line art by Luka Rejec. In many ways, this feels like a fantasy wild-west-y post-apocalyptic setting that never explicitly states its post-apocalyptic nature per se. The use of two particularly neat landscape-shots of the American wilderness also add to that…and made me really long for the landscape of the US.

Anyhow, structurally, it should be noted that the majority of this module is essentially a series of greater events that the referee needs to flesh out; this is closer to an adventure outline of a module than an actual ready to run adventure. Personally, I didn’t need more, but for inexperienced referees, this might be a taller order. The GM should also prepare maps: There is a rudimentary map of one settlement herein (no scale, looks pretty bad, to be honest), and one b/w-map of a small dungeon of sorts (by Dyson Logos), but the complex’s map lacks a player-friendly version.

The final formal gripe I have with this pdf, and primary reason why I consider it to be a case for experienced referees only, would be its organization. This is a rather chaotic supplement, and it is definitely required that you read the entire thing, take notes, etc. In my instance, I had the module printed out, and a gust of wind blew the pages all around. I was in a hurry and didn’t look at the page numbers; I reorganized the pages and the module actually was easier to run/grasp, and when I looked at the pdf again, I was kinda surprised. This isn’t a module in the traditional sense; instead, it is a general, global situation, and then things are sketched out in a rudimentary way. This felt very “new school of adventure design”-y to me, because it structurally is: You can run this as written, but if you do, you’ll be running a lot of cutscenes, where linear things just happen, and player decisions are glossed over. Ironically, one of the most important parts of the module seems to be a cut scene (haha), where the referee is left entirely hanging. If you expect regions prepared, sandboxes for the party to explore, a high degree of interactivity…well, this does not offer that. Instead, think of this is a plot-train, and a sketch of one at that. At one point, the direction of the train can be steered towards the two most likely outcomes, but the supplement requires copious amounts of fleshing out if your party wants to meaningfully engage with some aspects of the module and not just adventure through the most likely progression. Important for this type of module: No, the adventure does not prescribe what players do in read-aloud text (Thank Gygax!), but primarily because there is no such text presented anywhere. As noted before, one of the most important locales in the module actually is missing sufficient information to run it in a non-linear/non-railroad manner.

For a preliminary summary: This adventure is geared towards more experienced referees, particularly those accustomed to improvisation and fleshing out. That being said, I do think that the pdf is worth going through that hassle.

Okay, and that is as far as I can go without diving into SPOILERS. Potential players should jump ahead to the conclusion.

… .. .

All right, only referees around? Great! So, the scene is set in the Sage Desert, where evergreen trees cling to dormant volcanic peaks, with hot days and cold nights, gleaming rivers, etc. – the last of the post cities, Sun Radive, was once built as a fortified lumber town and former military installation, and as such has a 20 ft high and 20 ft. thick wall, an intersection of hot springs and a river. The town features only one-way roundabouts called circles, and there are circles 1-11, with circle 7 omitted due to its mystical meaning. Each circle gets a rudimentary 1-sentence description, and we do get 12 rumors. The town is depicted in the rather not-that-great map mentioned before, fyi.

The rulers of the city are the supremely-creepy Sisters of Clemency: Faith, Hope and Charity, who are all clerics, and all really creepy in that seemingly benign, but…well…creepy religious fundamentalist sort of way. Somewhat to my chagrin, they do have different Constitution values, but this doesn’t seem to be reflected in their HP, but that is a minor aesthetic choice. The sisters are actually one of the possible bosses of the adventure, and as such, are supplemented by a few unique spells: Candle blow has a low range and deals minor damage, but can permanently cause the loss of Charisma on a failed save. Summon lava golem does what it says on the tin, and oh boy will the party suffer if the sisters manage to cast that spell. Interesting: The golem uses dice themselves as hit points of sorts, and when hit, you just take a die and put it in the damage pool. Design-wise, the module is a bit opaque here: The next sentence states that “When it has 6 attack dice…”—that’s the first time “attack dice” are mentioned. This should read “When all its dice have been moved into the damage pool…” Further nitpick: A reference to dispel magic is not properly formatted in the spell. Volcanic storm creates a cloud of smoky heat that deals minor damage, but if you fail two consecutive saves, you pass out. Minor nitpick: This refers to the “player”—that should read “target” or “creature” in the parlance of B/X and its derived systems. Players are the people playing the characters.

That being said, the final spell? It can only be cast be the Sisters’ faithful henchman Jack…wish. As a fourth-level spell. Ouch…literally. Why? Well, there is a reason he’s called “Three-fingered Jack”: He carries a mini-guillotine, and to get the wish, he has to cut off a finger! Suffice to say, he can only do so three more times, but his wishes…well, let’s just say that the party should eliminate him quickly and decisively if they want to beat the sisters, preferably without him having a chance to use this wildcard… But we’re getting ahead of ourselves: The module actually begins in Sun Radive, with a massive bounty on the head of the local warlord Jhadar Khale, an extremely deadly adversary who has amassed an army and who is particularly loathed for his propensity of taking pregnant women and babies…everyone else who wasn’t slaughtered in combat usually gets to free. The warlord’s background can be determined with a d8 roll, which does change things up a bit—I enjoyed that! The offer to hunt down the warlord also comes with the Sisters allowing the party to take a close look at their armory, which features various magic items of different potency: The Lawful Candle only burns chaotic beings; there is a potato that regrows daily as long as the skins are kept and a glove that allows the user to change hair color at will…but also an axe that casts silence 15’ radius when drawn, which can be deadly indeed! A character who wants one of these items has to submit to a gem being inserted in their neck—an insurance. If the item is not returned within 15 days, the gem will start killing the character slowly.

Once the party is equipped, they are off into the Sage Desert, those endless forests, and en route pass a couple of flavorful environments, with a river of particular note: Drinking from the river causes transformation into a new race-class, the Skellington, on a failed save. This reduces Charisma TO 1d4, grants 2d10 HP, and the Skellington is immune to the party’s cleric’s Turn Dead [sic!] (should be Turn Undead) and is forced into a dual class, keeping original abilities, but now leveling in the 10-level Skellington class. The 10th level is missing, unless that was supposed to be the level of the original class. These get 3d4 HD according to the text, but this seems to be incorrect when compared to the table. They have no allowed armor, but may use any melee weapon. Skellingtons can spend 1 minute and picking up a bone to restore 1d4 HP. They can tell jokes that cause all who hear them to get a -2 penalty to all saves, -1 to attacks, -1 to damage, or -3 HP. These do NOT have a save RAW, and they stack with each other. RAW, they also affect the entire party, so brace for different strategies for the party to attempt to block out the japes. Design-wise, making this targeted and having a saving throw would have been better. NPCs must make a morale check, and flee or attack them. The skellingtons are a good concept, but their execution/design is rushed and hurts the module more than it helps. I recommend skipping them.

Once the party reaches a canyon, they are ambushed by the eponymous tuber dudes, a force of 10 carrots led by one of the rare, spellcasting purple carrots named Tendril: This fellow demands that the party surrenders. Whether or not they comply, the party ultimately will have to face Jhadar…but how this happens is very much left up to the referee. The actual meeting, the operation of Jhadar’s army and the like are totally opaque. It’s a huge blank slate, and considering that the fellow is one of the 2 important factions, this struck me as extremely annoying. The players can’t devise a proper infiltration strategy, can’t wage a war of attrition, etc., because the module/outline lacks the information for the referee to properly improvise these aspects. It railroads the party, hardcore. If the party is bested by the tuber dudes, they land in prison. As an aside: There is no “stun damage”; that’s supposed to be subdual damage in OSE, B/X, etc. If the purple carrot has been killed, he’ll be furious, locking up the party…and if the party surrendered or was knocked out, the paths coalesce once more. At this point, the module has a bit of a break and provides a brief one-page summary of the 10 tuber dudes types: Jicima, for example, can heal.

Imprisoned, the party has a timer as they come to: They have d4+1 minutes real time to break a lock, represented by a handout type square with bands of letters; you have to find the words below to break the lock. Really like this! On a failure, the party will lose d4 HP from hunger and thirst. This gets two thumbs up! The complex of the dudes is the aforementioned dungeon; it’s essentially a very sketch-like one-page prison-break; apart from the cool cell-door puzzle, nothing to really write home about. Worse: After the brief dungeon, the whole camp/Army has progressed to besieging the city, I guess. No timeline, no environment, no information on the vicinity, nothing. Everything outside the dungeon pertaining to the tuber dude operation is a huge, amorphous blob of “Don’t know”. It is here that the module starts feeling like a half-finished draft that was abandoned mid-writing.

And here we are at the point where the referee has to really start building/expanding. You see, the 3 Sisters have this Baby, which may or may not be an antichrist-like doomsday figure; Jhadar Khale certainly believes that the Sisters plan on using the child to wreak untold destruction upon the land…so he marches on Sun Radive with his army of tuber dudes.

The siege itself is sketch-like, and comes with a brief table of 10 random things that can happen to the party while getting into the city, and there are 6 rudimentary random encounters. The embedded gems from the sisters can be an asset of sorts: The Sisters’ observatory is defended by a variety of curses (d20 table included), and the gems protect against that…but impede attacks on the sisters, so there’s that… But whom to eliminate? Jhadar? The Sisters? Both? Certainly, neither of the two factions are nice people, and the fate of the destined child needs to be ascertained. Sun Radive’s supposed to be right in the middle of a war, but that aspect is pretty much cut-scene’d through, so I recommend expanding it as well.

The module then provides some considerations for continuing the adventure, and then the Tuber Dude racial class—while the module sports no option to play one, parties allied with Jhadar might well get one. One can only play 6 types of tuber: Carrots, purple carrots, beet, crosne, mandrake and jicama. Tuber Dudes require Strength and Constitution of 10 or higher, use Strength as Prime Requisite, have d8 HD, 10 maximum levels and may use all weapons, but no armor. The dude-type determines more: Carrots get +1 to hit and damage with polearms and have the XP- and Save-progression of a fighter; purple carrots have +1 to hit and gain 1 spell (which list? which level? I assume elf, but it doesn’t clarify that…) each level and progress XP and saves as an elf. Beet have saves and XP of dwarves, and d12 HD. Crosne have XP and saves of thieves and get a “really cool vest with sequins”. Mandrakes use XP and saves of magic suers and begin play with Speak with Plants. (Incorrectly formatted.) Jicima get the progression and saves of a cleric, but cast Cure Light Wounds 3/day. You also roll 3d6: Once for a weapon, once for a personal quirk (which may be +1 to AC, to hit, infravision, etc.), and once for a bonus – like said vest, a gangly potato horse, etc. The concepts here are cool, but e.g. the onion-based tear-grenades fail to state their area of effect.

Tuber dudes can hide as a thief of their level in forests and verdant locales, and unarmed tuber dudes can, if they win individual initiative, grapple an opponent on a successful hit, potentially briefly incapacitating the opponent. Insects and vermin can be a save-r-die situation for them, but they live off photosynthesis. They can bury themselves in earth to heal faster, but have a short lifespan.

The tuber dude class is better designed than the skellington, but know what they’re missing? A frickin’ THAC0. I assume that they use the one of the classes whose saves and XP they use, but the class does not state this anywhere.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are okay on a formal level; the deviations from OSE’s standards are quite numerous for such a brief module. On a rules-language level, the module is a bit of a mess, particularly regarding the new race-classes, which are not really operational. The pdf has an orange-y background with some cacti on the borders. I generally enjoyed this aesthetically, but it does make the pdf a bit of a drain on the printer. Since the maps are b/w, and since Luka Rejec’s neat artworks are also b/w, they do clash with the remainder of the module – in a way that was kinda unpleasant for me. This would have been better off with a more unified aesthetic. The pdf has bookmarks…one for the first page, and one for the second page…really? This is a comfort-detriment.

By all accounts, I should hate Ahimsa Kerp’s “Invasion of the Tuber Dudes”; while the concepts herein and the set-up remain genuinely amazing and manage to evoke a unique atmosphere, the rules, the design…are just sloppy. This extends to aspects like the lack of bookmarks. Some of the deviations in formatting (which are inconsistent, just fyi – they are NOT intentional) are annoying, but the rules language? Particularly when contrasted with Gavin Norman’s precise and faithful rendition and expansion of the B/X-rules, this hurts to see.

And there is the fact that this “module” isn’t really a module, but instead a kind of event-outline with rudimentary scene-sketches that glosses over one of the most important aspects/scenes of the entire book also is JARRING. It’s a huge hole smack in the middle of the module.

And yet, this has something going for it; a unique atmosphere; a creative vision. One that was abandoned halfway through designing, sure, but damn, do I love the concepts that made it here. As a person, I appreciate this framework and nuanced villains. Ahimsa Kerp has vision…I just wish they had finished the adventure.

But as a reviewer, I can’t look past the structural issues, the rules issues, the unnecessary accumulation of glitches. Know what this is? A great pitch. If this were sent to me as a pitch for a bigger module to develop? I’d jump on that and tell the author to properly develop that, to flesh it out, make it shine, and watch the rules formatting and rules integrity.

…but it’s not. This was advertised as a module, and it is NOT a finished module. Nor is it a sandbox-style adventure. It’s an OUTLINE. Not more.

This is a rough one, it’s neither finished, nor as detailed as it should be, but it has enough of a personality and identity to make it worthwhile. The low price as a gesture is nice, but not sufficient to make me increase my rating and round up from my final verdict of 2.5 stars.

IF, and only if you want to expand the scenario, fill out the HUGE blanks, then this can be a unique and memorable start for a campaign; this might be up to 3.5 stars for you. But you’ll have to do the lion’s share of the work and deal with the problematic rules components. If you’re not willing to do that, then consider this to be a 2-stars-file at best.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
Invasion of the Tuber Dudes
Click to show product description

Add to DriveThruRPG.com Order

pixel_trans.gif
The Scourge of the Scorn Lords
by Florian H. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 07/13/2021 15:04:20

Originally published on diceadventurer

The world: Scornlords is subtitled Meatlandia Book 3 and is thus part of a series. I have not dealt with the predecessors, according to the statement in the book, knowledge from books 1 and 2 is not necessary. However, here I have to say that I could not do anything or little with one or the other designation or with a few notes. Nevertheless, since Scornlords is very interesting to read, I’ll definitely take a look at the previous parts to get the bigger picture. The realm of the Scornlords is a peninsula, which is separated from the main continent by mountains and sea. In Meatlandia itself there is a storm of chaos, but it cannot harm the realm of the Scornlords, as they have a protective shield. The land is barren and marked by deserts, wastelands and canyons. The country is ruled by the seven Scornlords, superhuman beings who rule over life and death in their realm. Each Scornlord has its own territory with its own customs, rules and ideas. War is waged among one another, intrigues are forged and alliances are formed. Players will sooner or later get sucked into all of these things and have to see for themselves how they’re doing. In addition to humans, there are of course elves, dwarves and other well-known races, but the setting offers a lot more, such as the myrmeke. These huge, ant-like creatures live for their hive and tend to be more peaceful. I also find the fade very exciting, which have the property of simply disappearing from the perception and sometimes even the memory of others. Huge insects and dinosaurs are a common sight in the realm of the Scornlords and many animals are used as pack animals, a chariot pulled by raptors is completely normal. Bandits and robbers roam the wasteland, gladiators look for challenges, and cannibals hunt for their next meal. However, completely different beings and monsters also float around. My favourite are the barren elves, who don’t have any facial features. Only when they suck magic out of a victim do they temporarily take over their traits and can feel joy. That is exactly why they are always on the hunt. The Scourge of the Scornlords delivers an unbelievable amount of material, very beautiful and above all short descriptions and thus brings out the maximum of possibilities. The setting is very weird and wacky, you have to like that, but fans of a kind of Fantasy Mad Max get their money’s worth here.

The game: The Scourge of the Scornlords is written for old-school essentials, but can basically be played with any OSR. Some new mechanics are introduced, such as hydration, sandstorms, psionics, and vehicles. So players definitely have to be careful that they and their animals drink regularly, otherwise the adventure will only be very short. New classes include the above-mentioned Fade and Myrmeke, as well as the Mentalist and the Monster Honcho. The mentalist uses psionic energy, the monster Honcho gathers a large herd of monsters and animals around him. The book is packed with random tables, be it for locations, NPCs, vehicles, giant insects, and of course, encounters. You can leave a lot to chance and then no two campaigns will be the same. The system with the vehicles was one of the things that appealed to me the most and it is very simple and elegant. In addition to an armour class, vehicles have hull points that normal weapons cannot reduce (spells do 1/4 of their actual damage). Instead, you can use catapults, ballistae and flamethrowers. The generator for vehicles is very extensive and the wildest carts come out of it.

The book: The Scourge of the Scornlords is in English, is in black and white, and is just over 100 pages. It is easy to read, has a clear layout and impresses with its very coherent illustrations. Many entries in the bestiary have an illustration. The information about the Scornlords is very extensive, but also very well presented, so that you can quickly get an overview. In addition, there was an extra booklet for Backer with stats and information on various NPCs, vehicles and locations and a small pamphlet about being able to play The Scourge of the Scornlords solo. In the book, there are some possibilities for entries and for recording stats of the players, I would have liked these as a separate sheet. There are different character sheets to choose from, I would have liked a hand-painted version of the vehicle sheet so it matches with my favourite character sheet, but you cannot have everything.

Who might be interested in The Scourge of the Scornlords:

  • Players and game masters who are looking for a slightly wacky setting
  • People who are fans of random tables
  • Players who want to roam the wasteland in their dinosaur-drawn cart

Who might not be interested in The Scourge of the Scornlords:

  • Players and game masters who don’t like high mortality
  • People who don’t like sandboxes
  • Players who want to play heroic characters in an intact world


Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
The Scourge of the Scorn Lords
Click to show product description

Add to DriveThruRPG.com Order

pixel_trans.gif
The Scourge of the Scorn Lords
by Jean-François C. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 07/08/2021 18:47:25

Amazing product. Can´t wait to play and DM an adventure in the Scorn Lands and fight the Scorn Lords!!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
pixel_trans.gif
The Scourge of the Scorn Lords
by Adam M. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 07/08/2021 17:13:42

This is a book about how your characters are going to die in the desert, and exactly what sort of randomly generated giant insect, bizarre vehicle (say, an enormous seashell pulled by 1d4 triceratops and armed with a psionic cannon), or ancient magic-wielding wasteland overlord is going to be responsible for their demise. In about a hundred pages it offers a complete setting full of unique character classes, powerful enemies, factions, rumors, magic items, and table after table of unmitigated nonsense. Simply rolling up random villagers from the village generator tables made for a successful party game. Highly recommended for anyone who likes their b/x-style games wild and brutal.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
pixel_trans.gif
The Scourge of the Scorn Lords
by Jonathan B. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 07/08/2021 16:52:50

Full disclosure I have never played a game of B/X in my life, hell I've only just got into ttrpgs just a few years ago after finnaly getting the courage to run a game for some strangers at a locat meetup. I was HOOKED! Then rona threw a big ol' stick in the world and it's been stay at home and buy cool looking stuff off Kickstarter(things are getting better here thankfully). And HOLY BEJESUS is this thing COOL! Think Mad Max but with Ray Harryhausen dinosaurs, probably some magic and a late 80's metal soundtrack!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
pixel_trans.gif
The Chaos Gods Come to Meatlandia
by Timothy B. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 05/19/2021 15:14:20

I thought this was an adventure, but it is actually a mini-setting of Meatlandia and the opposing factions. There are meat mages (you really have to buy this to see them) and various types of bards (three in total). So new classes, new magic (15 pages of meat mage spells), a city, new monsters, new magic items, and just some gonzo-level weirdness. I have to say that it is not for everyone, BUT there is an audience that will absolutely love this. Has a solid Dungeon Crawl Classic meets Lamentations of the Flame Princes meets 80s weird horror. If it were a movie Roger Corman would have been the director or producer and Tom Savini would have starred and consulted on the monster effects. The whole thing is 90 pages long so you are getting a lot. Not sure where I am going to use it, but it really begs to be used somewhere. Retooled just a tiny bit could turn it from gonzo to some serious horror. That is the direction I am likely to go.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
The Chaos Gods Come to Meatlandia
Click to show product description

Add to DriveThruRPG.com Order

pixel_trans.gif
Monsterarium
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 04/26/2021 12:37:28

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This bestiary clocks in at 27 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page introduction, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 21 pages of content, so let’s take a look! My review is based on the pdf; I don’t have the print version.

This review was requested to be moved up in my reviewing queue by my supporters.

Okay, so, the first thing you should know about this booklet would be that, yes, this is a bestiary, but it’s not a book of things designed to be hacked apart as throwaway monsters; this bestiary focuses on what I like calling “narrative monsters”, so creatures that have a more significant impact or that are intended to form the center of a narrative. The second thing would be art: Co-author Nahid Taheri has a truly unique style. Look at that cover. Each of the creatures herein has an illustration done in the same style, which I’d call uncanny and slightly creepy old fairy tale illustration. I like that style; it gives the book a genuinely unique visual identity and helped me retain my memory of these monsters. It’s been a long time since I first read this bestiary, and I still could recall every single critter herein.

Now, on a less impressed level, it should be noted that this book does not actually subscribe to a specific OSR-system. You know what this means: We only get very basic stats, and depending on the old-school system you favor, you’ll need to do some adjusting. It also makes it more difficult, at least for me, to actually decide how hard a critter should hit. If I e.g. run a B/X-Old-School-Essentials critter in a retro game based on AD&D 2e, I know by how much I need to upgrade it; same goes in reverse for running e.g. an AD&D 2e critter is OSE, obviously. These “general” OSR supplements lack this frame. Some of my readers might shrug this off, while some will very much think that this does matter. Anyhow, each creature notes an alignment on the law-chaos axis, a movement (120 seems to be the default value), an ascending AC value, the number of HD, the number of attacks, the damage dealt, and a single save value, which uses a descending value. Each creature has its special attacks and/or weaknesses listed after their flavor text.

Thematically, the creatures herein are partially original creations, and partially drawn from the rich and oftentimes untapped resource of Persian folklore, with which I share a particular fascination. That being said, the book does manage to maintain a sort of consistence in its themes and feeling I enjoyed. An old-school non-Disney fairy tale/folklore-esque angle suffuses the supplement.

Okay, so, the pdf doesn’t start on its best foot with the Al, an invisible roughly female thing that hunts mothers and seeks to kill their newborn and steal their livers; their teeth can cause bleeding wounds, and interestingly, they will be hard to confront: They free sharp objects. This is a great creature, but the prose accompanying it, the description, felt rough. To give you an example: “Al appears as a tall and slender older woman with long and unbound rough black hair. It is naked though covered in very short fur. It has long fangs that reach past its chin. Its teeth act as blades that never dull or chip.” Now, thankfully, this somewhat staccato-like aspect does not extend throughout the pdf, but since it shows up on the first critter, I figured it’d be worth mentioning that the prose gets better.

Cord legs are AWESOME. They appear as a person in need, and ask to be carried on the back; if they are, they wriggle their cord legs around the adventurer, and can quickly and efficiently kill those they are riding. The poor sods being ridden by a cord legs have Charisma 8, or -2 Charisma if less than 8. Okay, what if one has Charisma 8? No penalty? Hmmm. Carrying them around can permanently enhance your Strength if you get rid of them, which is codified. In spite of my nitpickery, I like these critters: They have the folklore angle, need to be outwitted, and there is something gorgeously grotesque about them.

Ejdohogo is a plot device disguised as a weird dragon, wingless and plumed…and its tail has this classic trick, where, if all present fail to save against it, the next adventuring session will be bizarre and weird, and actually a completely illusory adventure. If the adventurers live through it, they awake dehydrated and starved with 1 hp. Okay. What effect does the tail have if NOT everyone fails the save? No clue, no rules or even suggestions are provided.

Faux sirens are another puzzle boss of sorts: They actually are plants and have an ability that causes one random target to defend them – no save. Yep. Not even a save. I don’t like that, and think it’s essentially GM railroading. Not cool. And they have a siren’s call that lures targets to them, and while it notices that this is enough time to drown in bogs, the ability and generic OSR rules provide no frame of reference regarding whether this operates more akin to a charm or a dominate.

Hair that had a human, on the other hand, is grotesque and amazing in all the right ways: Long locks of floating hair with a human face, the long locks concealing a child’s body. Oh, and they are FAST, can become even faster and if they catch you, it’s save or die! And that save or die? You only get it if you’re adult. Kids are screwed. Need a good folklore-ish horror critter? This one fits the bill and is actually one of the few times where I consider an instant-kill move suitable. Two big thumbs up!

The lich queen…is weird. She has an entourage of zombies and skeletons and style galore, sure, and yes, she has not one, but two abilities that are save or die, but at a paltry 4 HD. I fail to see the appeal, and the two save or suck abilities are horribly lame. The one saving grace of this critter would be her hand-wand dependency: If she loses the wand, she casts “all her spells at half strength.” But she has no real spells. Just zombie/skeleton summoning and two instant-kill abilities sans rhyme or reason. Also, what does “half strength” mean? Do you only die half? This doesn’t work as written.

Loot wyverns are cool: Little winged lizards that eat treasure that are good at surprising targets, and a good bite can consume silver/treasure. Their claws scar over with gold. AWESOME. How much is such a gold scar worth? No clue. This is frustrating, as the treasure-scar mechanic is cool…but it WILL be cheesed and could wreck entire economies, obviously…but it has a lot of potential. Does the scar reduce maximum hp? This BEGS for proper rules.

Night hags take the shape of shadowy ravens in this interpretation, and lie down on the sleeping, stealing their sleep. They sport this intriguing section of text: “They might kill the person if no one is awake around, but they are not always interested in killing. They cannot rest, so often they steal sleep from humans in this manner.” Guess what we get no rules for? Bingo. For stealing sleep. For potentially killing the sleeping. Nothing. A perfect example of a cool, evocative critter tarnished by subpar design.

Peri are little fey-ish creatures with butterfly like snorkels that can sing and duplicate anything they heard, including spells; they drain Constitution and grow, and take additional damage from iron weapons; they come in two castes of sorts, the lesser wingless and the greater winged peri. Keeja, the chief of the peri, is also included in the book’s second section, and can dine on the saving throws of adventurers, and use a dandelion puff that actually is quite lethal. Two thumbs up, though adherence to a system would have made this one work slightly better. The tremulous troll is the last troll in the world; she takes next to no damage from all attacks, and has 6 types of magic fungi with spell-like effects…but she fears blades, and she fears light even more, for it is the one thing that truly hurts her. An interesting NPC-style creature.

The second part of the book is devoted to the creatures of the wood, and ties in, to a degree, with the aforementioned array: The first critter presented in this section would be the faun that s also depicted on the cover, lord of the peri and the wisps; he can alter memories of those it meets, and it can initiate raves, which may or may not tie in with Meatlandia Chaos DJs. Wisps, just fyi, are sentinet magic focused on a crystal set in a vial, and they increase in power by finding wisp stones, of which 6 are codified; an alternate, the wisp wizard, is also presented – these are pretty deadly, as one can imagine. They also want to get their hands on the torchbearer.

Who is that? Well, this lady was once an adventurer, but had to witness her fellows being slain; now, she is a quasi-mystical being who might show up to those in need and lead them to safety, sate their hunger, or even grant them Wisdom! A really neat mystical ally. Flying goldenfish are also amazing: They, when consumed, can, for 24 hours, grant you significant boosts to your stats (but you can also lose maximum HP)…and you’ll incur the ire of denizens of an extra-dimensional town…and they may well send the AL after you!

Harpy summoners are something rather different: Occupants of the Lajwardian mountains, these women left the realms of men behind to live free from the reign of men, and as such, they have the power to call harpies to defend them. Interesting flip of the traditional harpy mythology. The spate nymph is a creature of beauty; so much so that the apathetic lady causes those that witness her to forevermore lose Charisma…but her flying fish, if beseeched, can grant wishes. Keeja does hate her and wants her dead. And yes, there are more connections between the creatures than I’ve mentioned.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are…uneven. The supplement oscillates between sufficient precision and aggravating opaqueness, which is only partially due to not subscribing to a specific rules system. This phenomenon also extends to the prose. Layout adheres toa two-column full-color standard, and while the artwork of Nahid Taheri is most assuredly a matter of tastes, I really, really liked all these original full-color artworks. The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience, and I can’t comment on the virtues or lack thereof of the print version.

The Monsterarium of Ahimsa Kerp and Nahid Taheri left me torn like very few bestiaries over the years. To make that abundantly clear: Conceptually, I adore this booklet. It has a distinct identity, and not one of the creatures herein is boring or bland; even when the creatures make use of classic folklore tropes, they have an execution distinct from the defaults. In some creatures, this reminded me of how Alana I. Capria’s feminist twists on fairy tales, just in a less grotesque and gratuitous manner, so if you enjoy flips like that, this’ll be intriguing. Similarly, if you enjoy your monsters as creatures informed by folklore, then this has a lot to offer and contains some true gems.

That being said, the decision to not properly adhere to a system hurts this book to a significant degree; in some instances, it breaks the functionality of the creatures and leaves the referee scratching their head of what was actually intended here. Combined with the inconsistent editing, this renders the bestiary a study in contrasts, and not in a good way.

To make that abundantly clear: If you’re after concepts and ideas, then this should be considered to be a 5-star file; if you also want mechanical integrity of the creatures, then this pdf unfortunately loses a lot of its splendor, and does so without any actual need. If find myself wanting to slap my seal of approval on this, but I simply can’t; for that, this is too flawed a gem. Still, I do encourage you to take a look if the above even remotely intrigued you. My final verdict, though, can’t exceed 3.5 stars. And while I will round up, I do so for the concepts. If you want the rules to properly work so you can simply plug and play, then I suggest rounding down instead.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Monsterarium
Click to show product description

Add to DriveThruRPG.com Order

pixel_trans.gif
The Chaos Gods Come to Meatlandia-Vivimancer Edition
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 05/01/2019 09:46:38

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This campaign setting/toolkit clocks in at 83 pages, 1 page front cover, 2 pages of editorial, 1 page of ToC, 1 page SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 77 pages of content, laid out in approximately 6’’ by 9’’ (A5), so let’s take a look!

The majority of this review, like the book, is identical with the review of the regular iteration of this book. The tl;dr-version would be that this is the mechanically-superior version of the book.

Before we take a look at the content, there are two things of note: For one, I am very ambivalent about this product, so I advise you to read the entirety of the review. This one will be either a hit or a miss for you, depending on your priorities. Secondly, I have based my review on both the pdf-version of this supplement and the PoD softcover I purchased on OBS. The softcover has the book’s name on the spine and is solid, if slightly less impressive than the hardcover PoD-version of the regular edition of the book.

The next thing you ought to know, is that this is pretty much a blending of player-centric book and GM/referee-material, but that its organization does not reflect that particularly well. We begin, for example, with the general introduction of the campaign setting (prefaced by the classic and amazing “The Conqueror Worm” by good ole’ Poe, which could be seen as a leitmotif) before we dive into the player-centric material. This is somewhat unfortunate, as you can’t simply hand the book to players and tell them “Read only this far.” Instead, you’ll have to curate the content before using it, which is a bit of an unfortunate decision as far as I’m concerned. I don’t like it when my players know the stats of the movers and shakers of a campaign setting. That being said, the vivimancer edition does offer some definite improvements to the usability of the content within – for example, we now do get tables for prices of the individual items, which makes it much more comfortable to use for the referee.

The second unfortunate decision pertains the rules employed. The supplement uses a combination of OD&D and LotFP (Lamentations of the Flame Princess) rules, using the latter e.g. for hit point calculation. The precise choices are never made evident, and it should be noted that e.g. ability score progression of NPCs within assume a linear +1 to the respective bonus for every point above 18, which makes e.g. a Strength of 21 clock in at +6 bonus. This is never clearly stated as such, so depending on how faithful you are regarding the translation of your ability score-based components in your system, this might cause issues. HD (or levels) are noted alongside hit points, and the supplement uses ascending AC. Movement rating is missing the feet-indicator in the bestiary section, for example, and statblock components lack formatting, which makes them slightly harder to use.

In order to talk more about the other mechanical aspects of this supplement, though, I have to go into mild SPOILERS. If you prefer to experience the game sans previous knowledge of the basics, please jump ahead to the conclusion.

… .. .

All right, only referees around? Great! So, as noted before “The Conqueror Worm” could be construed as a form of leitmotif here, and if I had to pinpoint a second, it’d be “gonzo body horror” that doesn’t take itself too seriously, but serious enough to be potentially really wicked. Meatlandia is not a country – it’s the last megalopolis of the world. It’s not a kind city – it’s a moloch, a magical-industrial nightmare-fuel juggernaut of almost Silent Hill-ish proportions in tone, expanded to the level of a city. (And before you ask: The book actually does come with a cartography appendix that does include maps of the city!) This is not a city like Freeport et al – it’s a ginormous, grimy thing, a hive, a collection of beings – it’s a city of proportions like Shenzhen, Laos, Mexico city; a collection of individuals far beyond what the term “city” usually means.

It also takes a classic metaphor, namely that of a city consuming its populace, and makes it very much tangible. More than once, I felt myself reminded of Silent Hill’s first pre-title card: “the fear of blood creates fear of the flesh.” There is some truth to that, and indeed, Meatlandia makes it very much evident that you can’t expect mercy in its chaotic and dangerous streets.

Speaking of chaos: The cosmic backdrop of this setting is pretty much the return of the chaos gods, the worms that tunnel through the earth – ostensibly beholden to a Conqueror Worm like thing, consuming everything. Meatlandia sees refugees galore, and indeed, when we visit this place, it is the last megalopolis on the planet – all others have fallen to the influx of chaos brought about by the worms tunneling ever closer to the surface, consuming everything. …Did your PCs fail to stop Rovagug, Kyuss or a similar entity in your last campaign? Well, this may be a nice way to show the aftermath. But I digress.

The worms are a crucial component of the setting, and they are everywhere – in spells, hazardous effects and magic “items”; and their “worm honeydew” is an extremely potent component of spellcasting and magic in general – buts consumption carries the risk of transforming (as per Ravenloft’s tradition, over 5 steps) into a worm-like monstrosity. This transformation is supplemented by appropriate tables for 6 random effects, with stage 5 meaning, as per tradition, that the PC has transformed into a white worm NPC. The worms, obviously, are agents of chaos, of change – and Meatlandia, in contrast, is not exactly…better? The city is a tyrannical place, held together by iron will and adherences to a brutish and brutal form of Law, and yet, teeter-tottering on the edge of inevitable changes….though their guise if left to be determined by the PCs.

This brings me to the “classes”, of which 3 are basically “Archetypes”, or if you loathe the term, kits, for the bard. The first of these would be the raconteur, whose main draw is that he can gain a so-called posse of henchmen after singing and carousing for a night; level 5 yields some control over which follower is attracted, and they follow the thief/specialist progression and get d6 HD. With point-based skill-systems, they get s1 skill per level; for percentile-based, -10%, and otherwise, at -2 levels. As far as saves are concerned, raconteurs save as priests/clerics and get +2 to saves vs. paralysis/death, +2 to saves vs. enchantment/illusion and +1 to opposed Charisma checks, and +2 to Dex/reaction-based checks. Additionally, they are hard to influence, imposing their class level as a penalty on such attempts. The posse is left, thankfully, in the back of the book, for the GM, for beyond what they look like, the beings attracted may also have their own agendas.

More interesting and novel would be the Chaos DJ, and it is NOT for every group out there. The Chaos DJ realizes that she is under the influence of foreign forces. Note that this was YEARS prior to Black Mirror: Bandersnatch highlighting that concept. The Chaos DJ gets to make a special playlist for each session, and then achieve…something…vaguely related to the song’s lyrics. In-game. The whole meta-aspect makes these basically reliant on good referee improve, though one aspect also challenges the player: There is a growing, percentile chance that the Chaos DJ does the opposite of what she’s been told by the player – just to spite those powers-that-be that dare impose their inscrutable wills upon her. The base abilities are in line with those of the raconteur, but instead of the raconteur’s save boosts, these fellows get a +1 to saves vs. magic. While mechanically somewhat rough due to their wide open nature, I consider the Chaos DJs to be perhaps my favorite mechanical aspect herein.

The third bardic variant would be the nexus bard; they once more share the chassis with the previous two bard-variants, but get +1 to saves vs. paralysis, -2 to saves vs. magic, and +1 to all opposed chaos-related rolls. What the latter means? No clue, sorry. Their signature ability will make them indubitably compelling for the type of player that relishes casting e.g. summon spells in LotFP. They can adjust, once per day, a roll by class level; this can’t negate natural 20s and has no range. They also are inextricably linked with chaos storms ravaging the landscape. When entering a storm and reaching the nexus, they get one chaos charge, and they can store up to their class level such charges….which may be expended to attempt to call forth chaos storms. Yeah, nexus bards are as popular as you’d think them to be – at 5th level, they can collect a tax to move on to other places.

Why? Well, chaos storms are pretty damn cool, but also brutal: They are a profound, magical hazard, and in the book, we get a massive 100-entry strong table of distinct effects. Save vs. magic negates unless otherwise noted, but they are far out: Turning into puppies or kittens? Yep. Roll one of all your dice types – the highest result becomes the initiative for everyone in the party for the next 24 hours! (Hope you have the d50, d30, d24, d16 et al. ready…) Rain of tropical fruit, gender change, magic weapons (that have a percentile chance of singing), becoming temporarily (or forever, if you’re lucky!) super cool…some really nice ones there. Of course, all gold in the area could turn irrevocably to dust. You could develop a split personality. Ninjas might attack. The table does the CHAOS part of “chaos storm” justice.

But we’re not yet done with discussing the new layer-facing components. The movers and shakers of the city are the meat mages – and this is perhaps the most radical departure of this version of the supplement. Instead of the rather atrocious original carnomancer rules, we now simply reference Gavin Norman’s masterpiece, The Complete Vivimancer. While the artwork depicting the stages of worm metamorphosis has been swallowed by the new layout, using Mr. Norman’s supplement is a damn smart call. The spell-section, which was pretty much unusable in the original iteration, has been condensed to 2 pages…though the rules here, alas, are not as tight as I’d like them to be. One spell that creates a blubber explosion centered on the caster, for example, fails to specify whether the caster is affected or not. Formatting, this time around, gets spell-references right…about half the time, which may be a plus, but still does not suffice. It should also be noted that there is a cantrip that can yield a defense shield of essentially temporary hit points, but that also increases your weight and size, establishing a more high-fantasy tone than some would assume.

The final thing to discuss among the player-facing aspects would be the race of the kaldane – think of these fellows as heads with spider-legs: -6 Str, -2 Cha, +2 Dex and Int, 1d3 hit points per level. They fight as thieves/specialists, and save as clerics, with a bonus of +2 to saves vs. mind control. They are treated as fighters for skill purposes, automatically succeed at climbing, and, being essentially just heads, their write-up notes AC bonuses for helmets etc. They can hide/ as a rogue of their level…when not mounted. Mounted? Yep, this species has entered a symbiotic relationship with the rykors, basically throwaway idiot bodies, which can fall apart rather easily. Kaldane do get mind control powers and some limited spell-like abilities at higher levels. Kaldane progress, XP-wise, as thieves, with the class table reaching as far as 12th level.

The kaldane represent one of the minor factions of Meatlandia, though the map-appendix does offer a map of a warren sans scale. The big movers and shakers, the key-NPCs, are noted in the beginning, in the campaign setting section: Meatlandia is ruled by the iron fist of the meat lord, a mighty carnomancer whose meat mechs keep the…wait…establish and order….no…enforce his rule. That’s it. His iron will shackles the city, makes it withstand – but the price is aforementioned metaphor of consumption. Meatlandia is a visceral place, and his flesh factories constantly churn meat into the magics required by his cadre of casters, consume, literally, the populace. His enhanced meat men are gruesome mutations – think of cybernetic enhancement, but instead with visceral, organic grafts….the place to whip out all those mutation/corruption tables you no doubt have. This subsection of the book, including the bestiary components, also greatly benefits from outsourcing some of the more daunting aspects to the vivimancer, making them run more smoothly. This extends to the NPCs, just fyi – so yeah, this is hands down the superior version as far as rules are concerned!

The meat lord’s executioner is also noted, and so is his opposition: The valiant rust lord, a champion of death and rebirth, makes for what could be construed as Meatlandia’s Arthurian savior. The adherents of the rust lord wield maces that rust metal items, and they are known as…drum roll “Rustafarians!” Come on, that deserves a chuckle! Other parts of the city are firmly under the control of the Death’s Hand guild, but none know their end-game. Famous knights, particularly nasty vivimancers and horrid monstrosities are noted, and, as the folks are wont to tell, “Our Lady of Sorrows” (nice nod to either a) the myth, b) Argento, c) the criminally underrated CoC campaign, d) Thomas de Quincey’s similarly underrated literary contributions, or e) all of the above…) a kind of collective consciousness of the city, roams the streets.

Beyond aforementioned chaos storms, we have an inspired d50 city encounters table, a d20 refugee table, and the book does contain magic items that include meat that can be laced with blood of a target, killing the target upon consumption, literal meat shield and similar gory viscera. And worms. There are worms. For example, you should never say a person’s name and “worm” in the same sentence – otherwise, invisible worms all around might manifest and attack. There is a pretty random type of worm that may hijack your body…and there are witches riding on…bingo, worms…though these actually are the setting’s hippies, attempting to establish utopian communes far from the city. Did I mention the “Society for the appreciation of murder”, basically a serial killer fan-club? Or the unstoppable killer that is Sideways Emily, who will kill you? The book also implies e.g. that the world may be eaten by a cosmic fish at one point, and features several nice campaign seeds and hooks, if the massive amount of imagination and ideas herein hasn’t already made you want to run this. It will have, fyi.

Conclusion: Editing is good on a formal level; formatting is pretty much all over the place and adheres to no convention; better here than in the previous iteration, but still not as precise or consistent as I’d like it to be. The rules-language and rules-relevant components are often opaque, and benefit greatly from outsourcing components to Gavin Norman’s meticulously precise vivimancer. Layout adheres to a two-column b/w-standard, and the book comes with a surprising array of really nice b/w-artworks (original pieces) that capture well the grimy and gonzo high, but dark fantasy vibe of the setting. The cartography in b/w is rather nice and player-friendly, though it’d have been nice to get a scale for the maps. The pdf-version comes fully bookmarked for your convenience, and the PoD-softcover is solid and probably the most directly useful iteration of the supplement.

Wind Lothamer & Ahimsa Kerp have penned a setting that inspired me; I expected to get a kind of Carcosa-knockoff, and got something different: An, at least for OSR, high-powered setting of easy-come, easy-go, lethal adventuring through one of the most disturbing, and yet funniest, cities I have seen so far. Meatlandia is an inspired post-industrialized nightmare, as seen through the lens of magic, and it can be played as something truly horrifying; similarly, it could just as well be run as a gonzo setting that embraces the over-the-topness of its concepts and runs with it. Stuart Gordon’s “Reanimator” is quoted as an inspiration, and it shows in tone, though I’d probably liken it more to the slightly lesser known “From Beyond” and its treatment of physicality.

The theme of Meatlandia, the inevitable breakdown of bodies into components to be consumed, in some cases literally, is a theme that resounds, particularly nowadays. The writing and ideas herein are absolutely phenomenal, and the supplement greatly benefits from having the amazing, inspired “Complete Vivimancer” to fall back on.

The mechanical and formal aspects still are not as well-executed herein as they should be. Don’t get me wrong – this new, vivimancer-enhanced edition of Meatlandia, is certainly the superior product, but I really wished the authors had taken the time to contextualize the entirety of the content within the formatting conventions established by The Complete Vivimancer. If components that are improperly formatted give you the fits, avoid this. This sentence still holds true: Ironically, Meatlandia can be best described as “RAW” – and a bit of simmering would have done it good. That being said, Meatlandia is closer to being a delicious, bloody steak of a sourcebook in this iteration than it ever was before, and while the rules aspects of this book still can’t exceed the moniker of a mixed bag, that’s actually an improvement. The city itself, the dressing, the campaign setting presented herein, is still one of the coolest, most visceral and interesting ones I’ve read in a while. It oozes great ideas, and while nowhere near perfect, the vivimancer edition certainly represents a step in the right direction for Meatlandia. My final verdict will clock in at 4.5 stars, rounded down for the purpose of this platform. The campaign setting as such, and the ideas, it should be noted, are seal of approval material – it’s just the craftsmanship in some details that prevents this from receiving higher accolades from yours truly.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
The Chaos Gods Come to Meatlandia-Vivimancer Edition
Click to show product description

Add to DriveThruRPG.com Order

pixel_trans.gif
The Chaos Gods Come to Meatlandia
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 05/01/2019 09:42:30

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This campaign setting/toolkit clocks in at 92 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page inside of front cover, 2 pages of editorial, 2 pages of ToC, 1 page blank, 1 page inside of back cover, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 83 pages of content, laid out in approximately 6’’ by 9’’ (A5), so let’s take a look!

Before we take a look at the content, there are two things of note: For one, I am very ambivalent about this product, so I advise you to read the entirety of the review. This one will be either a hit or a miss for you, depending on your priorities. Secondly, I have based my review on both the pdf-version of this supplement and the Hardcover available for PoD on lulu. I am noting that because I was positively surprised by this PoD book – it comes with a dust jacket and is a pretty impressive book; as far as lulu-PoDs are concerned, it certainly ranks among the most impressive ones I’ve seen, so if you’re a bit of a bibliophile, this may be the version you’ll want to get.

The next thing you ought to know, is that this is pretty much a blending of player-centric book and GM/referee-material, but that its organization does not reflect that particularly well. We begin, for example, with the general introduction of the campaign setting (prefaced by the classic and amazing “The Conqueror Worm” by good ole’ Poe, which could be seen as a leitmotif) before we dive into the player-centric material. This is somewhat unfortunate, as you can’t simply hand the book to players and tell them “Read only this far.” Instead, you’ll have to curate the content before using it, which is a bit of an unfortunate decision as far as I’m concerned. I don’t like it when my players know the stats of the movers and shakers of a campaign setting.

The second unfortunate decision pertains the rules employed. The supplement uses a combination of OD&D and LotFP (Lamentations of the Flame Princess) rules, using the latter e.g. for hit point calculation. The precise choices are never made evident, and it should be noted that e.g. ability score progression of NPCs within assume a linear +1 to the respective bonus for every point above 18, which makes e.g. a Strength of 21 clock in at +6 bonus. This is never clearly stated as such, so depending on how faithful you are regarding the translation of your ability score-based components in your system, this might cause issues. HD (or levels) are noted alongside hit points, and the supplement uses ascending AC. Movement rating is missing the feet-indicator in the bestiary section, for example, and statblock components lack formatting, which makes them slightly harder to use.

In order to talk more about the other mechanical aspects of this supplement,. Though, I have to go into mild SPOILERS. If you prefer to experience the game sans previous knowledge of the basics, please jump ahead to the conclusion.

… .. .

All right, only referees around? Great! So, as noted before “The Conqueror Worm” could be construed as a form of leitmotif here, and if I had to pinpoint a second, it’d be “gonzo body horror” that doesn’t take itself too seriously, but serious enough to be potentially really wicked. Meatlandia is not a country – it’s the last megalopolis of the world. It’s not a kind city – it’s a moloch, a magical-industrial nightmare-fuel juggernaut of almost Silent Hill-ish proportions in tone, expanded to the level of a city. (And before you ask: The book actually does come with a cartography appendix that does include maps of the city!) This is not a city like Freeport et al – it’s a ginormous, grimy thing, a hive, a collection of beings – it’s a city of proportions like Shenzhen, Laos, Mexico city; a collection of individuals far beyond what the term “city” usually means.

It also takes a classic metaphor, namely that of a city consuming its populace, and makes it very much tangible. More than once, I felt myself reminded of Silent Hill’s first pre-title card: “the fear of blood creates fear of the flesh.” There is some truth to that, and indeed, Meatlandia makes it very much evident that you can’t expect mercy in its chaotic and dangerous streets.

Speaking of chaos: The cosmic backdrop of this setting is pretty much the return of the chaos gods, the worms that tunnel through the earth – ostensibly beholden to a Conqueror Worm like thing, consuming everything. Meatlandia sees refugees galore, and indeed, when we visit this place, it is the last megalopolis on the planet – all others have fallen to the influx of chaos brought about by the worms tunneling ever closer to the surface, consuming everything. …Did your PCs fail to stop Rovagug, Kyuss or a similar entity in your last campaign? Well, this may be a nice way to show the aftermath. But I digress.

The worms are a crucial component of the setting, and they are everywhere – in spells, hazardous effects and magic “items”; and their “worm honeydew” is an extremely potent component of spellcasting and magic in general – buts consumption carries the risk of transforming (as per Ravenloft’s tradition, over 5 steps) into a worm-like monstrosity. This transformation is supplemented by appropriate tables for 6 random effects, with stage 5 meaning, as per tradition, that the PC has transformed into a white worm NPC. The worms, obviously, are agents of chaos, of change – and Meatlandia, in contrast, is not exactly…better? The city is a tyrannical place, held together by iron will and adherences to a brutish and brutal form of Law, and yet, teeter-tottering on the edge of inevitable changes….though their guise if left to be determined by the PCs.

This brings me to the “classes”, of which 3 are basically “Archetypes”, or if you loathe the term, kits, for the bard. The first of these would be the raconteur, whose main draw is that he can gain a so-called posse of henchmen after singing and carousing for a night; level 5 yields some control over which follower is attracted, and they follow the thief/specialist progression and get d6 HD. With point-based skill-systems, they get 1 skill per level; for percentile-based, -10%, and otherwise, at -2 levels. As far as saves are concerned, raconteurs save as priests/clerics and get +2 to saves vs. paralysis/death, +2 to saves vs. enchantment/illusion and +1 to opposed Charisma checks, and +2 to Dex/reaction-based checks. Additionally, they are hard to influence, imposing their class level as a penalty on such attempts. The posse is left, thankfully, in the back of the book, for the GM, for beyond what they look like, the beings attracted may also have their own agendas.

More interesting and novel would be the Chaos DJ, and it is NOT for every group out there. The Chaos DJ realizes that she is under the influence of foreign forces. Note that this was YEARS prior to Black Mirror: Bandersnatch highlighting that concept. The Chaos DJ gets to make a special playlist for each session, and then achieve…something…vaguely related to the song’s lyrics. In-game. The whole meta-aspect makes these basically reliant on good referee improve, though one aspect also challenges the player: There is a growing, percentile chance that the Chaos DJ does the opposite of what she’s been told by the player – just to spite those powers-that-be that dare impose their inscrutable wills upon her. The base abilities are in line with those of the raconteur, but instead of the raconteur’s save boosts, these fellows get a +1 to saves vs. magic. While mechanically somewhat rough due to their wide open nature, I consider the Chaos DJs to be perhaps my favorite mechanical aspect herein.

The third bardic variant would be the nexus bard; they once more share the chassis with the previous two bard-variants, but get +1 to saves vs. paralysis, -2 to saves vs. magic, and +1 to all opposed chaos-related rolls. What the latter means? No clue, sorry. Their signature ability will make them indubitably compelling for the type of player that relishes casting e.g. summon spells in LotFP. They can adjust, once per day, a roll by class level; this can’t negate natural 20s and has no range. They also are inextricably linked with chaos storms ravaging the landscape. When entering a storm and reaching the nexus, they get one chaos charge, and they can store up to their class level such charges….which may be expended to attempt to call forth chaos storms. Yeah, nexus bards are as popular as you’d think them to be – at 5th level, they can collect a tax to move on to other places.

Why? Well, chaos storms are pretty damn cool, but also brutal: They are a profound, magical hazard, and in the book, we get a massive 100-entry strong table of distinct effects. Save vs. magic negates unless otherwise noted, but they are far out: Turning into puppies or kittens? Yep. Roll one of all your dice types – the highest result becomes the initiative for everyone in the party for the next 24 hours! (Hope you have the d50, d30, d24, d16 et al. ready…) Rain of tropical fruit, gender change, magic weapons (that have a percentile chance of singing), becoming temporarily (or forever, if you’re lucky!) super cool…some really nice ones there. Of course, all gold in the area could turn irrevocably to dust. You could develop a split personality. Ninjas might attack. The table does the CHAOS part of “chaos storm” justice.

But we’re not yet done with discussing the new layer-facing components. The movers and shakers of the city are the meat mages – and their rules are NOT good. In fact, the whole “new spells” chapter is basically non-functional and fails to adhere to the conventions of the base systems.I have nothing good to say about it or its lack of organization regarding magic items. The new, vivimancer-based version of Meatlandia is VASTLY superior in this chapter. The final thing to discuss among the player-facing aspects would be the race of the kaldane – think of these fellows as heads with spider-legs: -6 Str, -2 Cha, +2 Dex and Int, 1d3 hit points per level. They fight as thieves/specialists, and save as clerics, with a bonus of +2 to saves vs. mind control. They are treated as fighters for skill purposes, automatically succeed at climbing, and, being essentially just heads, their write-up notes AC bonuses for helmets etc. They can hide/ as a rogue of their level…when not mounted. Mounted? Yep, this species has entered a symbiotic relationship with the rykors, basically throwaway idiot bodies, which can fall apart rather easily. Kaldane do get mind control powers and some limited spell-like abilities at higher levels. Kaldane progress, XP-wise, as thieves, with the class table reaching as far as 12th level.

The kaldane represent one of the minor factions of Meatlandia, though the map-appendix does offer a map of a warren sans scale. The big movers and shakers, the key-NPCs, are noted in the beginning, in the campaign setting section: Meatlandia is ruled by the iron fist of the meat lord, a mighty carnomancer whose meat mechs keep the…wait…establish and order….no…enforce his rule. That’s it. His iron will shackles the city, makes it withstand – but the price is aforementioned metaphor of consumption. Meatlandia is a visceral place, and his flesh factories constantly churn meat into the magics required by his cadre of casters, consume, literally, the populace. His enhanced meat men are gruesome mutations – think of cybernetic enhancement, but instead with visceral, organic grafts….the place to whip out all those mutation/corruption tables you no doubt have. His executioner is also noted, and so is his opposition: The valiant rust lord, a champion of death and rebirth, makes for what could be construed as Meatlandia’s Arthurian savior. The adherents of the rust lord wield maces that rust metal items, and they are known as…drum roll “Rustafarians!” Come on, that deserves a chuckle! Other parts of the city are firmly under the control of the Death’s Hand guild, but none know their end-game. Famous knights, particularly nasty meat mages and horrid monstrosities are noted, and, as the folks are wont to tell, “Our Lady of Sorrows” (nice nod to either a) the myth, b) Argento, c) the criminally underrated CoC campaign, d) Thomas de Quincey’s similarly underrated literary contributions, or e) all of the above…) a kind of collective consciousness of the city, roams the streets.

Beyond aforementioned chaos storms, we have an inspired d50 city encounters table, a d20 refugee table, and the book does contain magic items that include meat that can be laced with blood of a target, killing the target upon consumption, literal meat shield and similar gory viscera. And worms. There are worms. For example, you should never say a person’s name and “worm” in the same sentence – otherwise, invisible worms all around might manifest and attack. There is a pretty random type of worm that may hijack your body…and there are witches riding on…bingo, worms…though these actually are the setting’s hippies, attempting to establish utopian communes far from the city. Did I mention the “Society for the appreciation of murder”, basically a serial killer fan-club? Or the unstoppable killer that is Sideways Emily, who will kill you? The book also implies e.g. that the world may be eaten by a cosmic fish at one point, and features several nice campaign seeds and hooks, if the massive amount of imagination and ideas herein hasn’t already made you want to run this. It will have, fyi.

Conclusion: Editing is good on a formal level; formatting is pretty much all over the place and adheres to no system’s convention. The rules-language and rules-relevant components are often opaque and not precise enough. Layout adheres to a two-column b/w-standard, and the book comes with a surprising array of really nice b/w-artworks (original pieces) that capture well the grimy and gonzo high, but dark fantasy vibe of the setting. The cartography in b/w is rather nice and player-friendly, though it’d have been nice to get a scale for the maps. The pdf-version comes fully bookmarked for your convenience, with nested bookmarks and all, and the PoD-version, as noted, is seriously worth contemplating.

Wind Lothamer & Ahimsa Kerp have penned a setting that inspired me; I expected to get a kind of Carcosa-knockoff, and got something different: An, at least for OSR-games, high-powered setting of easy-come, easy-go, lethal adventuring through one of the most disturbing, and yet funniest, cities I have seen so far. Meatlandia is an inspired post-industrialized nightmare, as seen through the lens of magic, and it can be played as something truly horrifying; similarly, it could just as well be run as a gonzo setting that embraces the over-the-topness of its concepts and runs with it. Stuart Gordon’s “Reanimator” is quoted as an inspiration, and it shows in tone, though I’d probably liken it more to the slightly lesser known “From Beyond” and its treatment of physicality.

The theme of Meatlandia, the inevitable breakdown of bodies into components to be consumed, in some cases literally, is a theme that resounds, particularly nowadays. The writing and ideas herein are absolutely phenomenal.

The same can’t be said about the mechanical and formal aspects. The latter may be excused, but the lack of adherence to a singular system greatly hurts this supplement; it tanks the wonky spellcasting section, and makes things harder for the referee than they ought to be on all accounts. Ironically, Meatlandia can be best described as capital letters “RAW” (Nor Rules As WRITTEN – RAW…like MEAT) – and a bit of simmering would have done it good.

If you’re in it for the crunch and rules, then think carefully before getting this – in those regards, this is, at best, a 2-star offering, and I wished the book had instead spent more time depicting the amazing setting….which is genuinely inspired, novel and fun. So if that’s what you’re looking for, then this might well be what you’re looking for.

There is no reconciling these positions. On the one hand, I love the setting; on the other hand, the rules simply aren’t up to par, and as such, my final verdict can’t exceed 3.5 stars, rounded down.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
The Chaos Gods Come to Meatlandia
Click to show product description

Add to DriveThruRPG.com Order

pixel_trans.gif
Invasion of the Tuber Dudes
by Tim C. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 03/03/2019 20:33:42

Incredibly easy to run, requiring minimal GM prep.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Invasion of the Tuber Dudes
Click to show product description

Add to DriveThruRPG.com Order

pixel_trans.gif
The Unicorn Cookbook - Fantastic Beasts and How to Eat Them
by Kristina S. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 02/01/2018 15:45:39

I wish there was a physical book for it! It is hilarious and I need all my friends to have a copy.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
The Unicorn Cookbook - Fantastic Beasts and How to Eat Them
Click to show product description

Add to DriveThruRPG.com Order

pixel_trans.gif
Creator Reply:
Thanks for the review! We are actually talking about printing up a physical copy as a special give-away. Check our website for more info.
pixel_trans.gif
Displaying 1 to 15 (of 20 reviews) Result Pages:  1  2  [Next >>] 
pixel_trans.gif
0 items
 Hottest Titles
 Gift Certificates