An Endzeitgeist.com review

The seventh installment of the OSR-‚zine „The Manor“ clocks in at 27 pages, 1 page front cover, 2 pages editorial/ToC/introduction, 1 page advertisement, leaving us with 24 pages of content, laid out in 6’’ by 9’’-booklet style.

The book sees the return of one of my favorite series from the early installments of the ‘zine, with Boltswitch’s Mobile Potion Emporium, penned by Boric Glanduum. The eponymous Boltswitch is basically a gnome snake-oil salesman, but one whose potions actually do something! Granted, not necessarily what you want them to do, but Boltswitch seems to be pretty up front about minor…peculiarities. Adak’s essence of age, for example, seems to be duplicating haste, but for briefer periods…and it eats up your lifespan. The unique component of this article would be that it is system neutral…and it is penned wholly in character. Boltswitch’s descriptions of his unique potions, his sales-pitches and the like, are really nice and useful, helping the referee/GM get into character. Particularly if you’re not that good with text-improvisation, having an extensive array of comments to paraphrase should be rather helpful. On the downside, while the text does an impressive job at conveying the benefits and drawbacks of the potions sold, the lack of precise effects for them feels unnecessary. Considering the brevity of rules-text that good OSR-mechanics can take up, it would have been nice to get a page of actual, mechanical benefits here.

The second article is penned by Joshua De Santo and introduces the skinwalker (coyote) class: Prime attributes would be Dex and Wis 13+ (with the customary 5% experience bonus) and HD are 1d4s. Skinwalkers are restricted to leather or chain armor and may not use shields. Weapon-wise, they are restricted to daggers or longbows – the latter restriction is a bit weird. Why not shortbows as well? Skinwalkers need to be neutral. Skinwalkers get low light vision, which is somewhat odd, considering how most OSR-rulesets know darkvision, infravision or x-ray vision, with low-light vision being something you see in more recent and rules-heavy systems. At 1st level, the skinwalker can change to coyote form and back once per day, +1/day at 3rd level and every 3 levels thereafter. Okay, question: Is that always the same coyote form or can he assume different coyote forms? The skinwalker can use thief skills like a thief of one level below his character level. This should probably be gained at 2nd level, since 0-level characters usually have no thief skills. At 2nd level, skinwalkers get +2 to rolls to determine whether a person is lying to them. This is…kinda weird, since most commonly-used OSR-games do not roll for the like, using roleplaying instead. This makes the ability somewhat…useless sin quite a few systems. At 6th level, the skinwalker can produce minor glamors, such as changing color on herself or the target. No range, duration, save or limitation is provided. Saving throws improve from 16 to 7 and the class gains the first level at 2,500 XP, doubling required XP until 40K (4th level), whereafter we have a 20K per level requirement until 8th level – thereafter, it’s 50K per level.

I do not like this class one bit. It feels like an attempt to design for 5e that was aborted mid-way and jammed into OSR-games. The potentially interesting abilities are left to the referee to codify, which feels somewhat lazy.

Chris Coski has probably read about fabled Thuzun Thune: In a system-neutral article, we are presented with no less than 8 different magic mirrors, as well as quite a few really nice b/w-artworks. The article introduces such gems as the mirror of mediocrity or the mirror of mortis, which shows one of the myriad, gruesome way in which the viewer may die. I loved this article! It is pretty damn cool and authors that plan on jamming the oomphteenth mirror of opposition into their modules should take heed! That being said, I wished we got stats for them as well.

Beyond a funny mind-flayer haiku, we also have a micro-adventure by Simon Forster: One page map, one page explanation…and it can actually become pretty lethal pretty fast and sports stats for the BBEG, which are system agnostic, yet precise enough to use them smoothly! Kudos!

Now, this installment also sports a full-blown adventure, the Horrid Caves, penned by Garrison James, intended for 1st or 2nd level characters. Difficulty-wise, I’d consider the module to be hard – it definitely requires a well-rounded group. While I’m not the biggest fan of the font used, the adventure is a highlight – not just for this issue of the ‘zine, but for its whole run! I am NOT exaggerating! You see, it actually comes with no less than 7 new, precise and meticulously crafted spells, it also sports a summon-chart for one encounter and an extensive random encounter chart. Formatting here is precise as well – italicized spells, ascending and descending AC, precise rules…and a ton of unique monsters, which include flammable vermin that take more damage by fire, but also become ridiculously fast while ablaze. Even cooler: The strange ecology of the caverns makes sense – clever players are rewarded for observing how the weird fauna interacts with each other. Better yet: The module is really versatile: It can easily fit into traditional fantasy, into weird fantasy, or work just as well in a post-apocalyptic context or in a Sword & Sorcery world – more on that below. It also has a distinct vibe that DCC judges will most assuredly love.

Okay, from here on, SPOILERS reign. Potential players should jump ahead to the conclusion.

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Once upon a time, an inhuman warlord and his crustacean soldiers from another plane were cut off from their means to return; separated from their spawning pools, these beings arrayed themselves in formation for the death to come, as they would for battle – and now, their caves have been breached. In the caverns, strange tadpoles levitate through the skies, only to explode upon death; a severed, undead head makes for a formidable spellcaster and the undead husks of chitin-creatures shamble through the complex, potentially leaving strange seeds behind. Tubular snails spew blinding fumes, and lime-green spiders…actually are mostly harmless for PCs, but can color the skin of their bites temporarily lime green. Hooray for mammals being for once not subject to all poisons. Of course, these spiders can collapse into green slime. Which is very much deadly for mammals. But hey, it takes a bit of time and doesn’t happen always…so don’t chuckle to hard in advance… A twisted idol can temporarily grant supernatural fecundity, though offspring born with have a crayfish-like face. Hexagonal blue-green-glazed tiles contain spells that fortified against the then-cutting edge bronze weaponry, and magic-users can learn to leave organic, semi-permeable membranes in their wake. There also is a spell to target gills in particular, which may be of more use than at first glance. A primordial ancestor of black puddings, the black oil, slimes away in a recess of the dungeon, and a snail-pearl may be valuable…but while in the complex, it has a nasty habit of summoning giant, carnivorous snails! Oh, have I mentioned the ancient, magical paintings of a time long gone? This adventure is mechanically-precise, has a cool map, and can fit into a ton of different games. It also represents a challenging, fun and amazing adventure. It warrants the low and fair asking price pretty much on its own.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting oscillate a bit between articles regarding their quality, but can generally be considered to be good when seen as a whole. Layout adheres to a 1-column b/w-standard, with a surprising amount of nice b/w-artworks I haven’t seen before. Cartography is b/w and similarly nice, though, alas, we do not get player-friendly, key-less versions of the maps. The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience.

The 7th installment of the Manor represents, in a way, a highlight in the ‘zine’s run: The system neutral articles are both inspiring, if held back a bit due to their lack of precise rules. The micro-dungeon represents a surprisingly fun diversion as well. The class, on the other hand, alas, falls short of what it easily could have and should have been. Just because something’s written for a rules-lite OSR-game doesn’t mean that the rules get to be shoddy – precision is key and NOT anathema to flavor - see e.g. Gavin Norman’s phenomenal work, for example.

And then, there would be “Horrid Caves.” This dungeon is frickin’ amazing and warrants the price of the magazine all on its own. It’s precise, well-crafted and simply elegant, super-easy to integrate into a ton of different genres…I can’t say enough good things about this adventure. It’s a real gem.

Anyways, rating-wise, I have to rate the issue as a whole, and while it is one of my favorite installments of the whole ‘zine, as a whole, it falls slightly short of getting my seal of approval, with more articles falling into the “good, but not great”-range. Still, I highly recommend picking this one up - $2.50 is a true steal for the content herein. Hence, my final verdict will be 5 stars, in spite of a few rough patches here and there.

Endzeitgeist out.

One of the cool things about the early days of this hobby was finding great little zines of new content. Sometimes it was an alternate rule, or new monster or class. Some of these were good, many were mediocre but all of them were a lot of fun. Back then I didn't care how good or bad it was, I was just glad to have something new and exciting to try out.

The Manor reminds me of the best parts of that time.

This is the newest one on the batch (for now) and it shows. The evolving layout and feel of the zine gives it a nice organic feel. I love the PDFs, but this issue makes me want them all in print form too. The other big difference here is that creator Tim Shorts is only the editor of this, he has no content of his own in it. I am taking that as a sign of good growth.
"Boltswitch's Mobile Potion Emporium" by Boric Glanduum is a great throwback to the traveling snake-oil salemen of the previous turn of the century. Whether his potions work is up to the GM I guess, but I like the idea enough to steal it! I hope he has some Guards from Issue #6 to protect him. "The Skinwalker (Coyote)" by Joshua De Santo is a Native American feeling lycanthropic class for S&W. It looks fun, but leaves me wanting more to be honest. Chris Coski is back an he has a number of magical mirrors in "Mirror, Mirror". His penchant for alliteration is amusing, but it could have gotten tiresome quick. A couple of smaller adventures are next. "Trouble Down the Well" by Simon Forester and "Horrid Caves" by Garrison James. Horrid Caves is the larger of the two. It has some new spells and a couple of new monsters.
Rusty Battle Axe brings us some Mind Flayer art and an Illithid haiku. Two words that I have never used that close to each other. We end with an ad for Tenkar & the Badger's OSR Radio podcast. Though no URL is provided. Here it is just in case, http://www.tavernradio.com/.

The Manor, Issue 7 is a short publication dedicated to the OSR (Old School) branch of fantasy roleplaying. This issue contains the following articles:

All in all, quite fun and full of tools for OSR (or other fantasy) games.

Disclosure: As a featured reviewer for RPGNow/DriveThroughRPG, I received my copy of this product for free from the publisher for the purpose of this review.

Note: Read more reviews and other gaming articles at my journal https://seaofstarsrpg.wordpress.com/

Originally posted at: http://diehardgamefan.com/2014/08/29/tabletop-review-the-manor-issue-7/

The Manor is a OSR style fanzine that I haven’t had a chance to pick up until now. Like most gaming magazines, it contains a range of articles, adventures and new things to dismember. Like a lot of magazines, the quality of the articles varies, although which ones are worth reading depends on the point of view of whoever is paging through it. After all, what interests one person may bore another.

I will say that I enjoyed this issue of The Manor and I will probably be coming back for more. There were six articles and my biggest complaints are in fact minor ones about layout. The copyright information on page two cuts off abruptly after “All Artwork, Maps and Articles are the,” which I first took to be a bad sign, but thankfully the content was pretty good. The other weird layout issue was with the “Tenkar & the Badger” radio ad on the last page. The entire magazine is laid out in portrait, but the ad for this is in landscape, meaning you have to turn your head to an odd angle to read it…or just turn your e-reader if you’re not at a computer.

There are six articles in The Manor, Issue #7, along with a one page introduction from Tim Shorts. The first article is “Boltswitch’s Mobile Potion Emporium.” It’s three pages of fiction where a Gnome named Mikklum Boltswitch is hawking potions from the back of a cart, snake oil salesman style. Seven potions are discussed, with the name in Italics, followed by a description of what the potion does. This was a fun little piece and a neat way to showcase new items. Usually new items are done in a very dry straightforward manner, and I liked the method in which this was done.

“Skinwalker (Coyote)” is the next piece and it’s about a new playable race/class. This was the only article I didn’t care for, but that’s because it felt unfinished. You’re given an XP chart, abilities gain by level and the usual weapon/alignment restrictions, but the saving throws and THAC0 bits are also missing. There is also no indication if the piece is a PC class, NPC class or the like. What’s here has a decent start but it really needed to be fleshed out more. Right now it just feels like there are huge gaps in the piece.

“Mirror, Mirror” is article #3 and it gives us eight magical mirrors to throw into your game. Unlike “Boltswitch’s Mobile Potion Emporium,” “Mirror Mirror” is done in the usual descriptive narrative instead of a fiction based one. Each of the mirrors in this piece are a lot of fun and I really loved the artwork in this article. The Mirror of Mugging and the Mirror of Morbidity are my two favorites. Each mirror only gets a paragraph of description, but that’s on par with what you would find in the DMG, so I’m fine with it as the whole piece is a lot of fun.

“Trouble Down the Well” is the first of two adventures in this issue. You get a one page map and a one page description of the adventure. A well in a small town has dried up and it has started to smoke. The local blacksmith went down to see what has occurred and never came back. Now it is up to the PCs to save the day. It’s a pretty simple and short affair with only a single monster to deal with. You should have no problem playing this in only a single session. It’s a fun little adventure for what it is and that’s all that matters.

The second adventure in the piece is “Horrid Caves” and it is a full length adventure that only has nine locations so it too should be able to completed in a single session. However, the adventure also contains a ton of new monsters and spells. It’s a pretty routine hack and slash dungeon crawl, but the new monsters and spells that show up are quite weird and remind me of something I’d see in Dungeon Crawl Classics. I really enjoyed this piece and since it is for first or second level characters, it’s a great way to let people try out their new characters or to pad out another short adventure.

The sixth and final article is a haiku about a mind flayer. It’s amusing and the full page of art really makes the piece.

In all, this seventh issue of The Manor was a lot of fun, and if I have time, I might pick up some of the earlier issues to see if they are as good. The issue is short, with a page count of under thirty, but it’s also only $2.50, so it’s not as if the zine will break your bank. The two adventures and the two magic items articles are well worth reading through if you are a fan of retro clones like OSRIC, Swords and Wizardry Castles & Crusades and the like. I wish I had more room in this review to showcase the artwork too. If you have the time and spare change, definitely pick this up.