Full disclosure time: Venger Satanis asked me to review The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence and gave me a complimentary copy to do so.

So, what did I think? Short answer: WOW! Long answer: There is a LOT of gonzo Old School goodness in these 110 pages.

I do feel that it should be mentioned right away that the "Caution: Mature Content" warning on the cover is justified. There is a fair amount of sexual content, female slaves as a type of currency, dark twisted concepts, and possibly disturbing art. I mention this not to dissuade anyone but to alert possible purchasers that it might not be acceptable for children or the easily offended.

The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence begins with 40+ pages of optional house rules compatible with most OSR games, a new monk class, setting specific rules, tons of useful random tables, and a boatload of background for the islands interspersed amongst all of the above. I would say this part of the book is pleasantly unorganized and very much reminiscent of RPG supplements written in the 70’s and 80’s. You may need to flip around a bit to find the table or section you are looking for but it is not too difficult. I really enjoyed traversing through this section as it felt like you never knew what the next pages would hold.

Starting on Page 44 is the individual hex content listings. These continue until page 95. The best way I can describe this section is that the previous 40 pages were Alice chasing after the Rabbit and now she has jumped down the hole into Wonderland, as written by Robert E. Howard on month long acid trip. It is a random assortment of SciFi and fantasy, depraved cult activity, the familiar and the strange. Then it just gets WEIRD.

The last pages are dedicated to new setting specific spells and magic items befitting the insanity already displayed in the setting.

Honestly I am not sure a grouping of paragraphs containing words can describe what takes place on this Island. If the byline “An old school weird science-fantasy campaign setting and wilderness hex-crawl” written on the cover caught your interest at all, do yourself a favor and pick this up.

Very interesting but it really needs a good editorial once over. Lots of spelling errors, poor word choices, incorrect grammar, etc. I hope a revised PDF is uploaded soon.

After reading an excellent review about this game, I ventured my own hard-earned $10 to see if it was as intriguing as was posted. IT IS! I was pleasantly surprised that the game play mechanic was as ?simple? and fun as advertised. Most of the games I buy sit on my shelf until one of my groups decides to give it a try. Not this one! When I read the description to them, we started up a game that night. That alone made it well worth the purchase cost.

One warning I will give is that it uses a LOT of d20s for some rolls. In my second session, we used over 18 d20s for a few actions. My recommendation is to have at least 20 d20s available at the game table to ensure this does not interrupt your enjoyment of this game.

That aside, I would highly recommend Donjon to anyone who enjoys a good old-fashioned, loot the bodies, save the princess, find a giant in a room with only tiny sized doors type of role playing game.