PDF and Hardcover, 80 pages

Ah, now this is a book I would have loved back in 81. Also coming in at 80 pages this book is about monsters and nothing else.

Stat blocks are concise and there is none of the bloat in the descriptions that appear in later editions (ok to be fair that bloat was demanded by players). The book is fantastic with my only reservation in I wish it had been illustrated more. But even that is fine because the illustration we get are fantastic and very reminiscent of the old school monster books.

There are also NPC encounter tables and monsters listed by HD. The utility of this book is top-notch.

I can easily see a "Monsters 2" and "Monsters 3" sometime in the future for this line.

Cleric and Magic-User Spells would have been my favorite book if OSE had come out in the 80s. Right now it also has my favorite cover from the entire series. Seriously, I love it. It just oozes eldritch weirdness.

The book itself has 48 pages and covers all the Cleric and Magic-User/Elf spells in the game.

All the usual suspects are here. Cleric spells go to level 5 and magic-user spells go to level 6, just as expected from the B/X sources. Again, when making my recent Cleric I used this book.

The modularity again is a huge boon for this book and game. Adding a new class, like the Druid or Illusionists? Add a new book easy! In fact, we see that is exactly what was done. Expandability is the key here.

PDF and Hardcover, 48 pages

Cleric and Magic-User Spells would have been my favorite book if OSE had come out in the 80s. Right now it also has my favorite cover from the entire series. Seriously, I love it. It just oozes eldritch weirdness.

The book itself has 48 pages and covers all the Cleric and Magic-User/Elf spells in the game.

All the usual suspects are here. Cleric spells go to level 5 and magic-user spells go to level 6, just as expected from the B/X sources. Again, when making my recent Cleric I used this book.

The modularity again is a huge boon for this book and game. Adding a new class, like the Druid or Illusionists? Add a new book easy! In fact, we see that is exactly what was done. Expandability is the key here.

These are the rules to allow you to play in any sort of "Basic Fantasy" style game. Here get our character classes of Cleric, Fighter, Magic-User, and Theif and The three "demi-human" classes of Dwarf, Elf, and Halfling. If you are familiar with the Basic/Expert games of 1981 then this is home territory for you. Human classes are limited to 14th level and demi-humans vary.

In addition to the classes (half the book more or less) we go into Equipment, mounts, hirelings and building strongholds. So yes, everything that concerns players from level 1 to level 14 or retirement.

This is one of the three required books by the players. The others are the Core Rules and then also Cleric and Magic-User spells (if they are playing one of those classes).

Like all the books in this series the layout is crisp, clean and a model of efficient use of words. From a User Experience point of view it is an absolute gem.

PDF and Hardcover, 48 pages

These are the rules to allow you to play in any sort of "Basic Fantasy" style game. Here get our character classes of Cleric, Fighter, Magic-User, and Theif and The three "demi-human" classes of Dwarf, Elf, and Halfling. If you are familiar with the Basic/Expert games of 1981 then this is home territory for you. Human classes are limited to 14th level and demi-humans vary.

In addition to the classes (half the book more or less) we go into Equipment, mounts, hirelings and building strongholds. So yes, everything that concerns players from level 1 to level 14 or retirement.

This is one of the three required books by the players. The others are the Core Rules and then also Cleric and Magic-User spells (if they are playing one of those classes).

Like all the books in this series the layout is crisp, clean and a model of efficient use of words. From a User Experience point of view it is an absolute gem.

The art is likewise fantastic with full color spreads throughout the book.

The Core Rules weighs in at 80 pages and gets to the very heart of the OSE line. The essential Essentials as it were. It covers Ability scores in general, sequences of play and all the basic rules needed. Combat is covered separately. Magic also gets a bit of coverage here in general terms and including how spells can be researched and magic items made.

The rules have been "cleaned up" from their obvious predecessors. The focus is on readability and playability here. like all of the OSE books every entry of a rule is presented on facing pages. So you open up the book and everything you need on the subject is right there. Only rarely will you need to turn the page.

In the original rules, it took a bit of digging to actually figure out how much a character moves. This was vastly improved in later editions of the game, but here it is very succinctly spelled out. Other rules are equally made clear.

Since the "Basic" and "Expert" rules are combined here there is an economy of word usage here. As much as I love my Basic and Expert games, sometimes you need to consult both books when a situation comes up. This book though is more than a handy index, it takes that notion from the B/XE Core Rules and expands it into a much more playable game.

The philosophy of the Core Rules is just that, everything you need to play regardless of the genre. Included in the boxed set (and an expected purchase) is the Classic Fantasy Genre Rules. This is what takes the Core Rules and makes it into a "Basic-era Fantasy Game". So in simpler language, this is Basic D&D. You do need a set of Genre Rules to be able to use the Core Rules, but there is enough there if you are an aspiring game designer to make up your own. Say Roaring 20s, or Space or Horror. Anything really.

PDF and Hardcover, 80 pages

The Core Rules weighs in at 80 pages and gets to the very heart of the OSE line. The essential Essentials as it were. It covers Ability scores in general, sequences of play and all the basic rules needed. Combat is covered separately. Magic also gets a bit of coverage here in general terms and including how spells can be researched and magic items made.

The rules have been "cleaned up" from their obvious predecessors. The focus is on readability and playability here. like all of the OSE books every entry of a rule is presented on facing pages. So you open up the book and everything you need on the subject is right there. Only rarely will you need to turn the page.

In the original rules, it took a bit of digging to actually figure out how much a character moves. This was vastly improved in later editions of the game, but here it is very succinctly spelled out. Other rules are equally made clear.

Since the "Basic" and "Expert" rules are combined here there is an economy of word usage here. As much as I love my Basic and Expert games, sometimes you need to consult both books when a situation comes up. This book though is more than a handy index, it takes that notion from the B/XE Core Rules and expands it into a much more playable game.

The philosophy of the Core Rules is just that, everything you need to play regardless of the genre. Included in the boxed set (and an expected purchase) is the Classic Fantasy Genre Rules. This is what takes the Core Rules and makes it into a "Basic-era Fantasy Game". So in simpler language, this is Basic D&D. You do need a set of Genre Rules to be able to use the Core Rules, but there is enough there if you are an aspiring game designer to make up your own. Say Roaring 20s, or Space or Horror. Anything really.

The book has some really, really great old-school feeling art as well. Just fantastic stuff really.

A slightly different version of the alchemist. Jeremy Reaban does some great classes and this one is no exception. This chymist is closer in nature to the Pathfinder Alchemist but somehow this one feels more like an old-school class and manages to work well. He includes some new formulae for alchemists/chymists and some sample NPCs. Also there are tables for whatever old-school games you are playing. Sure conversion is easy, but this makes it all easier.

It is PWYW, but my advice send him a buck or more. It is 16 pages so that is not bad for a dollar.

This is an update to The Alchemist also by Vigilance Press. For another buck, you get more classes, another 23 pages and a better-looking layout. A good deal if you ask me. The alchemist is very much like the one from the previous product. Like the alchemist supplement, I might do a multi-class with this alchemist. Either as an alchemist-artificer or an alchemist-sage.

The other classes include the artificer, conjurer, elementalist, hermit, holy man, naturalist, sage and seer. Plus there are some new spells that I rather like.

This is another smaller product. Five pages (1 cover, 1.5 OGL, 3.5 content) at $0.99. It reminds me a bit of the Dragon magazine alchemists; Smaller XP per level needed, but only a few "powers" per level and some levels none at all. Slightly better hp and attacks set this off from other "magic-user" based alchemists. I do wish this one had more to it than this, but it is a playable class. If I were to use this one I might try it as a multi-classed Magic-User/Alchemist. Get the advantages of the magic-user spells and the better hp/attacks of the alchemist. Designed for OSRIC.

This is a smaller product, but it is totally in line with the Basic-era games. What makes this particular product useful is its flexibility. Produced for Labyrinth Lord it is a solid B/X feeling class. The cover art even invokes the Erol Otus alchemist art from the D&D Expert book. The alchemist can build potions, elixirs, and compounds and use them as magic-user spells. Some examples are given and it has a great old-school feel. In particular, I love the alchemical failure table!

At six pages it is not big, but it makes each page count. I do wish there more examples of spells though.

This is certainly one of the more complete alchemist classes I have seen. At 81 pages it is full of information on all of the class details, equipment, ingredients and everything the alchemist can create by level. Designed for AD&D it can be ported over to any game. It is based on the Bard Games version of the alchemist. There is only a small amount of art in this one and no OGL statements. Despite that this is a very full book and plenty to keep players and GMs busy.

Full review with other Palace of the Vampire Queen related material here: http://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2020/01/classic-adventures-revisited-palace-of.html

This product is a pretty bare-bones affair, and that is exactly why you want to get it. You get 7 pages of "Blue" maps and 7 pages of black and white maps covering over 210 rooms. The rooms are labeled but that is all the description you get. There are sheets for you to detail the rooms with monsters, occupants, and treasure. This is perfect if you want to create a mega-palace for our mysterious Vampire Queen and stock it full of her undead minions. At just under $2.00 it is a steal.

Full review with other Palace of the Vampire Queen related material here: http://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2020/01/classic-adventures-revisited-palace-of.html

In the beginning, there was a belief that all DMs would naturally create all their own adventures and there was no market for pre-written ones. The only printed adventure out at this time was "Temple of the Frog" in Blackmoor. Seeing a need, the Palace of the Vampire Queen was written by Pete and Judy Kerestan. Yes, the very first adventure was co-written by a woman. The first edition was self-published, followed by a second and third edition by Wee Warriors (1976 and 1977) and distributed exclusively by TSR.

The "Dungeon Master's Kit" (module was not being used yet) presented a simple adventure with a singular goal; defeat the Vampire Queen. The plot, such as it is, is very thin even by the standards of what would later be the norm. The maps are fantastic, but the descriptions are little more than that; what's in the room in terms of monster and treasure. We get a background, the missing princess of the Dwarf King Arman of Baylor. Vampire Queen herself remains nameless.

The adventure itself is fairly straight forward. Go to the Palace, defeat the monsters and the Vampire Queen and save the Dwarven Princess.

Despite, or maybe because of, this limited background this adventure can be used anywhere with nearly every version of the game. I became aware of this adventure many years ago and it immediately went on to my "must find" list. Around 10 years ago I was able to get a copy and I ran it for a group using Moldvay Basic/ Cook Expert (BX) D&D. It was a lot of fun. There was no indication on how many characters were needed or what levels.

The adventure reminds me a bit of the Dungeon! board game. You walk the halls, kick in the door, kill the monster, take the treasure, repeat. Of course, this adventure is the first of such adventures so it gets a huge pass on this. There is a lot though here to keep any DM and party busy.

Since 1976 the adventure has had a few reprints. The first ones were by Wee Warriors. These prints regularly go for over $1,000.00 on eBay. There were two such covers, the "black" cover with a castle in the background and the "queen" cover, featuring the vampire queen herself.

Now today, Precis Intermedia has a new cleaned up reprint of the adventure.

This version of the adventure also preserves much of what made the original a classic. The PDF of this book has a "special feature" to show a reprint of the original NSFW art. The print copy is all paper, with the cover made out of heavier weight paper (like résumé paper). At 24 pages it might be the most faithful reproduction yet. While the cover is new art, the interior looks like the classic. No additions have been made to the text. The maps are cleaned up, darker ink and clearer to read.

At under $5 this is a great price for a piece of RPG history.

Full review with other Palace of the Vampire Queen related material here: http://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2020/01/classic-adventures-revisited-palace-of.html

Crypts of the Living was written as an explicit sequel to the Palace of the Vampire Queen and makes more overt references to the first adventure. The booklet, 16 pages worth, says it is designed for 5th Edition, but all the stats are for OSRIC/1st Edition. No worries. Converting is easy. There are references to both the Palace of the Vampire Queen and Castle Blood. The other adventures are not 100% required to play this one, but it does help. The adventure is a fairly straight forward exploration affair. There are new monsters and new magic items so that is a nice bonus. Can be played in an afternoon or combined with the others for a longer campaign. A fun adventure that is easily adapted to a wide variety of games.