Wizards have always have been a problem,but there are some that are completely bat crap insane who cause problems. This adventure is about one of those wizards, Tranzar is the type who demands the attention of adventurers. With wonderful artwork by Joe Johnson and maps by the magical pen of Dyson Logos this is an adventure that pits your party against a wizard whose made a pact with a demonic tree. I kid you not and it only get's worse from there. If you like Hellboy and the Evil Dead films then this adventure is going to be right up your alley. This adventure clocks in at forty four pages of delicious old school fun and a devilish romp through the imagination of Mr.Johnston. The dungeon here is a living, breathing, horror filled pit of OSR adventure that drips with atmosphere and weirdness while accessing some of the deeper viberational weirdness of stuff that many other adventures miss. Here the 80's vibe is online but not not in a way that echoes some long lost nostalgia but in a very solid and fun way that makes your PC's think or die. This is a straight up Labyrinth Lord Compatible game adventure with nice maps and a well drawn set of maps and features that ties the whole product together in such a way as to make it easily accessible for the DM. Everything from random plant life hazards to weird dungeon dressing is clearly laid out. Here's where the whole thing shines like a diamond, the cave complex of Tranzar is fantastic adventure location and there are clearly defined reasons for the party of adventurers to be together in point of fact four of them. The adventure reminds me at once of some of the best part's of 80's fantasy films without the stupid bits, the adventure has a nice assortment of random tables in certain areas. And this is an adventure that makes the PC's think or die horrid deaths of doom. Right off the bat, I love the graphic presentation of the elements of the adventure the visual tone of the product is kept throughout and its a very well done bit on the author and designer's part. The NPC's throughout the product are very well done and have motives of their own. The set up is different without being too alien and going far afield from the rest of the adventure. The traps in this adventure are different, dangerous, and at times lethal if played with wrong. On a whole the dungeon elements and NPC's should never be underestimated at all by either the DM or the party of adventurers. Tranzar's Redoubt has lots of interesting trappings scattered throughout that make it a really nice addition for a sword and sorcery style of game. I can see adapting this adventure to any number of retroclone style clones. The amount of spit and polish that went into this adventure shows. But is it worth the purchase price? At two dollars the answer is a simple yes, the module accesses many of the tropes of the 80's but does so in such a way as not to be stupid, tiresome, or dumb. This is a smart, cagey, and at times whimsical adventure that can be easily played in one sitting or with a bit of baiting can be stretched over a couple of sessions. In point of fact I can see using some of the elements in this one in other adventurers. I wonder if this will be last we see of Tranzar? Well only time will tell but if your adventurers are lucky then he will meet his end completely. Parts of this adventure reminded me of Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness. Technically this adventure could be used as a cross adventure with Mutant Future's Mazes and Mutants campaign option. With a bit of adapting the adventure location could be used as the focus for a rather twisted and strange campaign side option for Mutant Future. A few things to pay attention to first off is the level of the PC's, this adventure while designed for levels four to six could easily challenge higher level PC's because of the clever bits and encounters. If the party plays this one wrong there are a few TPK points in this adventure. The encounters have not only a back story to them but a mini history at times that reminds me of early TSR modules mixed with a midnight Saturday evening movie. Joe Robertson and co. did a bang up job with this adventure marking well the old school influences while fusing their own energy throughout the product. The ideas in this module are fresh but a word on treasure and relics in this one, your going to have to scale this adventure to the party and retroclone system of your choice. This adventure would also make a fine addition to the Lamentations of the Flame Princess line, the weird pulpy elements are solidly well done and the value for this module is clear. This adventure set's a pretty high bench mark for those DM's looking for something new, different, well done, with lots of play value. Taskboy Games continues its solid performance and edge in retroclone adventures. A definite four out of five for this great old school beast of an adventure! Very well done and a great value for the money! Eric F Sword and Stitchery blog

Crimson Dragon Slayer is a D6 based retroclone fantasy rpg that emulates certain bad sword & sorcery movie ideals, throws together weird Saturday morning late 70's and 80's cartoon aesthetics, brings together elements of 80's horror movies, video games, and products of your imagination thrown into a Cuisinart set on Satanic Panic! The breakdown is based loosely on the world most popular fantasy role playing game sort of. Imagine that an event happened and suddenly the modern world of 1986 or '87 was thrust into a space time vortex and all of the elements of high fantasy and sword and sorcery became reality. This is sort of the backdrop of Crimson Dragon Slay. Basically this game takes all of those totally awesome elements and pours them out into a fully functioning retroclone. Add in your favorite heavy metal hair band record cover for adventure ideas and gather your friends, quickly roll up some PC's and your off and running. Yes its made to that simple and that off the cuff dead easy to use. This game emulates everything weird, woolly, and wild in middle school style cafeteria campaigns. You know the type? The one we don't talk about because old school D&D has somehow become an art. Well forget that noise, this retroclone takes all of those terrible games made and plotted out from 80's music videos and high weirdness into a usable game. A very good usable game actually. This weird retroclone action clocks in at forty pages of awesome weirdness that hits lots of nostalgia and never existed buttons of imagination. I found myself reading this game going boy do I want to run this. According to Venger: Re-watching bad/cheesy 80's fantasy films like The Dungeon Master, Deathstalker, and Tron fueled the narrative. After all, thousands of RPGs hand you a bunch of rules and drop you in a vague setting conforming to the genre or, conversely, slathered in meta-plot. I just wanted an interesting framework and then back off to let the Dragon Master and players take it from there.Lastly, I wanted to showcase my sense of humor. Why not make it kind of funny... an occasionally silly self-parody of what we consider old school fantasy role playing? Since I've been a party to the creation of this game by the G+ Crimson Dragon Slayer group. I've seen Venger go through multiple versions, rewrites, and drafts of this the finished product. A good many of the revisions were to get the project to this point. But does it succeed in its mission? Well I believe that it does. The game works on multiple levels at the same time. While using many of the tropes of horror, sword and sorcery with added in comedy. This is a game that balances itself with a sense of high stepping weirdness. Read it and you'll find yourself going through movies to throw into your games. There's a good sense of the absurd about the game. I found myself gravitating to the HP Lovecraft horror love letter movie From The Beyond from 1986. Between the weirdness of Crimson Dragon Slayer and slime drenched ethos of the film. I found myself outlining a campaign in the world of Crimson Dragon Slayer. This isn't a game if your looking for a serious retroclone. This is a great pick up game that allows a party to dive into the deep semi consciousness weirdness of a campaign someplace between 70's trash newpapers, wrapped in trashtastic VHS's horror view point and jacked off to a bad paperback fantasy novel. In this way Crimson Dragon Slay succeeds quite nicely. This is game with all of the numbers in the right place. Now I can hear the cries and nashing of teeth over the price because this sucker clocks in at only forty pages. Now this book has wall to wall artwork most of it quite good at evoking the tongue and cheek sword and sword adventure goodness the game does well. This is of course a Venger Satanis game so there's plenty of T&A here and there. Not that I'm complaining at all because if you take stroll through the isles of any video rental stores back in the day it was wall to wall fighters in loin cloths and damsels in various states of distress. Shrugs. This is a game that can emulate Zor The Hunter From The Future or have your party facing down the slavers from dimension Z with little effort. Add in some public domain zombies and your good to go for a complete evening's entertainment. The system is tight, the PC design is loose and able to accomidate a player's high or low fantasy concepts with no problems. There's very little reason why this game be retrofitted in through the backdoor of your other favorite retroclone to add in even more action. In closing Crimson Dragon Slayer adds more then a few new tricks to the D&D style adventure game by added in both humor, high weirdness, and old school sword & sorcery in equal measure. Grab this one, some friends, and throw on some great times at the old school table with a throwback campaign of adventure and grand weirdness in the old school tradition.

I've been making my way through How to Game Master Like A F$%#ing Boss for the better part of a week. The book is part DM's Guide, part rpg self help course, part re-division OSR campaign kit, and all about notching up your game. Venger was very excited to get this slime covered child of old school/new school weirdness into my hands via email. And I have to say that its very well done. The sucker clocks in at over 124 pages filled with practical advice, lots of practical hands on material and a bunch of very non politically correct adult only artwork. This book isn't filled back to back with the gore of some of his earlier efforts but there is a lot of not safe for work material. And that's fine with me. The book is a step by step course from everything of working through accepting your role as DM, to preparing the adventure, design, anthology of examples of methods of campaign implantation to execution. Not surprisingly this is a pretty solid hands on step by step process broken down by Mr.Satanis in his rolling enthusiastic style. Yes there is an actual appreciation for old school gaming here and that energy translates into some hand holding but in actual fact a ton of practical advice. But is it good advice? Yes I actually do think that there's some real world advice here that goes about trying to speak to both the new DM and the beginner from the ground up. And that exactly what this book does takes the DM from start to finish to improve their skills. But is it good advice? Yeah, I actually think that it is and this book provides the DM with all of the essential's over viewed including all of the usual tropes and traditions associated with science fiction, swords and sorcery, science fantasy, and fantasy for no particular edition. Venger gives these tropes a structure and how they fit into adventures including how to use them during adventure design. This is a slice across the jugular of the DM's throat for adventure design & placement of adventure elements. Again this is done in such a way to actually be useful to a DM. The advice is done in down to earth and no nonsense kinda way which characterizes the entire book. There isn't so much a lot of hand holding as 'here's what needs to be done' to improve your games and here's what worked for me. The next chapter is a random cinematic DM's kit. Here we get page after page of random tables that give's a meat and potatoes cinematic approach to random adventure generation for adventure elements, NPC's and their motivations, plus minions, and more. And then we get random tables and I do mean useful random tables for adventure design everything from NPC motivations to character questions and much more. Secondary NPC motives on the fly and weirdness tables to add into your campaigns. And this book isn't simply a DM self help book its more like game neutral system push for your campaigns as well. There are cult generation tables, NPC cult leader generation tables, whose going to be sacrificed, why are they going to be sacrificed. There's a whole 80's horror, VHS special aesthetics that runs through here. And it extends into a mother of a monster generator set of tables including appearance and weirdness. And a magic item mutation table as well. Cosmic horror generation tables and much more. Then the ubiquitous stupid gnome hat table and yes its pretty damn sweet as a table. Its the little things that I love. Unique NPC random encounter and generation tables as well. Faction and reaction tables and more. Ten ways to alter your purple consciousness table and more! And lots more. There's enough random table's material to generate at least twenty or more campaigns on the fly. Next we get a magical language that you can drop right into your campaigns for added effects and high strangeness. Viridian or the green tongue is a completely imaginary language that can be dropped right into your campaigns when you need a weird language with strange bits lurking in the background. And then we get a bit more material and an afterward. But is this book an essential book that I would reach for when designing an adventure or campaign? Yes I believe it is. There's a foundation and course work that has gone into the first half of the rpg advice section of the book and then a ton of useful campaign and adventure bits that have gone into the second half of the book. This makes the whole product a win/win in my book. Simply grab the book and add it right next to your DM's Guide to help get your campaign back into gear! Four out of five for this book.

Note that this is an adult title with a bit of adult and mature content between the covers and this is something that readers should realize before getting into the book.

So your a DM looking for a science fiction or science fantasy retroclone system. Are you looking for one that will work with OD&D and Swords & Wizardry? A game that can handle all of the nuts and bolts of cinematic science fiction and allow you to fit your Swords and Wizardry game characters in through the back door easily? You have been recruited for White Star! Alright I know what your thinking, oh great another science fiction clone rpg system when your looking at White Star. What does this rpg system do that X plorers, Stars Without Numbers, and Hulks and Horrors do? Well right off the top White Star is cross compatible with the Swords and Wizardry retroclone system but so what there are more then a few add on systems for that. Well White Star is pure flat out space opera and emulates films such as Star Wars, the recent Guardians of The Galaxy Marvel movie. I own X plorers and its a great game, it is a fast, very concise set of rules that takes PC's into the great beyond ala a Saturday matinee. Stars Without Number is complex space opera with a solid science fiction background that has lots of nifty add ons, bells, and whistles to it. Hulks and Horrors is a combination of partial bug hunt, space opera, and a more lost universe style of play with humanity's former empires cut off from the main hub. I'm rather fond of all of these games and that's where White Star comes in. This is a space opera retroclone system that emulates none of the above and is actually a sliced up and concise set of science fictional space opera tools in a nifty little tool box. Right out of the gate its got a ton of stuff going for it. Some nice artwork, good solid PC options with aristocrat, mercenary, pilot, and star knight as your options on the table but a DM could easily add in their favorite Swords and Wizardry classes as well. There are also racial options to add in to your parties as well as the normal human. You've got Alien Brute, Alien Mystic, & Robot on the table as well to add even more to the party. Anyone familiar with Sword and Wizardry isn't going to be out of their depth at all here. The character generation is straight forward and concise which is nice. The equipment section is inclusive and includes a wide variety of galaxy and interstellar pieces of hardware. Many of these are going to be solidly familiar to any science fiction fan or Star Wars aficionado but this is a solid selection of stuff here. The playing the game section is short sweet and to the point giving PC's a solid grounding in a science fiction version of the grand game. This is done very well and with little fuss. There's a bit here and there about hirelings and the assistants. The personal combat section is where some of the variations of space opera madness come into play with Space Knight meditations and gifts complicating the usual D&D style of combat. This isn't a bad thing just a bit well different. I say that as a science fiction fan because if you've seen any of the Star Wars or old school science fiction many of these powers and abilities will be familiar. Its interesting to see them added into a D&D style game. The section on the meditations and gifts of the space knights are pretty interesting and solidly done in a pulptastic style. Star Ship combat in the far reaches of space is solidly done, effective, and very space opera style. There's more then a few options in this section, its far cinematic then realistic in its execution. Its very well done and its a good section of space based combat. Aliens and Creatures gives the DM a good solid range of options and that's all that really needed to get your own style of monsters, horrors, and what not to bedevil your party. Advanced equipment brings cybernetics, more armor, and a host of add ons to customize your PC's. Sort of like how cybernetics was lurking in the background of Star Wars and some other 70's and 80's science fiction space operas. Not to mention some of the 60's. But then we get not one campaign setting but three options on the table for your old school space operas. We get the White Star campaign setting outlined with a solidly done history, background, and how to incorporate the rpg system into your Swords and Wizardry Whitebox campaign. Then we get a whole sector to play in as well with the Kelron sector and lots of pretty worlds for the PC's to go play in. Then we jump right into the introductory adventure The Second Battle of Brinn. Here's where the game really shines and its a great adventure that pits six to eight PC's with their wits, their courage, and their assets into the deep end of the setting. You go exploring into the bowels of an asteroid base and get your necks up in adventure. This isn't a waist high pack of trouble but one where the party better actually have a Space Knight or two on hand to help handle some of the issues in this adventure if things break down your also going to want a fighter or pilot on hand with a steady blaster to help sort out trouble this isn't all hack and slash either. This game also includes some damn fine rules on diplomacy and they are in the rule book for a reason. The adventure really sets out the tone of what the authors and designers were going for. Yes it is an emulation of 80's and 90's science fiction films, literature, and more. Is the White Star worth the hype and volume that its been receiving? Yes I believe its a really welcome set of tools for the science fiction DM. And I do think that its worth grabbing a copy to play an extended campaign of ? Yes because it adds a whole damn exciting extended range of science fiction options for the Swords and Wizardry DM or any OD&D style rpg system. Now there is one thing missing in my humble opinion while there is a starting adventure, lots of worlds, etc.,etc. there aren't any encounter tables the game include encounter tables (space, wilderness, urban, asteroid belts, etc.) And here's where the game loses points in my humble opinion. This is a point that many science fiction games miss. An inclusive set of encounter tables helps a DM determine placement of adventure elements in a game. Another thing I came across was this on OSR today, "The new game is completely compatible with other versions of S&W Whitebox and other Swords & Wizardry [AL] games and products, and even comes with its own compatibility logo that third party publishers can use to create and share their own products with." Lately I've been very carefully reading through various retroclone's OGL and White Star has something very interesting going on under its OGL. Everything in the game is OGL except the author's classes, sector, setting, and campaign details. This one thing caused me to look at the game and make a very solid decision. Gut the setting out and create my own. This is where the DYI aspect of the game shines though. Without the restrictions of the setting the DM is truly able to work up their own material in a very well thought out and put together pulptastic system. My advice is to take your existing campaign write out the elements that you want to turn into a cinematic science fiction adventure and use White Star to go for it. The game does lots of things very well. I do think that Barrel Rider games adds a lot to the table with this game. The price point is a bit steep but there are frequent sales through rpg and Drivethru. Personally I'd wait and grab the print copy when it hits lulu or Drivethru's print option. All in all I was pretty happy to look into the background of White Star. A nice and neat little piece of science fictional and science fantasy cinematic retroclone action.

There are times when a party of adventurers needs a simple and excellently done crawl, this is one of those crawls for OD&D, Labyrinth Lord and the rest of the swords and sorcery clones. Yes Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea I'm looking straight at you. This is the straight up sixteen pages of awesomeness that can be used to run a pay what you want adventure in every sense of the old school. This is a solidly sixteen pages of packed wall to wall crawl that does exactly what's advertised on the tin with gusto and vinegar. Here the adventure is built along the lines of solid and well though out adventure with weird monsters, strange bits & pieces, and all of the old school style of dungeon crawling that one expects from an outfit like 3 toad stools publishing. The background of the adventure is weird enough. The Tomb Of Gardag Background A long time ago lived an evil and very eccentric warlord named Gardag. Over the years he built up a cult following, many flocked to him and worshiped. He sent out his cultists to pillage and burn the surrounding lands. Eventually he amassed a huge stock pile of treasure. His demise came when a cultist named Zalish Hargih finally saw the evil that was being inflicted on the land and vowed to put a stop to it. Late in the evening when Gardag was resting peacefully after a large meal, Zalish snuck into his bedroom and murdered the cult leader with a poison tipped dagger. Shortly thereafter the remaining cultists took their own lives, proclaiming they would rather be with their leader, than face the awfulness of the world without him. A tomb was erected in the underworld for Gardag by the last of his stalwart followers. They eventually hung themselves within. It is said that the skulls of the cultists line the tombs, stacked neatly. The great great grand daughter of Zalish Hargih, Hamona Hargih seeks to find the lost poisoned dagger that ended Gardag’s reign of terror. She believes that Zalish’s remains may also be imprisoned within the tomb, and would like them retrieved for a proper burial.

There are few twist and turns to challenge adventurers and give a solid background of dungeon crawling to your favorite game. This crawl could easily be set right into the background of your favorite sword and sorcery adventure. Here I'm thinking of this adventure as a part of the blood soaked and Green Plague stained history of Hyperborea with gusto. The maps echo the old school ethos and the weirdness that rumbles through this crawl like a cheap ticket to a Saturday 80's matinee. All in all this is the type of crawl that has a ton of little bits and pieces that make it easily adaptable to your favorite old school retro clone system. Given the way that module even includes a few add ons this is an adventure to throw at your favorite crew of old school PC's and one that has some very weird variation on some very familiar tropes. There are even a few pre generated PC's that can easily be thrown into the back drop to run this for your friends who want to try Tomb of Gardag without the full hassle of a whole campaign. This adventure makes a nice weekend convention style run through and I can honestly say that this is a nice and solid download for the weekend or Saturday evening game. So grab some brews, some friends, and travel back in time like its '83. Eric F. The Sword and Stitchery Blog

I'm always looking into some variety of the traditional spell casters in OD&D or AD&D, the warlock is a new addition that needs some air play and needs to get some time at your table especially if your looking for an alternative to the tradition wizard or sorcerer of the campaigns. I've been looking over various OSR resources over the past forty eight hours and one of the resources that's been in my favorites que has been this little PC class by Jeremy Reaban. The Old School Warlock is statted out for all of your old school favorite edition rpg systems from OD&D style games to AD&D 1st edition. Basically the Warlock is a person born infused with so much magickal energies that it is literally a part of them. The whole class made me think of 1980's magickal using characters such as Zartanna and the Squadron Supreme Arcanna. This class includes a bit of everything from spell casting abilities to a hint of telekinesis as well. Everything is pretty nicely balanced for a spell slinger with with some power behind their abilities. The balance is grounded towards the occult power of the character and in theory this class looks like a nice magical asset and alternative to the conventional wizard or sorcerer of the adventuring party. The writing is clear, the PC generation crisp and the play looks like from reading over the class pretty nicely done. This is a pay what you'd like but I actually like the cover so throw the man a few shekels to get more art for his next project. Do I see being able to incorporate these PC's into a game? Yes I actually can see using these natural born spell casters into a game as a nice secondary or alternative class where the magical energies are leaking into the world. I can even see these giving the warlock a try in Lovecraftian sword and sorcery campaign where the dimension gates have caused leaks into reality causing all kinds of weird mutations. This could lead to the origin of such a class as the warlock. Alternatively there could be a ton of uses for this class in the post apocalyptic wasteland such as a Mutants And Mazes campaign for Mutant Future where Labyrinth Lord's fantasy elements are used in tandem with the wasteland aspects. This class could in point of fact be used to compensate the lack of sorcerers in a game of Thundarr The Barbarian. This class could easily be added to Tim Snider's massively wonderful free Thundarr The Barbarian download over HERE The warlock fills a great need for such a class right into the back end of this campaign quite seamlessly. But that's not all here with the warlock because of the very nature of the class it can easily be added into a pulp game such as Trey's Weird Adventures gambit as another option for PC's. Or it could be used as yet another alternative for a pulp game of low powered super heroes. This class could be added right into OD&D or Swords and Wizardry with little problem. The warlock is just that flexible to add itself to just about anyplace where the infusion of magick is in the mix. The balance is such that this class could be added into the background of your favorite old school campaigns and no one might be the wiser. The author has done a good job tailoring the bits and pieces to work on a variety of levels and backgrounds. Is it worth the download? Well its sitting on my hard drive and waiting for use with a good number of one shots and adventures that I've got waiting in the wings.

Eric F The Swords and Stitchery Blog

Tim Shorts produces and writes some damn awesome stuff, a combination of OD&D weirdness and solid adventure writing. Here we've got The Flayed King adventure done for Swords and Wizardry Appreciation day and in twelve pages he gives birth to a dark and twisted adventure of weird as well as horrid proportions. The man knows how to write a sold adventure to challenge and bring your PC's into the bowels of a heck of a ride. The set up time for 'The Flayed King' is less time then the intro to a classic 90's horror film and this sucker is tightly done with one adventure location as well as solid background steeped deep in the old school tradition as well as the blood of other adventurers who have come before your PC's. The adventure plays with several classic motifs of old school gaming from the adventure location to the treasure within the location all the while playing with the king in the barrow legends of old. The adventure dances around the pulp weird fantasy of yesteryear hearkening back to HP Lovecraft, Robert Howard, and several other classic writers whist putting your characters center stage for the slaughter. So do I think that this one is worth the download? Yes in point of fact if you haven't already then by all means stop reading this one and go grab it. Now. Tim Shorts produces and writes some damn awesome stuff, a combination of OD&D weirdness and solid adventure writing. Here we've got The Flayed King adventure done for Swords and Wizardry Appreciation day and in twelve pages he gives birth to a dark and twisted adventure of weird as well as horrid proportions. The man knows how to write a sold adventure to challenge and bring your PC's into the bowels of a heck of a ride. The set up time for 'The Flayed King' is less time then the intro to a classic 90's horror film and this sucker is tightly done with one adventure location as well as solid background steeped deep in the old school tradition as well as the blood of other adventurers who have come before your PC's. The adventure plays with several classic motifs of old school gaming from the adventure location to the treasure within the location all the while playing with the king in the barrow legends of old. The adventure dances around the pulp weird fantasy of yesteryear hearkening back to HP Lovecraft, Robert Howard, and several other classic writers whist putting your characters center stage for the slaughter. So do I think that this one is worth the download? Yes in point of fact if you haven't already then by all means stop reading this one and go grab it. Now.

I really don't give enough love to Mutant Epoch, they've come up with another nasty to throw out into the wastelands. This time we've got a product of genetic tempering give form and function as a carnivore of incredibly dangerous aspect. These are monsters for an experienced party of adventurers easily taking on a party of four or five quite easily. The lethal aspects of these horrors is easy to explain, this is an apex predator plain and simple. The mix of weirdness here is a horror that moves across the landscape as one would expect, deadly and with one purpose to kill adventurers or anyone else who get's in the monster's way. And they seem to be very,very, good at doing exactly that taking down prey and ripping the face off of anyone who gets in their way. The mutant menace from the bowels of the imagination of Outland Arts is grotesque, dangerous, and completely something original as any PC's running into this horror from the vats are going to have a hell of a hard time dealing with its wicked claws, horrid bite, and much more. This pdf clocks in at eleven pages and there are even more options on the table for the Mutant Epoch rpg. This product isn't any different with a wide variety of options are laid out before the DM. This is one thing that you get with this beast a wide variety of killer options. This including a d20 random mutation list and a d100 treasure table for discoveries at one of the beast’s feeding sites. Believe me, they have the beast's entire ecology, feeding habits,etc. all laid out in gloriously nasty details and it really adds to the product. This isn't a beast that your PC's are going to want to run into at all. This one should be used with extreme caution and don't think that the Tyrannosapien is any way, shape, or form a push over. This sucker is mean, dangerous, and nasty able to give many of the usual monsters of the waste a run for their money. Is this horror well done? Yes and I do think that its worth your time and energy for a download now that being said I also think that Mutant Epoch or any old school wasteland DM should think very,very, carefully about using this horror and how it should be dealt with. The Tyrannosapien or Heaven forbid a pack of these mad bastards is capable of easily TPKing your group of wasteland warriors quite easily. This horror should be used with extreme caution or not. The monster evokes certain feelings of a combination of Pre code comics with the horror movie feel of the 80's put into a blender and set at Tyrannosapien then unleashed into the post apocalyptic wastelands. Grab this one and unleash it on your experienced PC's. This horror can do some damage add in the random mutations and you've got a complete night's adventure in one horrid package.

Every party needs a home place of safety and comfort, a rich city state to call their own home where they may have to watch their step. Tarantis has been my go to corner of the Wilderlands. This was a product where not every square inch of the map has been coloured in and there's still a chance for fortune in glory for adventurers if their willing to watch their step and take some risks in the blood soaked streets of Bledsawian adventure! Tarantis from Judge's Guild stirs up so many memories from the depths of my mind. I came upon this gem way back in the mists of time around 1990 something in a small side corner book shop in Boston. It was laying in the bottom of a box of comic books from the 1980's and there were some newspapers inside. Tarantis was not well received when it came out by Dragon or many of the folks who were used to the regular output of Judge's Guild products. That being said I loved it. And I've been searching for a copy of it ever since I cracked open the spine of the product. See Tarantis different from most of the JG Wilderlands campaigns. This place be came my piece of the Wilderlands in Boston where I ran it back to back for years. There are a few reasons why Tarantis is a perfect campaign city for adventurers. Its located on the Eastern subcontinent in the Wilderlands; Tarantis is a port city and home to a people reminiscent of the Turks,with bits of Pakistan, and India thrown into the background. Like many of the Wilderland governments Tarantis has a Lawful Evil or Neutral evil back beat for its political structure. The place has to with its location as a marine and trade status as a port city. The place has a strange Mongol feel about it and its a perfect sword and sorcery location because of its lack of the high fantasy feel of the other City State products. One of my all time favorite pieces of setting flavor is d100 rumor table that evokes the rest of the setting. The maps are very well done as always but there's also a sense that this was a product that was looking for a much more DYI flavor then some of the other Judge's Guild products. Sure there are plenty of details about the military forces, the army, the history, etc. and all of the details but this is a city state with blank spots that you as the DM could fill in and make this a customized setting right out of the gate and that's exactly what I did. If your looking for a good solid sword and sorcery or low fantasy setting then Tarantis might be a good fit for you. This was one of the latter pieces of Judge's Guild material and its after JG lost the AD&D licences. This means that its built along a far more generic feel then other products in the line but this also means that it has a far more system neutral appeal. Many have thought it inferior to other products that came out earlier. Maybe its partially nostalgia or perhaps its that I spent many a weekend mapping out encounter after encounter in this sword and sorcery city but I'm very fond of the Tarantis. To make up for the lack of fantasy elements I combined it with the Bloody,bloody, Arduin and given its feel it made a very nice adventurer friendly location for my home campaigns. The PC's had many a deadly time dealing with the locations that were detailed in this product. They also cover the shops and courts of Tarantis, The Tarantine Palace, Bard or Fighter Citadel, Ho Chi's Castle, The Azurerain Pirates and their stronghold. This scanned 1983 product includes the large Tarantis Area map, but does not contain the maps for Judges or Players. There is a strong sense of location, history, and strength of adventure just waiting around the corner that Tarantis has always been one of my orderly and incredible home bases for my PC's while pirates and the scum of the Wilderland's seas were just around the corner waiting with blood soaked cutlasses for my PC's to screw up and they'd have their heads on a lance or worse as part of a slave auction just down the coast somewhere. Personally I've always felt that Tarantis doesn't get its due at all. And it just might be worth your attention. A place where adventure is just around the corner. I ran Tarantis as if it was someplace that had jumped out of the imagination of HP Lovecraft and had tumbled out of the Arabian Knights via Ray Harryhausen's Sinbad pictures. This was a city that would have been visited by Sinbad and crew. A place where Conan and his crew of blood thirsty pirates would have fit right at home. And here Elves were an exotic sight sure to stir bewildered glances from the city guard and more then a bit of concern from the rest of the citizens. This was the city state where pillage and plunder from a thousand adventures was unloaded and traded for. Every stripe of race and humanity came through the ports of Tarantis in my campaigns and this was my Tarantis. Very few folks had heard of it but every DM seemed to know the Wilderlands. This was also my perfect excuse to expose PC's too all kinds of exotic and interesting peoples from across history and given analogues in the Wilderlands. History is full of various peoples and races from across the world that never get used. With the spicing of various peoples throughout history Tarantis was the perfect Lawful evil ruled melting pot. All in all Tarantis remains one of my favorite go to places for exotic adventure in the Wilderlands and one of the most unsung places of intrigue and adventure to put into action. If you haven't got it then wait till it goes on sale and grab it. I'm still looking into getting a physical copy of one of my favorite under appreciated sets from Judge's Guild.

Taverns are great places to begin adventures but their also places that can get PC's into big trouble D-oom products has a new product called 'Mead and Mayhem' that adds in another layer of random rabble rousing to bring even more problems into your local watering hole of your adventurers and outlaws. Taverns and bars have always been a staple of old school gaming one of the exciting things about the OSR is the number of optional products that fill a niche in the scene or more importantly at the table of old school gaming and here's where D-oom Products comes in with a great old school optional system for tavern brawls. Taverns and bars have always been a staple of old school gaming one of the exciting things about the OSR is the number of optional products that fill a niche in the scene or more importantly at the table of old school gaming and here's where D-oom Products comes in with a great old school optional system for tavern brawls. Bar room brawls and fights are never fun in real life and usually involve the cops and lots of drama. Take it from someone whose been in one or two. But damn they're great in the back drop of old school games and who hasn't used one in a science fiction or fantasy game as well. This product can easily be inserted right into the background of those styles of games as well. As long as they use an OD&D style base as the system your in like Flint. But let's face facts you may look at this product and say I want to use this for XYZ old school system. Well that shouldn't be that much of an issue here because with a bit of damage adjustment to your favorite systems this should simply be a question of drag and drop right into the background of your favorite old school system. But is this a worthy system for your attentions? Well, let's face it, working with tavern or bar room brawls can be a pain in the arse for the DM and having another optional system to move the process of the cinematic fights along is in my opinion quite welcome. Does this do some interesting and original things as well? Yes and no, yes there are quite a few interesting twists on old tried and true tropes but does it do those things well? Yes it does. But no its not a pain to run through a game. In point of fact this system can even be easily adapted to even a post apocalyptic setting or a space opera as easily as a 1920's speak easy in the middle of mobster infested crime city U.S.A. So all in all this is a good low cost but high quality optional system to add into your OD&D or D&D retroclone systems. In the coming weeks I'll be using this system and let you know how it goes.

So recently I received a copy of Black Box Book's latest offering Tome Four Doglocks and Draughts, I was thinking not another black powder rules set for OD&D. Well fortunately its far more then simply that. Doglocks and Draughts is a set of black powder rules of OD&D and Swords and Wizardry retroclone style systems but its more. What this is an expansion of several already readily available black powder rpg systems. This takes the material up to another level by expanding upon the black powder weaponry and then adding in the bonus of weird mundane medicine with some very interesting and potentially weird side effects. The whole bit of OSR weirdness clocks in at about nine pages and remains perfect adaptable to any number of old school style rpg systems. Much of the material reminds me again of stuff that would be available as optional systems to add to OD&D. The material here is concise and easily dropped into any OD&D campaign or pulp style retro clone system. The author does a good job with a no nonsense approach to the material here that gives the DM all kinds of room to adapt and fold the book into their existing campaigns. Because of the way this is done there is little chance of this material upsetting the balance of existing campaigns. The material here can be used for existing fire arms as the next phase of gun powder weaponry or dropped right into a perfectly timed existing campaign setting. In point of fact this material could easily be adapted into a game of Labryth Lord or as a potential expansion of gun powder systems for a game such as the Lamentations of The Flame Princess rpg system. The potential here is to move the time line of the LoFP world to get the most out of Doglocks and Draughts while giving the PC's even more options at the table. But with a game such as LoFP this might make little difference because of the very nature of the 'survival horror' nature of some of the game's adventures. Do I think that this is another worthy down load? Yes I do because it does what its supposed to and without breaking up to much of the DM's time to read or to fit this pdf into their own existing head space and campaigns. Grab this one now and get working within the frame work of your own games and campaigns as well.

Since reading that the LoFP Reference Book ( The old Grindhouse Edition) was available for free download. I've been drowning in the blood soaked gore of the Lamentations of the Flame Princess rpg system goodness. Reading through the Lamentations Of The Flame Princess Reference book today has been a tricky and skin crawling experience. This book for me at least is part manifesto, part stereo instructions for an old school rpg game, and part advice column wrapped into a weird joint by its twisted author and shoved into my brain pan with rocket. And at the moment its free. So its generous author has opened up this book in all of its grind house goodness and pushed it across the table to you. But I can hear your spare thoughts rattling through the wires of the interwebz and trickling across my hooked in spine to the collective unconscious at my back brain. Surely this book can't live up to the hype that surrounds it. But that's where your wrong. For while we're waiting for the latest edition of this book let's dive into exactly what this is. While the LoFP Referee's book only clocks in at ninety eight pages, it presents its audience with a step by step set of guidelines for being a better Dungeon Master. And it does this with wit, style, and a sense of never talking down to its audience. James Edward Raggi IV takes you through all of the processes of LoFP from the introduction to a complete introduction adventure at the end. This book should be sitting right next to your copy of the LoFP rules and magic book. I've got a history with this book and its a tale worthy of almost walking away from rpg's all together. I had a fanzine writing project tank and that takes a certain amount of strain on a writer's confidence. Then here comes this book and its like having a friend show up and take you out for a beer. It sits you down and starts spinning out tales to you about well the ins and outs of running old school adventures. By the time I was hip deep into the 'What is a referee' chapter this line struck me -'Being a Referee is like being an artist, a manager,an accountant, and that crazy old guy that lives in the park that everyone avoids because he’s always talking to himself, all in one.Although hopefully you won’t be talking to yourself. At least not while anyone is listening'. So this book is pretty much wall to wall advice by a friend and fellow DM whose been there. He's been the guy trying to get his crap together to run in fifteen minutes and while he's not going to let you cry on his should he's going help you get your crap together and give you the guidelines for everything from how not to be a dick to getting it to work. The rules chapter is basically LoFP short hand and these are crib notes for the game as well as having the balls to present it right in front of you.
The Weird chapter is part primer on the splatter punk heart of LoFP and some guidelines on presenting the weird elements of not only LoFP but other horror and OSR games. This is a nice down to Earth chapter with some solid ideas in the background. Again with style and some actual common sense. The Adventure chapter is actually like a mini adventure construction set and gives a step by step set and kit of guidelines for DM's. This is all done in a down to Earth manner and with a no nonsense approach that makes this chapter easy to digest and with an internal sense that the author has been here time and again. There are are several pieces of solid game advice that can save you a ton of time and energy if you read them. As with all things these may vary for you. Everything from adventure set up to trap placement is covered here with all kinds of ideas put into the mix and then some. Also this chapter gives some insight into the ideas that perhaps published adventures should be bend, folded, and mutilated as the dungeon master sees fit. The campaign section not only gives the generalities that were outlined in the adventure chapter but expands upon them and then goes into the who, what, and where of the weird world of LoFP or should I say your take on it. An interesting thing about this chapter is the fact that gives some great insights into some of the choices that the author would go on to make with the LoFP line of products and the peudo historic world of the game. And some of the advice in here would be applied to adventure modules such as 'No Salvation For Witches'. Some of these pieces of advice can easily be used for your own worlds and campaigns which simply highlights the usefulness of this book from the stand point of any old school campaign. This brings the pdf right into the NPC section which has lots and lots highlights from the generation, use, abuse and exploitation as well as one very important highlight of opinion. The difference between NPC's and monsters. The use of the NPC as antagonist of the party is clearly outlined right in this chapter very clearly. This chapter dovetails right into the backdrop of the chapter on Monsters. Monsters here are given a whole lot of thought by Mr. Raggi and are clearly outlined with lots of care and take down in their use, placement, and general menentence as old school campaign adventure generator. There are reasons for their being a non standard LoFP Monster Manual. The advice in this chapter is something that I think that every horror rpg DM should read. Especially Raven Loft DM's and this chapter clearly touches on one of my all time pet peeves with that setting. Namely that the weird and monsters should be incredibly special and treated with kid gloves. More is and has always been less. One of my all time favorite chapters from this book is the Magic Item section, for not only does it have solid advice for the generating of these treasures, artifacts, and rare adventure motivators but it even includes a solid magical relic generators that can be used to randomly create thousands of horrific bits occult nastiness to get things moving in an adventure. Possibly one of the best chapters of the entire book and well worth the price of admission alone. The Other Topics chapter is a catch up,round up, and agony aunt chapter for DM's to get a handle on running, recruiting players, and have an over all flow of the LoFP rpg system. There are several bits of solid and well thought pieces of advice in this chapter. This chapter leads into one of my other favorite bits in the Referee book, the What Else Is Out There. This is a chapter that does a whole bunch of adding and using LoFP with other OSR retroclone systems. This chapter is filled with nifty little conversion notes on using and adding elements and playing pick & choose with these retroclone systems. The fact is that Mr.Raggi has made some solid decisions regarding his opinions on how his system, classes, and fiddly bits fit with the other retroclone systems on the market. Again this is actually some very useful stuff from an OSR perspective. All of the high notes of the OSR are hit from Goodman games to Goblinoid and everyone else in between. The final chapter is actually the LoFP basic adventure a Stranger Storm, which for a basic adventure puts the PC right into the deep end of the whole LoFP spectrum. The adventure does a fine job of taking the entire contents of the Referee book and put it into practice during play. Here is one adventure that lives up to the weirdness that is talked about throughout the book. No lie about this adventure because many of the later products to come out for LoFP princess share the pulpy and weird elements found in this adventure. This one follows the familiar LoFP patterns and there might be a PC death or two before this adventure is played out and investigated or is it survived with LoFP. The final pieces throughout the book are the handy reference charts and let me tell you that these things are damn close to being invaluable when your running the damn game. All of the basics are covered in these. In conclusion this book is one of the best pieces of download investment that you can make if your interested in old school horror or pulp gaming. This book itself could be thought of as an almost anti D20 manifesto because it really puts the OSR edge of LoFP right against the vein of adventure design and old school ideals that this rpg system does right in my opinion. This book has so many pieces of practical and down to Earth advice that it remains one of my all time favorites. Grab a copy and get back to playing a fun game at your table. Five out of five in my humble opinion. Eric F from the Sword and Stitchery and Dark Corner Blogs

I'm a fan of urban fantasy encounters that can be easily thrown into any number of campaigns or OSR style games, Six hundred and Fifty Fantasy City Encounters is a free old school rpg encounter table that does exactly what it says on the tin. This is a great old school sixty four page encounter table and plot seed random sack of awesomeness waiting to be dropped onto your PC's and its free. This is a product with a myriad of incredible uses in a game waiting to happen. These encounter can easily be strung together into a sort of mission impossible encounter table sort of generator. Did I mention that this is a free product? So you've had one of those weeks that hits you hard and you don't have time to really write out a brand new dungeon. Take this bad boy out and roll up a bunch of adventure encounters in under a half an hour of old school fun waiting for your PC's to blunder into. This generator can be used to generate encounters in neighborhoods, streets, etc. All of the action is placed right into the DM's hands and its a nice little adventure starter. This urban generator could also be used to generate a bunch of weird and unexpected post apocalyptic wasteland encounters as well. So this is a free product with a myriad of uses in retroclone or old school gaming. All in all I was pleasantly surprised with this little free download. Eric F Swords and Stitchery blog.

The Ruined Hamlet/Terror in the Gloaming is an excellent free adventure resource that features the art of William McAusland and author and designer Barrataria. The module is a solid low level crawl and features some other solid adventure resources that can be used with any number of other old school campaigns. The author and designers have done an excellent job of creating an adventure that can easily and quite seamlessly be incorporated into an old school campaign. The work is well done and the adventures can easily work with many of your favorite old school original D&D style games or with the retroclone of your choice. The basic plot of the adventure is straight out of the old school play book and works well along the usual and solid line of D&D style design and this is one of the modules strengths in my estimation. A module that offers all of the basic tips, tricks, and tools with just enough of a twist to have PC's in the middle of the adventure. The plot goes something like this The wilderness around the cave stronghold called Gold Hill Trading Post is dangerous and scattered with ruins of large and small settlements. Will your party find fame and fortune, solve ancient mysteries, or just disappear into the Borderlands like so many that came before? Everything here is well designed and built so that all of the adventure elements can easily be used for any number of old school adventures and this is one of the reasons why I love this module. This module contains underground and wilderness maps that form a detailed adventure and mini-campaign for beginning characters, including an abandoned village, haunted graveyard, ruined church, traders’ camp, wilderness encounters, and monster lairs. It also includes a ruined keep and dungeon as well as a mapped and detailed “base camp” stronghold. The module is designed for use with all “classic” fantasy roleplaying game rulebooks or sets for Basic- and Expert-level players and dungeon masters It can be converted for use with “Advanced” fantasy game rules and compatible systems with a minimum of effort. Cover art by William McAusland! This is a module that has some unique changes for thieves and adds a bit of flare flare to the DM who really wants to customize this adventure as a part of their own DYI D&D style campaign. This is really one of my favorite modules to run across in recent days as I keep looking over adventures from the past couple of years. This module really has everything a DM could need or want to construct his or her own mini campaign from the resources provided. That being said this is still a deadly little adventure product. Care should be taken. This adventure works for either OD&D or AD&D styles of games but care should be taken because of the spin on some of the PC classes and their uses within this mini campaign. The artwork, maps, elements and adventure pieces in this adventure are vary welcome as well as concise details throughout make this an adventure with lots of repeat play value. This adventure could also be used for the Adventurer,Conquerer, King rpg system but it might require some adaptation. This is more like an adventure kit as well as module so its almost like getting two products for the price of one. B1-2 can be used for quick play or as an adventure resource over and over. All in all this is a solid product and one that deserves far more air time then its gotten. Eric F from The Sword and Stitchery blog

Science fantasy is a hard one to really classify and but there have been some writers of incredible exception and Clark Aston Smith is one of my all time favorites & this eight page swords and wizardry supplement covers all of the basics for creature design and designation. Black Box Books seems to cover some of the most esoteric OD&D style angles of content that I've seen from the OGL. The monsters have a myriad of uses and are right up the Weird Tales sort of a alley. These are meant to be dropped right into an existing Swords and Wizardry or Labyrinth Lords style of adventure. The Avatar of Mordiggiel is from the Clark Aston Smith story The Charnal God, as well as the Clergy of Mordiggiel. These are presented with a concise and condensed background that a DM expects from Swords & Wizardry. The Graedigg, is a nasty piece of work just waiting to devour your adventurers. And the Akephalos are the monsters from myth and legend, and pretty much in line with the mythology of these horrors right HERE. Then we get another clan of nasty and dangerous cannibals that are straight out of Icelandic or a frozen landscape. Wrathful emanations are a sort of dreamlike monsters who resemble their creators. Something akin to a monster which seems one part Doctor Strange comic book spell and one part legendary myth. These things can kill with intent of the cleric or spell caster and can be used for a variety of taboo or weird in game effects. Finally we get a weird little take on Chaos magic which is perfect for a cleric or wizard devoted to a chaos god or goddess random magical insanity and decadence. Think something akin to a weird or more sinister So does Cannibals and Confusion From Ivanhoe Unbound lives up to the hype? Here is the break down, for a dollar and one cent you get a whole mess of pulp style weirdness to drop straight into your Swords & Wizardry or OD&D campaign or your favorite retro clone role playing system. Because of the mix of mythological and pulpy goodness this is a perfect little convention set of monsters and magick to drop into your favorite old school campaigns. To be perfectly honest,this set of weirdness inspired by Clark Aston Smith might work in a set of adventures set in a customized or loosely based Smithian set of adventures. Is it worth the price and set up of the whole pdf? I think so, it reminds me of those other small 70's and early 80's style Old dungeons and dragons style fanzines that used to make the rounds back in the days of legend & yor. There's even a few options for printing out this product into a handy fold away pamphlet style booklet for easy small handy Seventies take away for your old school campaigns. All in all this one has a ton of uses. All of these monsters and spells can be used to enhance any number of areas from a great campaign up change in the post apocalyptic wastelands to the use in a Clark Aston Smith style dungeon location where you need any number of weird or more then slightly strange horrors to stalk as well as feed on your adventurers. Do I think that this one is worth the download? Without a doubt this little add on puts a more then slightly sinister spin on your old school campaigns with an OD&D addition of weirdness to your campaigns.