OSR Review & Commentary On Cepheus Universal: Fast-Play Rules For The Cepheus Universal rpg

 "A 3-page summary of the Cepheus Universal rules (distilled from the 456-page main book). All you need to play a fast, simple game using just the core rules of Cepheus Universal. Use for a pick-up game, or even solo. "

 

Cepheus Universal: Fast-Play Rules  these rules are soild Science Fiction rules. The Cepheus Universal: Fast-Play Rules are  a toolkit of possibilities, and provides numerous quick-play ‘build-it’ sections. These include vehicles, alien creatures, planets, star systems, robots, space suits, conventional firearms, new alien races and capital ships. Why? Because these rules covers all the simple rolls and 2d6 dice throws.  

Cepheus Universal rpg is great for fans of the Hostile rpg system. The Cepheus Universal rules take full advantage of the Cepheus Engine to deliver a 2d6 Science Fiction old school system. The Cepheus Universal rpg system is solid & is actually the same system as Hostile rpg. 

By adding in the Sword of Cepheus 2nd edition  this become a solid Science Fantasy rpg. This means the PC's can be inserted into a whole gambit of campaign settings. The fantasy campaign setting is an option. This means that there's both a Science Fiction & Fantasy aspects that can be inserted into  your 2d6 campaigns. 
What Cepheus Universal: Fast-Play Rules cover are the basic rolls. This means you as both player and dungeon master, you can become familar with the main rolls. 

What the Cepheus Universal rpg has an extra lay by adding the new term-by-term creation rules. These rules are solid for PC creation and adds that extra layer to the PC's. And I think that Cepheus Universal rpg is a solid 2d6 game! 

Corridors of Terror - Red Room's Darker Rpg Session Report!

  Tonight's Darker Rpg adventure session picks right up from last week here on the blog. Our party of Darker rpg adventurers lost three members in tonight's game as the events of In Wretched Depravity.

  We held our own protecting the Vandervance family from the forces of the supernatural from the horrors of the Beyond. Last week we survived the battle with the imps. This time we were surrounded by pig like humanoids armed with spears, mancatchers, hammers, and short swords. These horrors came through some sorta of gate. Well our sorcerers held the line with a protective circle that they put down on the fly. We opened fire when the pig things tried to open the circle. 

Then all Hell broke loose as they fired cross bows into our party. We opened fire and managed too kill four of these horrors with blessed ammo! The pig things retreated and we followed them into the gate! 
Our party made it into a whirlwind of weirdness of the Beyond! We lost our way and now things are getting very sketchy! 

The Darker rpg is well suited to this sorta of a horror action rpg campaign. The fact is that the Red Room did a killer job with the Darker Rpg geared for a group of players to jump right into the deep end of a campaign. 
Tonight's monsters are from the Beyond right out of the Red Room's Wretched Darkness Bundle.  
Which easily translates over to the Darkness rpg. The monsters were the glue that bonded the players into the game campaign. 
The fact that the Darker rpg is easy to bring other OSR sources makes it a great game to play. Because it serves as a bridge between the Red Room's Red and other old school rpg gaming sources. 

Review & Commentary On Famous Characters of the Old West By John Watts From Independence Games For The Rider & Other 2d6 Old West Rpg's

  "Make new friends (or enemies)!

This book features 19 famous historical characters from the Old West. Each has a full character sheet and a short biography and each is ready to be added to your Rider campaign. Meet such figures as Billy the Kid, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Jesse James, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and Johnny Ringo!"

"Use them as NPCs for your next Rider campaign or even as player characters in an all-star Rider campaign!

Become part of the legend! "

If there's a favorite genre that the 2d6 Cepheus Engine crowd loves it's the American Old West! And why not with the amazing Rider rpg series by John Watts and Micheal Brown's Under Western Skies: 2D6 Adventure on America's Frontier. This is truly a golden age for the 2d6 American West fan like myself. Now the differences between both Rider rpg and Under Western Skies is pretty obvious to the casual Old Western rpg gamer. The Rider rpg series is built on detail and 2d6 campaign driven play. While Under Western Skies is pure 'pick up and play 2d6' action. Now while these games can be combined it might be at cross purposes depending upon the players & dungeon master's purposes. That being the case this brings me to a product that can be used with both systems and that's 

'Famous Characters of the Old West' By John Watts From Independence Games. John Watts is a huge fan of the Old West and you can tell from the author's range of characters that he packs into this fifty six page book. 

We get a solid layout & easy on the eyes text that dives deeply into the cabilities, background, history, & skills of each of these NPC's from real world history. 

Take for example the famous lawman Pat Gerrett; 

"Pat Garrett Strength: 9 (+1) Dexterity: 8 (+0) Endurance: 10 (+1) Intelligence: 7 (+0) Education: 5 (-1) Charisma: 8 (+0) Reputation: 9 Primary Language: English Birthdate: June 5, 1850 Draw 2 Gambler 2 Gun Combat (Revolver) 2 Investigate 2 Recon 2 Streetwise 2 Tactics (Military) 2 Advocate (Politics) 1 Animals (Riding) 1 Carouse 1 Leadership 1 Melee (Unarmed Combat) 1 Navigation 1 Persuade 1 Stealth 1 Survival (Plains) 1 Art 0 Broker 0 Patrick Floyd Garrett was born on June 5, 1850, near what is now Cusseta, Alabama. After his father, John, purchased a cotton plantation in northern Louisiana, Garrett would spend his childhood there. The Civil War would destroy the Garret family’s finances, and this would force Garrett to take work as a cowboy at the LS Ranch in west Texas in 1869. In 1875, he became a buffalo hunter. In 1878, he got into a quarrel with a fellow buffalo hunter, W. Skelton Glenn. During this disagreement, Garret killed Glenn. Garrett confessed to the killing when he returned, but he suffered no reprisals. He moved to Fort Sumner, New Mexico later in the same year and became a cowboy for Pedro Maxwell. The following year, in 1879, he would quit his cowboy work and open a saloon called “Beaver Smith’s”. It is said that it was at this point that he started gambling with and befriended Henry McCarty (aka “Billy the Kid”, see p.45). He would get married to Juanita Martiniez during this same period, but she would die only 15 days later. On January 14, 1880, he would marry Apolonia Gutierrez with whom he would have eight children." 
We get all of the details on Pat Garrett, & the real world history as well as it can be known at this time. And this is one of the places that both Rider & Famous Characters of the Old West excels. We get all of the good & the bad in one entry. The writing is straight forward, matter of fact, and too the point. The DM get's Garrett's history, carreer, and life's journey. Any one of these points in Garrett's life the player's PC's could encounter him for better or worse. 

And this is where Famous Characters of the Old West By John Watts shines because in fifty six pages it gives a fasinating grand tour of the Old West. And Famous Characters does it in a solid, easy to use, and digest way that actually works at the table top level for your 2d6 Old West needs for Cepheus Engine rpg. 

Famous Characters of the Old West By John Watts From Independence Games For The Rider & Other 2d6 Old West Rpg's Is Available Right Here. 

OSR Review & Commentary Clash! Rules-Lite RPG By Paul Elliot

"Clash is a fast play, rules-lite roleplaying game, the bare bones of its bigger Zozer Games brothers: 43AD, and Clash of Steel. Characters are simply defined, and play moves quickly and without needing to look up rules. This makes it great for pickup play, solo play or a game for kids or newbies. Being rules-lite, the referee gets more leeway and plays a key part in setting difficulty levels for tasks and spell-casting. This involves a measure of trust between players and referee."

 The Clash Rpg is a rules lite Sword & Sorcery set of rules from Zozer Games. This little game has everything you need to pop a campaign right onto your players in five to ten minutes. Rules for sorcery & tasks right out the gate all in eight pages. Magic weapons, combats, modern settings, and more. This all is designed in only eight points.

 Clash has solo rpg rules and it's perfectly suited for the player looking to get on the ground floor of the Sword & Sorcery rpg scene with a different set of rules from the 'World's Most Popular Rpg'. Clash hits the Conan without hitting your wallet hard. And it does it with style. There are literally seven pages of rules and then a character sheet. Now go play! But is Clash actually good?! Are you kidding me this game plays faster then snot. Within less then ten minutes, I knew the rules set up a PC and then it's off to the races. Look Zozer Games knows thier gaming and design and Clash is a no brainer to get you the player into the ground floor of a Sword & Sorcery campaign! 

OSR Review & Commentary On The Creature Feature Compendium By Jeremy Hart For OSR games

 "160 new monsters for your OLD SCHOOL ESSENTIALS game."

"+ Extensive Fluff including Descriptions, Lore, Ecology, Adventure Seeds and some ideas for memorable Loot.

+ Paper Mini designs for EVERY monster! Designed for easy print and play so you can easily get them on your table quick!

+ VTT tokens for EVERY monster if you prefer to play your oldskool on Roll20, etc."

Jeremy Hart has done a huge monster book with his Creature Feature Compendium. The Creature Feature Compendium is a massive six hundred and forty page monster and creature book. This is fantastic supplement through which your favorite OSR games can get an upshot of massive monster infusion. And what OSR rules systems does this monster book book use? Well it's useable with Basic/BECMI or OD&D, Labyrinth Lord, &  Old-School Essentials. 

Jeremy Hart's monsters are excellent for both modern and fantasy adventure games. This includes OSR horror rpg's especially OSR horror rpgs. Each of these monsters could really ruin the day of any party even with firearms. The writer includes adventure hooks and hints for each monster. 

 The monsters here are geared to old school play at the table top level especially against PC's. And if your into the diabolic and other dimensional monsters as well as creatures these are for you. These monsters are featured in ways that allow them to be easily inserted into adventures. 

Dungeons & ruins are solidly in need of compelling monsters Creature Feature Compendium has those monsters. These are creatures that will have your players returning again and again for slaying and plundering. 
There are a few minion monster races that would be excellent for a horror campaign or as a part of a dungeon or ruin adventure location. These could be especially good as minion races within a Red Room game campaign such as the Darker Rpg.  

This is the flexibility of the Creature Feature Compendium  it allows the DM to bring home the horrors for the holidays and beyond. This is a solid monster book and all around OSR horror creature feature book for your adventures! 

OSR Review & Commentary The Pundit Files Issue 25 – The Wild West Timeline By The Rpg Pundit

 "New Pundit File: Wilde West Timeline. a real chronological guide to the peak period of the American "Wild West", focusing on the major icons of the West and the major locations, like Deadwood, Dodge City, Las Vegas, and Tombstone. It's particularly crafted for providing adventuring opportunities in a Western setting, such as Wretched Country. "

 The Pundit Files The Wild West Timeline is a solid Old Western timeline that covers all of the major and minor pieces of the events of the Old West. 
This makes it easier for the dungeon master to create and design old school Wild West adventures. 
For old school sphegetti Western adventure this means The Pundit Files The Wild West Timeline. 
The adventure locations such as Deadwood, Dodge City, Las Vegas, and Tombstone are highlighted on this timeline. 

For an Old West campaign that's using Wretched Country rpg second edition the Pundit Files The Wild West Timeline is invaluable.  
To know where the gun fights, criminials, gangs, and more helps too bring the Wild West to life. 

Wretched Country Second Edition has the movie anti heroes PC's. For awhile the PC's could become the outlaw adventurers that terrorize the West. That is until the Pinkertons come after them. 
The PC's as outlaws & The Pundit Files The Wild West Timeline fits right into a campaign with little issue. And this enables the DM to inject real world history into thier campaign. 
And there's plenty of room for the crimes of the PC's as they make thier marks on history. Time is going to catch up to the PC's but what a ride. 

As far as Rpg Pundit presents titles this one is a super addition to the DM's tool box. This is a solid title that will be great for the Old West Rpg  hobbyist. 

OSR Commentary - OD&D volume 3: The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures (Jan 1974) By Gygax & Arneson

 

  So I was looking through the OSR Grimoire blog's entry on OD&D volume 3: The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures (Jan 1974). Original Dungeons & Dragons hits me square within the guts of my love for this hobby. And OD&D volume 3: The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures (Jan 1974) By Gygax & Arneson hits the wilderness & dungeon crawling bug right between the eyes. 
Back in 1974 I'd have been four years old but three years later I'm imagining my PC crawling through some slime covered moster infested  dungeon. Volume three covers;"The third volume of the original D&D rules is divided into three main sections.  The Underworld (covering dungeons), the Wilderness (including rules for establishing a domain), and rules for mass combat (land, aerial, and naval)."
This volume was especially important because it's literal DNA was in later editions; "Much of "The Underworld" section was incorporated into the Basic Rulebook edited by J. Eric Holmes (1977), and again in revisions edited by Tom Moldvay (1981), and Frank Mentzer (1983), creating an association between "Basic" D&D and the dungeon adventure."

In order to know where your going in this hobby, you have to know where we've been as players.  This is something I've observed about rpg's & wargaming as a matter of course. OD&D volume 3: The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures (Jan 1974) By Gygax & Arneson has the roots of expansion for the  DM to take thier original Dungeons & Dragons game to the next phase of campaign expansion. This of course is the Wilderness section;"

"The Wilderness" section involves overland exploration, castles/jousting, wandering monster tables, construction of castles/strongholds, specialists, men-at-arms, player/character support and upkeep, and baronies/domain management." OD&D volume 3: The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures gets into the heart of the wargaming/campaign aspects of OD&D; "
The final section of The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures provides rules for mass combat (Chainmail), aerial combat ("Battle in the Skies" or BITS, based on Mike Carr's "Fight in the Skies"), and naval combat (including special suggestions for monsters in naval adventures" Sure these rules were revisited and revised in "Swords & Spells" (1976). But the basics were there already and this  gets into my point there is a clear and defined linage of original Dungeons & Dragons running through Dungeons & Dragons right down into Mentzer Dungeons & Dragons.  This also includes the arerial combat rules;"Rules for aerial combat were derived from Arneson's "Battle in the Skies", demonstrated at Gary Con XI, this past March. " And having reread these rules they are nuanced. 
Basically,I'm still learning about and from the games that I love. And this is at least to me part of it's own reward. 

Review & Commentary On Primordial Chaos: Gonzo Like A Fucking Boss! By Venger Satanis For Your OSR campaigns

 "Unformed, omnipotent, oscillating, undulating, chromatic, prismatic, and ultra-telluric.  Primordial Chaos is the throbbing gristle of our hobby, the pale underbelly of a sandworm coughing up a hairball akin to the dark messiah who shall change the unchangeable.  Neon fuchsia reflected on the chartreuse palm of an all-seeing eye.  It is the prophecy!"

"Gonzo is awesome in and of itself, but gonzo can also be used to enhance the roleplaying experience in a variety of ways.  The problem is that, for many gamers, gonzo is inaccessible, hard to understand, and difficult to implement successfully."

Venger Satanis and I go wayback in time & he sent me a ton of titles to review as well as play. And that brings me to his magnus opus on gaming advice on bringing on the gonzo Primordial Chaos: Gonzo Like A Fucking Boss! So what is in this hundred and ten suppliment?! Well,this is a whole ton of articles that you can actually use to bring in the gonzo into your old school campaign such as bringing in the guest spot, the expect the unexpected table, nuturing your inner 14 old (to make the campaign more gonzo, Gonzo but not stupid, and much, much, more. Because this is a book end to his series of books such as 'How To Game Master Like a Fucking Boss'.   Primordial Chaos: Gonzo Like A Fucking Boss! By Venger Satanis has all of the editing, solid artwork, and good layout with a nice selection of cartography thrown in. 

 

Primordial Chaos: Gonzo Like A Fucking Boss! By Venger Satanis brings the gonzo chaos because it's Venger's advice & ethos on OSR gaming from the bottom up. He adds in his ubiquitous random tables. These really bring this book into the realm of  usable and as a tool for the DM this is something we see time and again with Venger's gaming books. Primordial Chaos hits that vibe with a wet tenticled gusto and keeps going. This is a hundred and ten page book that hits the OSR rpg tool box approach right out of the gate. This is something we see time and again here. Is there a ton of sleazy and sexual material here?! Naw, not really instead there's tables like 'Find your PC's Doppleganger' and more. But is Primordial Chaos: Gonzo Like A Fucking Boss! By Venger Satanis actually useful?! In a word, oh yes! This supplement distills down a good deal of Venger's experiences and advice to both experienced dungeon masters and newbie players for a gonzo experience.  Venger's written more then three Cha'alt mega dungeons that have sold & continue to have solid sales. 

So he knows a thing or two about gonzo dungeons, ruins, and adventures. This book distills that down and brings home the gonzo. And it shows with his latest adventure included in this supplement, 'Sent by The Gods'. 
'Sent by The Gods' is a solid old fashioned dungeon crawl with Venger's usual flare thrown in.. The adventure does a good job of adding in and demonstrating Venger's ethos without overstaying it's welcome. And 'Sent By The Gods' can easily be added into the Cha'alt trilogy without creating a ripple at all in your campaign!  And that can also be said for Primordial Chaos: Gonzo Like A Fucking Boss! By Venger Satanis which I think is a fine addition to the Kortthalis Publishing family of books. Grab  Primordial Chaos: Gonzo Like A Fucking Boss! By Venger Satanis when it hits the shelves on Drivethrurpg.