Review and Commentary on The Free OSR Resource - And Magazine Issue Number 7 For Your Old School Campaign

Grab It Right Over
HERE
For Free

This is old school magazine with a difference, it's free and it's pretty solidly written. Here's an  overview of the contents and it's aimed at the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons first edition crowd and its well. 
I picked this issue because of its Inner planar articles and wonderful overview of the Inner Planes and their inhabitants. I've been fascinated with them ever since Dragon magazine. 
So this issue has a lot of Monster Manual Two style content concerning the Inner Planes all in all good solid stuff. 
The Archer variant is well done and rounded for a deeper PC class for adventuring. 

This Issue's Features

You want to do WHAT??? Adventuring on the Elemental Planes, by Bryan Fazekas ........................................................ 10

Elemental Expansion and True Elementals, by Andrew Hamilton........................................................................................ 17

Bonus Articles

Archer / Archer-Ranger PC Class, by Lenard Lakofka............................................................................................................. 22

A Deeper Look At Saving Throws, by John Fredericks............................................................................................................ 30

Doom AD&D, by Nicole Massey................................................................................................................................................. 32

Interview with Vince Florio, Wild Games Productions, by Andrew Hamilton.................................................................... 42

Regular Columns

Map 1: Fortress of the Efreeti Lord, by Fingolwyn ..................................................................................................................... 2

Featured Artist ................................................................................................................................................................................. 5

Tread Softly, by Nicole Massey...................................................................................................................................................... 6

& Magazine on the Net ................................................................................................................................................................... 8

Creature Feature I: Ecology of the Sindh, by Dan Rasaiah ...................................................................................................... 45

Creature Feature II: Ecology of the Greymen, by Bryan Fazekas ........................................................................................... 48

Creature Feature III: Some New Mephits, by Dan Rasaiah ..................................................................................................... 54

Creature Feature IV: Para-Elemental Grues, by Andrew Hamilton....................................................................................... 56

Friend or Foe: The Jann Ak-Azul, by Andrew Hamilton......................................................................................................... 60

The Toybox: New Weapons IV – Pole Arms and Daggers, by Nicole Massey ..................................................................... 62

Spell Caster's Paradise I: Para-Elemental Spells, by Andrew Hamilton ................................................................................ 64

Spell Caster's Paradise II: Forging Spells, by Andrew Hamilton............................................................................................ 69

Emporia & Domiciles: The Nexus, by Nicole Massey .............................................................................................................. 71

One Page Dungeon: The Oasis of Blessed Curses, by Dan Rasaiah........................................................................................ 75

Mini-Adventure: The FireForge, by Andrew Hamilton and Bryan Fazekas......................................................................... 77

For Further Reading, by Ron Redmond ..................................................................................................................................... 90

Map 2: Caverns Deep-n-Dark, by Fingolwyn............................................................................................................................ 

The Doom campaign article is pretty interesting and solid for what it does which adapts the world of Doom into a AD&D campaign. Very interesting stuff.
 The interview with Vince Florio was nice and a good overview of one of the OSR personalities
Map 1: Fortress of the Efreeti Lord, by Fingolwyn is a really nice addition and perfectly suited for the other contents of the issue. 
All of the Creature features, ecology and other articles back up solidly the Inner Planes theme of this issue and add in to the over all feel of the issue of '&' magazine.
I give this a four out of five for a free download!

Who are these folks?
 & is published four times a year and is part of the & Publishing Group. The magazine’s tagline, “Filling in the Gaps for Old School Gamers,” summarizes the mission of the periodical: to feature fan-driven content for older editions of AD&D (primarily first edition) including fiction, editorials, and a variety of game aids such as new monsters, spells, and character classes; rules variants; adventure maps; and original adventures.