Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Free OSR Download - EPG Preview: Tsathoggua From New Big Dragon Games Unlimited For Your Old School Campaign


The Petty Gods project goes a long way back to the original Grogarndia  project oh, so many moons ago. Read about it right over HERE
Basically this project was picked up by Greg Gorgonmilk when the whole Dwimmermount business blew up and I missed that whole OSR issue nor do I care to open old wounds. The Greg has been instrumental in getting this project back on track. What is Petty Gods?  Rather than YE OLDE PANTHEON OF ALL-MIGHTY BEINGS, these are the lesser known secondary minor deities. The goddess of flying insects. The god of lost travelers.

Greg has managed to get several high profile writers on board; Michael Moorcock, Gene Wolfe, and Charles R. Saunders have agreed to submit a petty god from their respective fictional worlds. He's also got a guy by the name of Jim Ward contributing, too. And some artist named Erol Otus. In addition, several major RPG writers and freelancers are also involved, including Tim Hutchings, Ezra Claverie, Kevin Ohannessian, and Michael Tresca.
Rich Le Blanc has been handling some of the behind the scenes stuff according to the press release: 
Now available...
Expanded Petty Gods Preview:
Tsathoggua, Voormi, Formless Spawn
Get your Cthulhu on!

Please note that one of the reasons I've done this through RPGNow (rather than something like MediaFire), is so that as updates, other previews, and the actual Expanded Petty Gods book become available, there is a built in email function for updates, etc. 
Which brings us to the latest release of  Petty Gods and its Lovecraftian installment. Tsathoggua, Voormi, and the Formless Spawn have been released upon us as a free old school pdf. And their really nasty. The stat blocks are AD&D 1st edition or Osric style and sport the background, setting elements, and history for using this Lovecraftian god and his minions for your old school games. I'm happy to report that they live up to the wait. 



Grab it Right
HERE

The material is well done, and every bit as loathsome as you'd expect. Greg and co. have done a wonderful job of evoking the feel and look of this ancient horror god  from Saturn.
According to Wiki : 
Tsathoggua (the Sleeper of N'kai) is a supernatural entity in the Cthulhu Mythos shared fictional universe. He is the creation of Clark Ashton Smith and is part of his Hyperborean cycle.
Tsathoggua (or Zhothaqquah) is described as an Old One, a godlike being from the pantheon. He was invented in Smith's short story "The Tale of Satampra Zeiros", written in 1929 and published in the November 1931 issue of Weird Tales.[1] His first appearance in print, however, was in H. P. Lovecraft's story "The Whisperer in Darkness", written in 1930 and published in the August 1931 Weird Tales.
You can read more right over HERE

What they didn't do is what I just did, grab the history from Wiki slap it into a monster/god entry and put the title 'Petty Gods' on it. Instead what we got was a helping of original prose given a viable entry in a usible format for your old school games. The god and its followers detailed are precisely as they should be. They're useble and utterly dangerous. Just perfect for your AD&D or OSRIC adventures.
He lives up exactly to his implications in Clark Aston Smith's original tale that he appears in. 
The first description of Tsathoggua occurs in "The Tale of Satampra Zeiros", in which the protagonists encounter one of the entity's idols:
He was very squat and pot-bellied, his head was more like a monstrous toad than a deity, and his whole body was covered with an imitation of short fur, giving somehow a vague sensation of both the bat and the sloth. His sleepy lids were half-lowered over his globular eyes; and the tip of a queer tongue issued from his fat mouth.
And he's utterly dangerous, his minions are just as implacable as their god.The formless spawn and the Voormi have appeared in other games and products such as Call of Cthulhu but here their center stage and given all of the attention and the center stage that they need. For any retroclone that uses the AD&D 1st edition engine such as OSRIC these are a must. They give a DM with a bend for the Lovecraftian that edge of Yog Shaggothy that they need without breaking the bank. The quality and work that went into this entry is top drawer. This set of utter Lovecraftian horror is perfect for any game where the Mythos is center stage. The art only adds to the weird alien charm of one of the lesser known god entities of Clark Aston Smith and  New Big Dragon Games did a great job with this one. Grab it and inject one of the lesser known Mythos gods into your games today! 




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