Unpacking The Complete Vivimancer From Necrotic Gnome Productions For Your Old School Campaigns

When it comes to body horror the book that comes to mind is  The Complete Vivimancer From Necrotic Gnome Productions, about two weeks ago I opted for the print copy from Drivethrurpg. Who doesn't love body horror, well after receiving the pdf from the author/designer, I decided to get a physical copy.
I was also interested in Drivethrurpg's quality of  printing.

 Apparently their using outside printers for their material and that's fine the quality is similar to a high grade graphic novel from the 80's. The box packing leaves something to be desired but my copy arrived safe & sound. From Necrotic Gnome Productions after tearing into the free monster & adventure book Out of the Vats .
This was a perfect cross game project that brings together a complete crowd cultured adventure. The book is a glorious bio horror extravaganza that brings together all of the elements of the class with new monsters, items, and tons of adventure encounters that show case the horror and weirdness of the Vivimancer. The Complete Vivimancer brings the mad scientist and body horror specialist.  It brings magical madness pages of sheer  wizard master goodness of  gene splicing, cross breeding,and the Vivimancer as a  corrupter of nature itself. In the first two pages of the book we get a complete overview of this class and then the book jumps into the deep end of the darkness . For the advanced edition version of this class we get Elves  and half Elves as the preferred racial foundations for the Vivimancer.

 The books are standard old school booklet size and fit right next to my Lamentations of the Flame Princess material which would be my preferred game to run this material with. Necrotic Gnome Productions didn't scrimp on any of their artwork in this either. There's an honesty about the line black and white artwork here and the font is easy on the eyes.

 You've really got to read through this material to get a sense of the John Carpenter level of horror that's going on below the subsurface of the systems and a real sense of the campaign and character wrecking stuff that's here. Seriously some of this stuff could work in a post apocalyptic wasteland, a science fiction setting, the backdrop of Mutant Future's Mutant's and Mazes option and even in Star Ships and Spacemen second edition, with a bit of work there's a ton of room within the White Star rpg for much of this material as well. The systems here are simple, easily adapted to your favorite retroclone system. I can especially see using this book with the free science fantasy Hulks and Horrors

 The contents of The Complete Vivimancer  are completely off the chart messed up to the tune of eleven but the book's organization is top notch. Everything is easily laded out here and the columns flow easily on the eyes. The fact that this whole book is black and white is a nice touch and makes things easy to read.

 From the organization to the preparation that goes into this sort of book I know what I'm in for, this book is set up for and dwells within a fine place within the Labyrinth Lord andLabyrinth Lord Advanced canon of retroclone books but the forbidden magick aspect of it puts this book squarely within the Realms of Crawling Chaos Goblinoid Games campaign style of world. I'm not displeased at all with that vibe for it fits other books like Carcosa as well making these books a sound economic investment for the DM trying to stretch every last dime like me.
 Everything for the PC class is written solidly into the book and there's more then enough material here to stretch your PC's and their higher level villainous masters for years to come. Seriously its all right there in the book, there's also lots of cross pollination with OSR alchemists classes which can easily fit the bill for expansion of the Vivimancer if necessary.

 This isn't a book for the kiddies in my estimation the body horror factor is up around eleven and junior might be up on the ins and outs of  this sort of thing. Hell I don't that there's some adults who can handle the sort of vibe that this book is echoing which is too bad because this is a fun read and a solidly done book with a definitive niche to fill in old school gaming.

 The Complete Vivimancer From Necrotic Gnome Productions brings home in spades the alien and weird aspects of the class. There is something very pulpy thumbing through this book and laughing like a loon at all of  the mayhem that a DM can wreck upon his players lives. I can see adding this book to a game such as Dungeon Crawl Classes and having a ball with it.

If your interested in more of my opinions and slicing in deeper into The Complete Vivimancer From Necrotic Gnome Productions you can read that right over HERE

I'll be covering more of Out of the Vats in the future. I plan on running the adventure and contents this coming Winter. If you want my honest opinion, grab these books when the next sale on Drivethrurpg comes up.