OSR Commentary On Edgar Rice Burroughs's 'A Princess of Mars'

 "“As I gazed upon it I felt a spell of overwhelming fascination—it was Mars, the god of war, and for me, the fighting man, it had always held the power of irresistible enchantment. As I gazed at it on that far-gone night it seemed to call across the unthinkable void…" 
Edgar Rice Burroughs A Princess of Mars 
These words and the Michael Whelan cover set the stage for my own adventures on Edgar Rice Burrough's Barsoom along with John Carter. The year was 1986 and I was in a bookshop in my home town. It was June and we were wrapping up the last leg of an epic AD&D campaign. Now only recently I had reread A Princess of Mars. 

Burroughs did a ton of world builting through the eyes of Captain John Carter. Barsoom seemed to take on a life of it's own. And the novel set my own mind on fire. Barsoom was viberant and very much alive in a sense. Not that it was a real place or anything insane. But it Barsoom breathed from it's canals to the moss covered dead sea bottoms. 
And it's Green Martians seemed very alien indeed. Thier culture, beliefs, etc. seemed to be cut from a different cloth. There was good and evil on Barsoom but also shades of grey. Not as many as real life to be sure. But for a kid Barsoom seemed real enough. And how I wanted an Rpg. And fortunately I was able to use quite a few from Spelljammer to Warriors of the Red Planet. We had run quite a few campaigns on Mars. And I continue to do so to this day. There's something that keeps calling me back to the red planet. There's still a dozen and one adventures on Mars. Every hidden valley and acient ruin seems to have adventure around the corner. And in part I think it has to do with Edgar Rice Burroughs writing. Burroughs wrote to entertain and not to inform per say. His was the writing of the everyman and adventure was ERB's fare. 
'A Princess of Mars' is a book that has all of the best elements of a Pulp adventure. From cliff hanger chapter endings to full on sword battles to war scenes. And it's those memories of the first time reading ERB that keeps me as a reader coming back. 
'A Princess of Mars' as adventure influence can't be understated. I could watch the hours get sucked away as I contemplated the idea of a six limbed White Ape living in a dead sea bottom deserted city. What were the apes eating and how could I sick these White Apes onto my player's PC's?! And then there's the Green Martian hordes that moved endlessly on caravan routes. These savage monters were one of the threats that kept player's PC's outta of the deserted ancient cities. 
And then we walked the streets of greater and lesser Helium dealing with the back alley's intrigue & dangers. It' the lesser city states that adventurers have to watch out for. Adventurers on Barsoom are definitely of the 'dungeon crawl' variety except we didn't know about this in the intial book. 

OSR Review & Commentary Gods & Demons - Hawkmoor - Aedle Magder - A Shadowdark Supplement ( Castles & Crusades) Supplement

 "Gods & Demons – Hawkmoor – Aedle Magder describes one of the pantheons of the peoples of Hawkmoor and the Great Enchanted Vale, a campaign setting designed for use with the Shadowdark RPG."

"This booklet details the deities and demon-gods of the Jorn, the Norse and Germanic-inspired peoples of the Great Enchanted Vale." 

"This ersatz pantheon can also readily be used in virtually any fantasy campaign with any Old School style fantasy RPG where a Norse and Germanic-inspired pantheon can be used."

Gods & Demons - Hawkmoor - Aedle Magder By Mishler Games has entire patheon of gods, monsters, etc. all ready to drop into your Castles & Crusades rpg campaign. Yes, it says Shadowdark on the package but let's be realistic here. This supplement will work nicely for Castles & Crusades adventures without any modification at all. And this means that  you get details such as priesthood, religions, practices, etc. And then in twenty pages you get everything you need to add these into your own campaigns: 

"It is the first installment in the Gods & Demons line and includes details on the following deities and demon-gods, including their personality, nature, and most importantly, specific details about their clergy and their special abilities:

Greater gods in descending order of prominence:
Gor the Mighty (N)
Raesa Mountain-Mother (f, N)
Eidh Oathkeeper (L)
Valka Ravenwing (f, N)
Sverdkona Dragonbane (f, N)

Lesser gods include:
Orkan Fellibylur (N)
Aegtes Goldring (f, L)
Miskunn the Merciful (N)
Motsognir the Mighty (N)
Vangatari the Fey-Queen (N)
Storgryti the Stone-Giant King (N)

Demon gods include:
Jokul Frostbreath (C)
Slagg the Fire-Giant King (C)
Knuta the Mountain-Giant King (C)
Storslys, Wyrm-Father (C)
Ugartha, Queen of Wickedness (C)
Skrammande, Granny Troll (C)
Vargulf Ironclaws (C)
Frahrindandi, Chaos-Dwarf (C)
Salargnaver Hell-Belly (C)

Also included are details on Jorn:
A list of Beings commonly associated with the Jorn faith
Afterlife
Temples, Altars, & Shrines
Sea Wolf Class Alterations
Norse versus Jorn Equivalents" 

This means that entire group of gods and monsters can be dropped into Castles and Crusades easily. And this is content you can use from unknown good gods for paladins of a Norse nature to full on Choatic gods of horror that can come at your PC's from no where. 
But is Gods & Demons - Hawkmoor - Aedle Magder worth the 2.50 American that it says on the package?! Are you kidding me?! With entities like Granny Troll Skrammande and her minions breathing down the neck of your adventurers. Gods & Demons - Hawkmoor - Aedle mMagder is an automatic pick up for me. These gods and entities are perfect for the DM to add them to your Castles & Crusades adventures! Grab Gods & Demons - Hawkmoor - Aedle Magder today! 

The Trade Depot Fasco - - Warriors of the Red Planet/ Hyperborea rpg Session Report Five

 Let's pick it right up from last session on the blog.  Our party took the riskier route to the trade depot and made it without much incident except for an encounter with two dust devils. This was lon the low end of our encounters after the cannibals. 

The trade depot came into view and there were already a huge caravan meet of Green & Red martian lower bottom dead sea merchants and traders. We got into our reserved space and went on too tell our tale of cannibal red men warriors. And unloaded our cargo and setttled in. 
The first thing we did was get ammo, supplies, etc for our group of adventurers and eyed some of the other merchants goods. We also restocked on water, food, etc. You know the stuff that ERB's skipped over but Brackett went into a bit of detail about. We picked up a job from a red man merchant prince who was looking for some foo erm brave souls willing to venture into the dead sea bottom ruins of one of the ancient cities. 
So for that I'm going wayback to the Best of Dragon Magazine volume #1 James Ward's "Deserted Cities of Mars," as a sort of homage to the roots of Mars old school rpging. But this comes much later on. 

So while everyone is concentrating on the resupplying the party wasn't paying too much attention to the flyer that landed at the deserted tower that made up this dead sea bottom trading post. The flyer belonged to one of the lesser royal houses of Helium's kingdom. What the player's don't know is that it contains Jal Hardos Martian assassin and duelist. The party got all of thier supplies and the pittence for the caravan job because of the Thark mercenaries air strike that they paid for. However they did get a percentage of the overall trade sales as a bonus as per thier terms so they made five hundred gold. 
And this is where our rogue got into a full blown duel with the assassin! And she was able to hold her own for quite a while. The duel drew lots from the Green Martians who were there for trade. But they stayed for the entertainment.  
Jal Hardos made a boast that he could take on the entire party one at a time. He's not kidding either because he's got some really underhanded tactics up his sleeve. Alright so what's Hardos deal? He's a 7th level rogue with a Scientist patron backing him as his 'Q' and is really Chaotic. He's been hired because he get's results. He's got a Paralysis ray up his sleeve literally. He won't use it unless he has no choice.  His aim is to stop the party whose in the past had dealing with black wizards and thier cults. 

Circus and The Witches - Cities Without Number, Stars Without Number, & Trey Causey's Strange Stars Rpg

 So I've been going through a bit of a campaign crisis with our Strange Stars & Stars Without Numbers rpg game campaign when I left the party of adventurers on Circus. This is going to pick right up from yesterday's blog entry. That group of adventurers were going to get deeply into a Stars Without Number rpg Suns of Gold trader campaign. 

This gets deeply into the Gypsy fleets of Scavenger Fleets who use Circus as a staging and resupply centerpoint. The PC's have interacted with these fleets taking on checking out wrecks that the fleet has noted but has deemed too dangerous or adventageous to check out. This is where the adventurers come in. This is all in line with Suns of Gold with the PC's doing a bit of trade work on the side.. 

What makes Circus so valuable in our Strange Stars campaign is that it's the clearing house for all of the relics and artifacts that crop up in the void of space. These artifact technologies are encountered and scooped up by adventurers. These are the trade blocks for the powers of Circus and the last time we played the players had run afoul of the witches & magi of Circus's wizard guilds. 
How?! The adventurers had several key artifacts that had witch scripts and sigils all over it. Did it belong to them?! The adventurers wanted the scripts translated before handing valuables over to another faction. 

So where we left it is with a bit of a stand off. Then the magi came to the PC's and explained that it might be wise to not give them the artifact. The artifact might be a key for an extra dimensional entity. 
The PC's have bought a residence on Circus and established themselves with a trader and export business. Where does this crossover into Cities Without Number? The PC's on Earth are going to be recuited into the trade house but they're not aware of it at the moment. 

Old Earth - Cities Without Number, Stars Without Number, & Trey Causey's Strange Stars Rpg

 The past couple of days has been incredibly busy with weather, work, and whatnot. A call from a friend and fellow player of mine proved interesting. As he wanted to know if I was still running our Strange Stars/Stars Without Numbers rpg campaign. And remember there's the setting book for Strange Stars and then the OSR rules/campaign book. You as the DM will need both. 

Strange Stars is interesting because it's lower tier Transhumanistic aliens (actually the descendants of human colonists who ventured into the vaccuum). Thilo of Endzeitgeist.com has an excellent break down of the setting's humaniod races; "Strange Stars knows the following types of sophonts: Biologics are either humans or aliens; it should be noted that Mandate Archive: Transhuman Tech’s body-swapping rules are more commonly used in Strange Stars. (Which should also provide a nice example how well this is ingrained in SWN’s possibilities.) Bioroids are artificially-created biological beings that are worn by a mind – whether it’s an infosophont (bodyless AI) or a Ghost, Ghost in the Shell-style – full-blown transhumanist options here. Finally, Moravecs constitute self-replicating, sentient machines." 

" From here, we move to the specific clades: More than 20 (!!!) are provided: From domed-skull humanoids capable of cataloging language to the insectoid Blesh, the feline Djägga, the engineer isopods (with a dditional limbs and body-swapping), gnomes, the bone-clawed hwuru, avian humanoids, humanoid computers…and yes, emerald-skinned humanoids…there is a wide array of races with concisely defined abilities here. Each race gets a brief note on physical and psychological characteristics and class preferences/restrictions, backgrounds available and attribute requirements, if any. " 

How would any of this translate to Earth and it's environs in Cities Without Number?! The fact is that it could easily translate and then some. Many of the Transhumanisms technologies have been completely lost and Earth has become Old Earth. Old Earth is literally a melting pot getto of the universe where all of the underworlders go to do business. Earth is literally one of the black market corners of the universe. 

Strange Stars is literally built on the bones of the older races and colonizations that took place eons ago. And the space craft are relics making Earth one of the planets that is still retro engineering thier space craft to figure out the manufacturing points of the past. Old Earth is considered a dumping ground for every artifact and weird technology that passes through operators hands. Earth is literally stuck in the biological and cyberages of the past. 
Many of the other older 'alien' races consider Earth a dump or ghetto at worst and a historical curosity at best. 
But where does this leave the operators?! The same place it always has on the fringes and literally carving out a gig style party of adventurers moving among the power players and senior races of the universe. 
If we as both the players and the DM pick it straight up right now with the current crop of our old group of PC's?! The game campaign literally doesn't change. We've got a starship crew who were cycling in and out of PC's with abandoned. We had a changing roster of crewmen due to the player's having busy and hectic schedules. This enabled me to work in lots of races, NPC's, who are seldom seen from Strange Stars.  More to come. 

Mecha Caper - Cities Without Number Rpg - Session Report One

 Tonight's Cities Without Numbers rpg game session was something different as we had to grab a bunch of high end mecha from an illicit corporation The session saw us meeting with a Mr.Fixit over on the Southside of our home city and gaining acess codes for the corporate motor pool. We may have taken on far more then our operators were counting on. 

We had our drone operator take guick fly over of the pool and noted the cyberguard dogs in the yard. Then it was the fact that we almost got killed by the cyber samuari guards that were actually parked in two cars at the end of the street. And these guys were seriously well armed. They could have easily killed us right out of the gate. Our party backed off and sent in two drone instead these were spotted after a two hour fly through. 
Then we send in two of our cybersneaks to take a look at the cyberpsace set up. And this is looking really hard with ice and the sight mirrored in cyberspace. We need information and head over to the holo brothel that has a side hussle selling information on the side. The madame is pleased to see us as the last time she made money off of us. This time we're trading favors and she tells us how the mecha is all off world stuff that's being stored at Neutech's facilities. And this is where Stars Without Numbers comes into play. Neutech has been doing recover on before the Event tech. 

There are rumors that Neutech has been doing serious testing on nano dust and other forbidden technologies. We have wracked up five minor favors with the Geisha Cooperative but we want to keep going. She suggests that we hire one of her 'girls' and that would be the psychic 'Maria Mayhem'. We talk among ourselves and have an extra thousand to play with. So we hire the psychic onto our payroll. And then she feeds us a little bonus that the security goes down for twenty seconds each night at 3:00 while the power builts back up! We might be able to use this info. We go back to our roach motel that we call a lair and begin making plans. 

Cha'alt Raiders In Scorpion Canyon! - Cha'alt, Wretched Country 2nd Edition, and Gunslinger Rpg By Nightowl Workshop Session Report

 We came face to face with a dark wizard in the deserts of Cha'alt. We're outta of dynamite and hunkered down in the desert. And then the bastard wizrd lobs two purple laced fire balls our way! We didn't take kindly to this. 

Dr.Justice our engineer started to cobble together some of the energy weapons from the bandits camp last game session here. With in a couple of rounds we were able to shoot a couple bullets and get the bastard to keep his head down. This was to give Doc time to get his contraption together & two lucky rolls later Doc comes roaring out of our makeshift fox hole and blasts the shit outta of the dark wizard! Natural twenty baby! Here's where one of our remaining Braves goes to check on the black wizard and only found a crater where the bastard used to be! 
The good news is that we've got a makeshift energy weapon and now we're outta of dynamite! Don't forget that Venger's got his own Kickstarter on for 'How To Design Worlds Like a Fucking Boss' over here. 

We started searching around and found the wizard's hover skift. We didn't even try to figure this thing out and instead our Brave hit the shiny red button. And now we're off to the capital of Cha'alt!  

OSR Commentary & Ascendant Rpg Session Report Three - Capital City Casefiles #2: Served Cold By Karl Gustav & Japanese Holiday

 So during last night's session the player's PC's were able to head off the murder in Capital City Case Files #2 Served Cold. Now after running into  Mark Shaw aka Manhunter from the late Eighties DC comicbook series the PC's are heading off to Japan. This is to talk with a high ranking Japanese mafia figure Stan “the Lariat” Hansen, whose a retired Ascendant from the mid 1970's. Hanson has the inside skinny on a combat drug Freak that trickled down into the underworld. This tricks out after events of Capital City Case Files#2 Served Cold. This session report and business come on the heels of this session here. 

So a couple of sessions ago we introduced Freak which is a super steriod which has a nine eight percent chance of allowing the user to become a lower tier Ascendant. The cost for the drug is high with prolonged use causing cancer and heart disease later on in life. Freak goes back to N.W.O. in our games from the Write Up's.org website. 

One of the things that we've found while playing Ascendant is that the Ascendant Rogues Gallery supplement is super critical for faster play. The book has  Chargen variant rules . And because chararcter generation was   probably the single part of Ascendant that my group found slow, and this book looks like it'll be a huge help for that. There's a chapter of hero archetypes with ready-to-play characters and easy ways to customize them.

For our games lower tier Ascendants have been a part of the landscape since the Golden Age. However with the events of 2022 the Ascendants have reappared on the international scene. Lower tier Ascended just didn't make much of a dent on the international stage. Capital City during the Eighties and Nineties was supposed to be a dream for the US but recession of 'o8 put the final nail into that idea. 
With age of the Ascendant coming into it's own Capital City is coming back to life except for the crime which is hanging on by it's finger nails. 

And that brings us to the PC's working freelance for Dreadnaught Security getting into the underworld of Japan. The Japanese have a completely different asthetic when it comes to the Ascendants. The Japanese culture is fascinated but the Ascendant are merely other celebrities. And so it goes. The Japanese underworld is another matter with the Ascendants being another set of tools in thier arsenal. 
The PC's met  Stan “the Lariat” Hansen, at one of his hotels and the party was surprisingly cordial. The meeting when off without a hitch and the party found out about the fact that N.W.O.'s drug dealings are cutting deeply into Hansen's terrority. The player's PCs are going to stay at the hotel and see Toyko for two weeks.  This is actually cover for them to train at 'the Dojo' the Ascendant training facility that Hansen actually runs on the side. This is too access the party's capabilities & powers.  And this loops around with Mark Shaw doing recon for Dreadnaught Security on the local drug lords and thier connections to the international scene. Here's where we ended! 

Airstrike In the Red Desert! - Warriors of the Red Planet/ Hyperborea rpg Session Report Five

 Tonight's session picks right up here on the blog. We called in an air strike on on position from Thark mercenaries & even though it got really expensive we were able to get rid of a third of the cannibal warriors! 

We lost a third of our pay due to the air strikes but were able to get a third or more of the cannibals out of our escape route. The Tharks used repurposed red men skyships that had been modified for thier frames. 
We've been hunkered down in the outpost since last game session and we've been dealing hand to sword damage to the enemy while conserving ammo. Things have been interesting with our guys dealing with the cannibal low sea landers. They are highly disorganized but fight like undead horrors. Finally after two hours of combat and bombing the battle zone was very quiet. 
And we saw our opportunity! Our wizard cast a smoke spell and provided our vehicles cover. We moved across the battle field while our scouts brought up the rear telepathically doing obersvation on our rears. 
After several hours of game time we got back onto the main trade routes and radioed back to the Tharks thanking them and giving our employer's frequencies so that they can get paid. 
We ran across an ancient lich's litter and caravan while we got back onto the main route. This was only a pass and we telepathically greeted the caravan warning them of the cannibals. 
But we were far behind schedule and we've got to take another riskier route to make up for lost time. This means being exposed to Green Martian barbarians and raiders. But it's risk we're willing to take! Here's where we ended tonight's session! 

Review & Commentary On Quantum Dark: Alien Companion By Robert Garitta From Stellagama Publishing For The Quantum Dark Rpg

 "They’re here. They are hostile. They hide in dark places working their bizarre plans or fly above with impunity."

The invasion came. No one noticed. This is the harvesting or the occupation or the culling. Accounts differ.
The governments of our world are either in denial or engaged in a massive conspiracy to suppress the truth.

Humans will fight back, being human. Any resistance will be isolated at first, full of odd allies and harsh decisions. However, resistance is the only alternative.

This companion is intended to bring in particularly horrific Gray Aliens, UFOs, and Alien Hybrids into your Quantum Dark game, (or any Quantum Engine game)" 

Quantum Dark: Alien Companion By Robert Garitta is the latest from Stellagama Publishing For The Quantum Dark Rpg. This supplement crams in everything that a DM is going to need to add The Greys into thier Quantum Dark game. Or any 2d6 Quantym Engine game. 
So what does the Quantum Dark: Alien Companion have within?! You've got 2 types of Greys including the Tall Greys and thier psionics. An overview of thier saucers including 2 types of Grey saucers. 
An overview of Grey technologies from examination tables to full on weaponry. Then we dive into weaponry and even the abduction process! And the full overview of  minions from Mantis people to Greyhybrids to the frighteningly dangerous mutates. And we even get a Grey cult ready to go! Then there's Cryptids and finally the alien agenda. 
Everything within the Quantum Dark: Alien Companion By Robert Garitta is compact, concise, and ready to be played! There's plenty of this material to add the Greys full bore to a Quantum Dark or other 2d6 Cepheus Engine game without any  fuss.
Quantum Dark itself is an excellent fast play 2d6 rpg which dips deeply into the horror genre for it style of play. And the PC's sheet will quite literally fit onto a business card. This makes the game easy to use as total of twenty nine pages. 

Quantum Dark has a full gamit of 2d6 systems distilled down to it's essence allowing horror rpging easily and without twenty different supplement or adventure books. 

Review & Commentary On The Village of Greenhaven By Ryan David For Your Old School Campaigns

 "The Village of Greenhaven provides a complete forest town, including locations, landmarks, shops, NPCs, Random Tables, and Potential Encounters!"

 

"Designed to be system agnostic so that you can skin this "Pop-In Principle" to your world, Greenhaven is ready to be the centerpiece of your next Campaign!"

Tonight I was listening to Inappropriate Characters with Venger Satanis, Rpg Pundit, and Ryan David. And Ryan David was talking about  his system agoinstic supplement The Village of Greenhaven. 
Now I've been looking for a slightly Eurocentric village to use for Wretched Country second edition & Greenhaven fits the bill. This is a quant little village that can be dropped into any existing campaign. Greenhaven itself has a population of 100 and for a Wild West settlement it's quite a big one. And there's more then a little bit of the air of the supernatural about the town;"Greenhaven is a quaint village nestled between rolling hills and dense forests. The air is fresh, and the aroma of pine trees fills the surroundings. The village is surrounded by a sturdy wooden palisade, and a narrow dirt road leads through the entrance gate. The villagers are known for their hospitality and strong sense of community" Greenhaven is well written, the layout is very well done and I really like the artwork. Because it's sorta of got a European feel to it, I've decided to go with Texas as a drop in point and this is the beauty of Greenhaven. This village could be just about anywhere and it's system agnostic. The village is very well stocked and well funded so for our games it's gonna be just off of some of the main stagecoach routes. 
Greenhaven feels like a supernatural refuge and home base village for PC's. There are secrets and general smaller village NPCs as well as certain villagers who could be retired adventurers. 
There a wide array of shops and business within Greenhaven. And these are well thought out and done with full blown descriptions of NPC's. You as the DM are going to have to provide the stats for these NPC's. 
For Wretched Country second edition Greenhaven is an island of stability amid a world of horror, depravity, and violence. And for us it's going to a supernatural refuge. A place where those who are touched by the supernatural can find a bit acceptance and peace at least for a while in the Wild West. 

 Greenhaven is a town with secrets and twists to it's inhabitants and author does a good job of instilling these into the NPC's and background of the place. There's zero reason why Greenhaven couldn't easily be used with classic OD&D, B/X, or Advanced Dungeons and Dragons first edition. The material here is very flexible and well done. And with a price that works out too two dollars this is a real steal folks. Grab this one befor the author starts using common sense and jacks up the price. Not that he would but because this adventure location is very much worth the price of admission. 

OSR Commentary On House of the Rising Sun (Arduin Grimoire volume 6) By David A. Hargrave For The Arduin Grimoire series & Your Old School Campaigns

Alright so it's another snowy night here in Connecticut and once again our game has been cancelled due to high winds. Which means that I find myself reaching for one of my favorite alternative old school original Dungeons & Dragons or AD&D first edition supplement series. House of the Rising Sun was published in Eighty Six. 

 In addition to the usual collection of new monsters, spells and magik items, “House of the Rising Sun” provides rare insights into the Arduin campaign setting with presentations covering:

* Background information on many of Arduin’s Noble Houses and Landed Siege Lords

* An in-depth look at the hierarchy, organization and activities of Arduin’s many Street Gangs

* A detailed review of the Beggars Guild and guidelines for the new Beggar character class

* An expose of Arduin’s infamous Assassins Guild, their unique weapons and deadly poisons

* A wide variety of culinary delights including unique appetizers, odd entrées and bizarre beverages

* Medical Wonders to cure numerous ills and maladies

* Unique Arduinian Pets and natural denizens of the wilds

* Legendary Gems and Jewels, magikal artifacts and mythical musical instruments

* A review of the “Elder Gods” – gone but not forgotten religions

* “Dragon Magiks” and a whole lot more!

Please note that all Classic Arduin products were written by David A. Hargrave in the 1970’s and 1980’s and are presented here in their original unchanged format.

 Let's talk about House of the Rising Sun in a  deeper context and talk about the fact that this little supplement from Eighty Six reveals far more on Arduin’s Noble Houses and Landed Siege Lords. These folks are the royals as well as the movers & shakers on Arduin. Back in Eighty Seven our own party of adventurers ran afoul of two of these wankers. And they slapped us in irons and traded us as slaves to one of the Orc tribes. 
Needless to say that we escaped as soon as possible and then got deeply invovled with the thieves guilds and street gangs of Arduin. This led our campaign to go deep into the underworld and criminal elements of Arduin. And this is where the article on the street gangs of Arduin was crutal to my uncle's campaign. 
And we also got different assignments from the Begger's Guild & we had two of these scum in our party. The Begger's guild is deeply tied into the Asassins Guild of Arduin. And so House of the Rising Sun was key to my uncle's campaign 
One of our adventures revovlved around an exotic monster produced ingrediant for a libation of a certain noble. And I believe my uncle was inspired by the meals and bizarre beverages of Arduin. 

And this led to our getting involved with procuring medical ingrediant for some of the potions and poluctices on Arduin especially to the healers of the begger's guild. Yes the begger's guild has it's own doctors and healers. 
And we eventually had to flee one of the Arduin kingdoms because of the crime we never committed. We then got involved with the Bardic Lord of Song who was looking for one of the legendary musical instruments covered in the article of Legendary Gems & Jewels plus magical items. And this led to our involvement with one of the temples of the Elder Gods of Arduins which was covered in the next article. Round this out with our brush with Dragon magick and you pretty much have the entire ark of part of my uncle's campaign.

  House of the Rising Sun (Arduin Grimoire volume 6) By David A. Hargrave  is incredibly useful because Hargrave made all of his articles modular. Sure the DM could use all of some articles for thier own campaigns. And then disregard the next article but most of the Arduin Grimoire supplements were brillant because of the breath and depth of information they give on Arduin. 

OSR Review & Commentary On Children of the Wolf (Cardstock Characters™) With Artwork By Bob Greyvenstein For Any Rpg Campaign

 " Shapeshift, howl at the moon, and run with the pack!

This beautiful set of highly-detailed cardstock miniatures by renowned fantasy artist Bob Greyvenstein contains 10 unique figures, variants for four of them, and horizontally-flopped versions of all of them to provide additional variety (for a total of 28 different miniatures), as well as corresponding tokens for use online and with virtual tabletops. All of the miniatures are provided in two sizes, standard c. 28-30 mm scale and large 54 mm scale (2"). " 

This set includes: 

● Three powerful-looking Werewolves (one with a weapon-carrying variant); 

● Four different Wolves (some more-or-less monstrous than the others); 

● Three wolf-hooded people, in both armed and unarmed versions (which can be used variously as berserkers, Ulfhednar, cultists, or Human forms of the Werewolves); and, 

● A ZIP folder with 40 tokens (10 different images in four colors each). 

These miniatures are suitable for use with any fantasy, horror, modern, or science fiction roleplaying games or wargames. We hope you love them! " 

Children of the Wolf (Cardstock Characters™) With Artwork By Bob Greyvenstein is one of those rpg products I didn't know I needed. Published by Skirmisher Games, Childen of the Wolf has eleven pages of paper mini's that are perfectly aimed at any OSR or even horror game such as Werewolf The Apocalpyse. There's just enough figures  here to keep things interesting with three powerful half wolf/half human werewolves, there are also four different wolve forms and this allows the players or the DM to mix and match the wolve forms as they want. 
The artwork is quite nice by Bob Greyvenstein on the figures and these guys are perfect for a D&D style game or a horror themed game.  One where Werewolve PC and NPC take centerstage. And hence where these figures can shine! 

Because of the variety of material at use here the three wolf-hooded people, in both armed and unarmed versions (which can be used variously as berserkers, Ulfhednar, cultists, or Human forms of the Werewolves) could be important NPC's or stand in's for PC's. The artwork here is solidly done.
For the world's most popular fantasy game these werewolves make excellent cultists for some Chaotic wolf god or other horror. I would not want to have these figures on my PC's tail. Given the amount of Lovecraftian cults and other horror seen in both OSR & D&D style games Children of the Wolf (Cardstock Characters™)  is a worth investiment for a DM whose in need for low cost alternatives to miniatures whose prices  do seem to be skyrocketing ever upward.