Troll Lords Castles & Crusades Unboxing & OSR Commentary

A week or so ago there were several issues in my personal neck of the OSR. I went to look around for some books that I've been missing in my personal Castles & Crusades collection Expanding Classes, Classic Monsters & Treasure 2nd Printing, & Castles & Crusades Character Classes.  These  books were holes in the C&C collection especially the two PC books for expanding the player's options. The delivery was very fast for a package arriving from Arkansas. 



These books were properly packed & the transaction was smooth. A few emails shot back & forth with the Troll Lords led to some ideas for my current OSR campaign. The PC selection options are fantastic with these two books. 



Expanding Classes written by Mark Sandy has some interesting variant PC options; "Expanding Classes is just that angle. Herein we delve into the 13 standard C&C classes, and the Rune Mark, and unleash the power of multiclassing, enhanced classes and switching classes."Readers can expect an upcoming review for Expanding Classes on this blog.

The next book is " Character Classes, you’ll find just that, with all the classes presented in the C&C Players Handbook and C&C Adventurers Backpack in one convenient book. The entries in Character Classes are alphabetized for quick and easy reference."Though slim this volume seems to really pack in the PC  information & looks like its got some great C&C system crossover. The last book is  Castles & Crusades Classic Monsters & Treasure  book in the mix. This book is a combination of monsters from the Monster Manual II, Fiend Folio, & several Dragon magazine articles. 


The monster content in the Castles & Crusades Classic Monsters & Treasure  book is as follows:
algoid, ascomoid, aurumvorax, babbler, behir, berbalang, boggart, carbuncle, catoblepas, crypt thing, dark creeper, demilich, derro, disenchanter, firbolg, flumph, grue, huecuva, keck, korred, mephit, mudman, nilbog, ogrillon, peryton, phoenix, revenant, russet mold, selkie, tarrasque, thoqqua, vargouille, volt, xsayarsa, yeti. Here's where Castles & Crusades gets the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Fiend Folio treatment. This works as a way of flogging these classic monsters into my campaign adventures.

Review & Commentary On Darker Paths 3: The Demonolater From BRW Games For Your Old School Campaigns

Right so I'm always on the look out for another variation of the demon worshiper, wizard, summoner, cultist, or dark priest of Chaos. Because let's face it Chaos & the Abyss in D&D and AD&D are fun to pit PC's against. The playing field is littered with so many demonic and quasi demonic foes that can go across the spectrum of level challenge and can be used with any level from a first level fighter to a twentyth level wizard. Demons are a perfect foil for PC's. Along comes Darker Paths 3: The Demonolater From BRW Games the same folks who do Adventures Dark and Deep. The Demonolater is a perfect foil to oppose an entire party and pose a major threat to any level of party of adventurers. According to the Drivethrurpg blurb you get a whole range of abilities and horrific ways of using this class in a game, "Demonolaters are priests who serve demon lords and ladies. The character class is a sub-class of cleric, but each demon lord has priests with special powers and spells, nearly 40 of which are included (with names like dark offering, invite possession, and warp reality). "
Grab This Class Right Over HERE

Even though on the tin this book says for both PC's & NPC's this book feels like a total Dungeon Mater book. These characters are the cleric's who think that their that much smarter then demons and their ilk. The class is fairly balanced to its approach of evil. It features, details on nearly 40 new spells it is suitable for use with any RPG compatible with the basic or advanced D&D
The book does live up to this claim with a nice even and balanced approach to the nasty spells, evil items, lots of flavor and more.  The rules on demonic pacts are solid and well though out . The book clocks in at fifteen pages making it both slim and easy to navigate as well as drop whole sale right into the back end of your old school campaigns.
The levels and magick for the Demonolater really sets the stage and we really get a good sense of the whats going on throughout this class. Heaven or Hell knows we get a good sampling of the motives and attitudes of the Demonolater, plus  how to use the player character class end of things.for maximum
 mayhem and evil. Everything in this class is well developed and carefully thought out plus it  focuses on the dark shades of the horror that it presents. The product presents the Demonolater as a cleric with several differences from your run of the mill cultist or evil wizard. According to the introduction, The demonolater is a sub-class of the cleric. They are those few twisted mortals who seek out and serve one of the various demonic lords of the Abyss, whether because of some compulsion, or a desire for power or other rewards. It is often impossible to determine their motives with any certainty, because demonolaters are quite frequently demon-possessed, insane, or both'  And that's  how this book really digs the sacrificial knife into the back end of the PC class. I can see using the Demonolater for Dungeon Crawl Classes as well more tradition game product editions  such as OD&D and AD&D. The book has charts, spells, and much more all balanced into a well thought out piece of black clerical horror. Everything in this book is slanted in my mind for NPC creation and that  your going to get a fully functioning and solidly done book of demonic mayhem. These black clerics are perfect foils on their own or as part of a black magick cult worshiping chaos and demons or as the heads of such a cult.The Demonolater is a really nicely done book that can create memorable NPC's for any era. You might have a band of mutant demon worshipers in the post apocalyptic wasteland being lead by a Demonolater. A gang of demon worshiping outlaws could also be operating in the weird wastelands of the Wild West where a Demonolater can cause all kinds of mayhem and trouble. 
Then there's the idea of the sentiment associated with a hidden operative A  Demonolater who uses a variety of demons and horrors to get his will done in the done among the circles of poor as well as rich as the master of a cult circuit. This book also has rules for patrons in the form of Dagon and his followers, minions, and more. Like many other black or evil classes this one comes with all of the bells and whistles that make the Demonolater a nice addition to the DM's tool kit. Do I think that you should pick this book up? Yes I do with all confidence and I do think its worth the price. Four out of five is what I give this variant class and horrors which await your PC's!

Review & Commentary Free Adventure The Lizardmen of Illzathatch From 3 Toadstools For Your Old School Campaign

There are sometimes when a DM needs a simple, down to Earth straight forward adventure that can be dealt with over one or two sessions of play. The Lizardmen of Illzathatch From  3 Toadstools

does exactly that and presents a dungeon master with a clever and well worded OSR adventure that can be cleverly back handed into an existing OSR game or used as a perfect little introduction adventure for your favorite retroclone system. 

The green dragon Illzathatch has been dispatched by local heroes “The Shields of Atreu”, thus ending his reign of terror across the countryside.  Only one problem remains, the adventuring party left to raid the lair of the dragon, they have not been seen since. 

A OSR Module for 4 - 6 Characters Levels 3 Compatible with Labyrinth Lord (TM)Everything here is geared and timed out for a convention set of play and it comes off with some very clever writing and sleight of hand play on the author's part. 

There's something to be said for dealing with a straight forward adventure at times; sure everyone might be looking for the clever twist to your old school. The menace here is very well thought out and gives a DM an opportunity to play around with some of the older edition monsters and give his PC's a run through with all of this adventure's setting pieces and menaces a run through. Be warned this adventure isn't a cake wake or push over stupid players are going to pay with their character's lives. Another clever inclusion is the per-generated player character roster that's included. These PC's could be used as survivors of previous encounters with the adventurer's menace, or as fodder for future horrors that might still result from some of the adventure elements that have been left behind by those that cane before..
  With little effort players could find themselves up to their necks in local affairs and monsters. While there is good deal flushed out; there's plenty of opportunities for DM's to twist and mold in some fashion within this adventure.
I wasn't expecting much from this adventure but The Lizardmen of Illzathatch came just in time to save the day with a blast of OSR nostalgia and old school solid play value. This entire adventure is perfect as an OSR introductory adventure or as a stand alone side quest for your old school campaigns. There's also lots to be had from here and with the right DM one could make this into a mini campaign and stretch it over a three or more sessions. All in all this is a perfect adventure to really get the campaign off the ground. Four out of five, the adventure lives up to the hidden gem of its internal nature and really showcases its own OSR style of play. Grab this one and get your own campaign off to running start with  The Lizardmen of Illzathatch

Review & Commentary on The Free OSR PC Resource From Three Toad Stools - The Myrmidon For Your Old School Campaigns

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Shane Ward of 3 Toadstools has put out some really wonderful OSR resources over the last year or so. Now he's given a the OSR mythological, sword and sandal or sword & sorcery campaigns. The class is intended for Labyrinth Lord but I can see far more potential then simply another Greek themed adventure game warrior PC class addition or option.
What are Myrmidons? Well according to Wiki - "The Myrmidons or Myrmidones (Greek: Μυρμιδόνες) were a legendary people of Greek history. They were very brave warriors: trained and commanded by Achilles,^[1] as described in Homer's Iliad. Their eponymous ancestor was Myrmidon, a king of Thessalian Phthia, who was the son of Zeus and "wide-ruling" Eurymedousa, a princess of Phthia.
An etiological myth of their origins, expanding upon their etymology — the name in Classical Greek was interpreted as "ant-people", from μυρμηδών (murmedon) "ant's nest"^[2] and that from μύρμηξ (murmex) "ant"^[3] — was first mentioned by Ovid, in Metamorphoses: in Ovid's telling, King Aeacus of Aegina, Achilles' grandfather, pleaded with Zeus to populate his country after a terrible plague. Zeus said his people would number as the ants on his sacred oak, and from the ants sprang the people of Aegina, the Myrmidons. In Manichaeism, the name myrmidons is used to refer to a certain class of demonic soldiers that fight for darkness against light. This has been found by archaeologists in papyri known as Coptic Manichaean Psalm-books. These papyri were found in Medinet Maadi, Egypt"
 This fighter class is well balanced and works out very well for a sword and sorcery style game as well as the usual sword and sandal games. I've used variation of the class before from second edition but because I've been drifting lately more and more back to OD&D, retroclones, and near clones The Myrmidon was a welcome addition to my arsenal. These guys make excellent additions to Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea games.  The fact that separates these PC warriors;"Myrmidon are mighty fighters, followers of Achilles (or some other great warrior). What separates Myrmidon's from typical fighters is their ability to survive under the harshest conditions and gravest wounds."
This little addition marks these fighter types as just that bit different and puts me as a DM into the head space of pulpy adventure goodness. In case I haven't said to grab this then go grab it right now. Its free and incredibly useful for a DM planning on playing in a sword and sandal, mythological arena, or even a sword and sorcery campaign.

This is only a seven pages of old school PC fun but it provides everything the player needs to get started using the Myrmidon straight out of the gate. I can only say enough good things about using this class to get the ball rolling for a campaign. Three toad stool did a damn fine job on this class. I was put in the mind of the original Ray Harryhausen creations the original Jason and Argonauts and  Class of the Titans.  The addition of elite warriors willing to die or rise to challenge of mythological horror fits the Myrmidon class very well.


There has been plenty of Greek mythological  inspired madness in the air tonight, Brett Slocum also threw together D12 Fighter Subclasses for Greek-themed Campaigns. Because of the very nature of the time lost warriors in AS&SH any of these fighters might also make an appearance on the shores of Hyperborea. This makes the addition of the Myrmidon  both welcome and a solid addition to an old school DM's arsenal. The Myrmidon also makes a fantastic hireling or elite guard for high level PC's.

There always some fantastic resources that come down the pike and never enough time to implement all of them into a class OSR style campaign. But the Myrmidon is a welcome addition to the OSR stage.

Review & Commentary on The Free OSR Gnome Resource - CX1 Extra Gnomes For Your OD&D and Retroclone Campaigns

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Richard J. LeBlanc, Jr. has turned out some damn fine quality retroclone system's material and I became familiar with his work on Petty Gods and his damn fine Creature Compendium.  Now he's released his free eight page preview of gnomish goodness titled CX1 Extra Gnomes perfect for both BX,OD&D, and Labyrinth Lord based games. This is an eight page PC based supplement perfect for back introducing in your old school campaigns includes: deep gnomes, forest gnomes, rock gnomes and tinker gnomes, as well as 3 pages of supporting spell descriptions. This is according to the RPGNow description.
This is eight pages of race as class with a gnomish flare to the product, there racial abilities and little touches that give these gnomes a bit more of a distinct touch to each one. The powers and abilities reflect the mythology and legends that surround their type. There is a nice balance and flare for each.
   For example the Svirfneblin (deep gnomes) can appraise gems, have the ability to determine sloping passages, figure out stone works and has several abilities usable once per day including rendering creature blind if they fail their saving throw, the ability to cast an illusionary disguise around themselves, and blur. Then there is the Forest gnome described as stewards of nature who possess druid-like magical abilities, but are also versed in the underground skills common to most gnomes. Mature forest gnomes often find themselves in the role of woodland sages. The rock gnome is one of my favorites and features many of the common abilities seen in AD&D 1st and 2nd edition. Rock gnomes are the most common type of gnome, easily distinguished from other types of gnomes by the size of their noses. They are miners, fighters and illusionists.The final type offered by the CX1 Extra Gnomes is the Tinker Gnome;  'Tinker gnomes are experts in a variety of mechanical devices. They are focused and purposeful, and they revel in their personal accomplishments, often congratulating themselves for a job well done. Tinker gnomes, like rock gnomes, are slightly larger than halflings' Tinker gnomes play fast and loose with many of the second edition conventions of mechanical objects, systems and weird contraptions associated with gnomes. The release of CX1 Character Class Codex is coming soon and this free download serves to wet the appetite of the OSR public. Is it worth the download for your OD&D, BX, Labryth Lord, Swords and Wizardry, etc. retrclone games? In a word yes!
                          Using CX1 Extra Gnomes For  OD&D and Retroclone Campaigns

Lately I find myself drifting back toward more OD&D and BX retroclone systems. This preview of the Character Class Codex gives me great hope for this up coming product. The CX1 Gnome product has a ton of uses as a basis for a far more mythological based PC type and yet has the compromise to the old second edition AD&D tropes that seem to permeate the OSR pop culture base. That's fine because CX1 is a really solid comprise between these two allowing a DM to pick and choose as they see fit for they're needs as far as NPC design or players to get in a solid playing experience with a PC with lots of potential to enjoy.
 I can see using CX1 to design some very weird NPC's for PC's to encounter and the gnome types pull as much from myth and legend as they do from the vast D&D style pool of unconscious player culture  knowledge making CX1 unique in this regard.
The very elemental nature of the gnomes brings to mind the blog entry by James Mishler about Spontaneous generation of life in the dungeon, perhaps gnomes are even weirder then then what was hinted about in the nature of gnomes in the OD&D material or the 1st edition Monster Manual.
  I can see taking CX1 and using it along games such as Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea where the sword and sorcery bits pull from the legends of Fey and gnomes having an elemental magickal  birth rather then simply another racial class to play. This gives the DM more sword and sorcery bits to play with, something that A.Merrit's Ship of Ishtar hints about, the survival of ancient secrets  to convey a sense of the marvelous and mysterious. All in all I see lots and lots of uses for CX1 Extra Gnomes in OD&D,BX, and other retroclone systems. So if you haven't downloaded CX1, what are you waiting for? The gnomes are waiting to invade your games!

                                                                                  

Two Free New OSR Character Class Resources For The Fantastic Heroes and Witchery Rpg System & Your Old School Campaigns

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There's two brand new free awesome character class resources for the Fantastic Heroes and Witchery rpg system. First there's a brand new awesome Excel style PC character sheet for the game. They don't come any better. All of the nifty little details are right at the players finger tips. The second release is character class extravaganza with a plethora of new character classes and some related variations of some of the classics old school classic PC classes.
Fantastic Heroes and Witchery is a game with a ton of creator supported material and the author makes it hard not to grab a hold of his vision and simply go with it.
According to  Dominique Crouzet :
Today are released two new files, available on my website for free download!

1) An awesome character sheet for Microsoft Excel kindly given to us by Arne Holzwarth. Thanks a lot for this excellent work: see download file #4.

2) A free 20 pages document with 11 classes to use in FH&W. This is a major update and expansion of a former document that proposed 4 classes based on more accurately converted classes. As you know, many FH&W classes strongly depart from the originals (e.g. bard and ranger without spells; paladins that are but knights with a few holy powers, etc.). So, here you have 11 classes that look much closer to the originals for thse who need/want them, but still with a FH&W twist (e.g. the Swan Maiden class, or the Wizard of High Arcana).

The sheer volume of support material for the game is both staggering and sort of inspiring. Very cool stuff to see coming out the Fantastic Heroes and Witchery campaign. Thanks for the major updates and expansions! 

Updated and Expanded Free Science Fantasy Classes Resource - Science-Fantasy Classes and Races For Fantastic Heroes & Witchery As Well As Your Old School Campaigns

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Well now Dominique Crouzet is a pretty damn fast game designer, writer, and artist among other talents. He's updated the latest science fantasy addition to Fantastic Heroes and witchery with two new classes which include Runner ( inspired from a classic science fiction film & television show from the Seventies) and a sisterhood class also inspired from a classic science fiction series from the Sixties. I've had a small hand in this little addition to the Fantastic Heroes and Witchery game. According to Dominique: 

"I updated the document! It increased from four to eight pages. Have been added two new classes (Runner and Sisterhood Acolyte) plus a few sci-fi skills. Available on my website for download."

Don't worry folks he's back working on Dark Albion and the Beastry for Fantastic Heroes and Witchery! My advise is to grab this latest addition and start getting in on the ground floor to a fantastic old school campaign!
Run Runner! 

Free OSR Science Fantasy PC classes - Science-Fantasy Classes and Race For Fantastic Heroes & Witchery As Well As Your Old School Campaigns

I couldn't be more happy that the author of Fantastic Heroes and Witchery has decided to take the material from my Otherworld fan material from HERE & HERE . And turn it into a free science fantasy supplemental set of classes. The material is well balanced and very well done. 

"Of course FH&W needs more classes! ;-D So, for play in science-fantasy settings, and inspired by Eric Fabiaschi, here is two new classes: the Planet Trooper and Purple Knight; plus a new race: the Mekan (an android) with its own racial class."
 The 4 pages freebie is for download on my website:http://www.dcrouzet.net/heroes-witchery/?page_id=83

When I first created FH&W, I also planned to do a supplement called Future H&W. I later abandoned the idea. But I have already enough material for a 60 pages supplement. So, now I am thinking: why not? Why should this have to be 130 pages long? I can do a small supplement just 60 pages long. This would be mostly new races, new classes, new equipment, and spells for a magitech-wizard. And this would be focused mostly on science-fantasy, not hard science-fiction. I even have all the stock-art necessary!

In any case, this not for soon. First is the Dark Albion and Blasphemous Bestiary on the anvil...

Now I couldn't be more thrilled with this turn of events.Fantastic Heroes and Witchery is getting the science fantasy supplement it deserves. Except for one small detail.Could I please have at least a partial credit on the website and pdf for inspiring the class? Thanks.
And here's what I was taught years ago,and this is for all you OSR & non rpg publishers,writers,designers etc. Credit the work of those you work with and have links pointing back to your sources. I'm not a person who bites the hand that feeds him but this is a matter of simple manners folks. Fantastic Heroes and Witchery is going to be the backbone of my gaming for the next couple of years at least if not more. 

And now an update has been made and the credit installed! Thanks to the author, funny how all I've had nothing but positive experiences with the OSR.