Quick Kickstarter OSR Update & Beyond Attention Getters

Kickstarter is filled with all kinds of projects possibly worth your attention but two that have caught my eye. The first is a solid DCC Cthulhu Mythos/Horror Western mash up called Dark Trails.

This book has been making waves across the DCC/OSR community & I don't see it going away anytime soon. 

"The largest challenge for my new life on the frontier was building shelter and pulling food from the ground I plowed before winter settled in.

That was before the shadows came to life that fateful night and claimed the lives of those I loved.  I’d heard a rumor of things born of darkness skulking around and the idiots hellbent on ushering more of them into the world, but like most folks eager to carve out a new life braving the western frontier, I chalked it up to tall-tales fueled by whiskey and superstition.

My last sight before being overwhelmed and feeling those needle-sharp teeth pierce my jugular, was watching my youngest take her last terrified breath, as something dragged that kindly woman (whose love kept me on the path of good intentions for so long) kicking and screaming into the shadows.  That was when the soft whisper of Death called to me, wrapping my soul in its dark embrace, preparing me for a different journey.

A distant light set against a starless night pulled at my weightless soul.  A lifetime of memories flashed before me as I sped towards the afterlife.  The power in those memories slowed my final journey.  Unfinished business pulled at my stubborn soul and proved stronger than the promise of that peaceful light.  I returned to my broken, bloody body and willed it back into a mockery of life.

Almost a year has passed now, and the bittersweet memories of my family fuel a never-ending thirst for vengeance.  I returned that night with the strength of the grave coursing through my rotting veins, no longer living, nor dead.  Since the night it took my family, I’ve picked up a posse of folks equally kissed by the supernatural and equally determined to take the fight to the sinister agents of the night.          

 -from the journal of Samuel Mundy"
 "The Dark Trails RPG is a game which pays homage to the popular weird West genre.  It can be used as a standalone game or as the perfect complement to a growing line of products that all utilize the rules found in the Dungeon Crawl Classics (DCC) RPG.   As a player, you’ll find a wealth of material that allows you to assume the role of one of 11 unique classes, with descriptive names like: the Calavera, the Bedlamite, and the Sin-Eater.   As a Judge, you’ll find over 400 pages of material giving you a wealth of resources for designing and running fantastic adventures set against the haunted landscapes of an unforgiving weird West. "
So this sounds really ace & we need a new Western horror game & this sounds like it has all of the parts & moving pieces of a classic in the making. You can support The Dark Trails Kickstarter here. 


So yeah, the pretty much had me at fully compatible with Dungeon Crawl Classics & I can actually see using Dark Trails with Jason Sholtis Operation Unfathomable to create a Weird West horror come mega dungeon. 

The Second Kickstarter that I think is worth your time in my estimation is the Troll Lord's Amazing Adventures Fifth Edition Kickstarter by Jason Vey. Its made two of its stretch goals & seems to be a vast upgrade to the previous edition. 

I've been watching this project for some months now in the AA! Facebook group but have kept my  distance because of running the Amazing Adventure classic edition campaign that's on going. But I've had any number of people whispering good things in my ear about this project & kickstarter. Take a look for yourself & if your so inclined then by all means support it right over here. 
There's some great campaign  potential here with this Amazing Adventures newest edition. Let's see how far we see these kickstarters go! 

Operation Middenlands - Marrying Jason Sholtis Operation Unfathomable & Monkey Blood Design's Middenlands Setting

So I've been thinking about the Advanced Labyrinth Lord  Kickstarter & playing around with using Swords & Wizardry adventures & settings with it. I read about Glynn Seal of Monkey Blood Design's bad news tonight; "Okay, so my pickup truck failed its MOT test.To get it through, the running total is now at £920 GBP. Holy shit! I've never had a failure that bad... and I need my truck.

It turns out this year was the wrong year to go freelance.
If anyone wants to empty their wallet buying MonkeyBlood Design stuff, or commission me (although I'm tied up for a few weeks at the moment), or just share this around, please feel free to do so and thank you in advance!"



But this also got me thinking about Glynn's Midderlands mini sand box setting which is really weird because its for Swords & Wizardry. But it takes very little to convert on the fly from one OSR system to other.

Part of the idea of the Midderlands mini setting is that the deeper down you go the further you get into the green tinged Gloomium & primal chaos of the setting. This idea of primal chaos also got me thinking of Jason Sholtis's Operation Unfathomable.

 

Seal's Midderlands has a completely different feel then Shotlis setting. The Midderlands is completely fantasy United Kingdom on acid with splashes of dark fantasy scattered throughout. While Sholtis's setting that has a mix of dark fantasy comic book meets high weirdness with touches of Lovecraft & they had  a dungeon setting love child. Operation Unfathomable is weird & bizarre OSR adventure.
There would seem to be very little in common between the two product's settings except for the fact that both have a miasma of chaos madness  tinged in the center of their respective underground worlds. 
Its in the dungeon underworld where the two settings can be completely hooked up. The Middenlands could be an isolated & comparatively idyllically stationed backwater of a campaign world. The rest of the world however is a stinking mire of  dark fantasy typical an old school or OSR game Europe.
There are a few ways that marrying these two settings can easily & painlessly done in my mind:

1. The Operation Unfathomable world elements are on the other side of the campaign world. It takes a mounted expedition or two too get to the high weirdness. 
2. The dungeon underworlds of both the Middenlands & Operation are deeply connected because of the strain of primal chaos seething through the core of the campaign world. 
3. The solar system of this campaign world is of great importance to certain alien  factions in both  settings. They've been at war for a very long time & neither side wants to give up. 
4. Neither of these worlds is cosmically important but the wheels were set in motion billions of years ago. The chess board has to be played out. 
5. Glynn Seal's Demon Stones adventure   has several setting design options for bringing in Gloomium Outer Darkness goodness right out of a clear blue sky into a campaign. 
6.  Lots of Operation Unfathomable's factions are ripe to exploit the chaos laden goodness of Gloomium especially those bastard mushroom scientists of Sholtis. 
7.  The human race in both settings is completely & utterly expendable in the face of some of the factions in both books. They really do need heroes & adventurers to survive. 
8.   There's something very uniquely unsettling about the thought that in some libarary in the Middenland  is a  book & map from a failed expedition to the dungeons of Operation Unfathomable. Mounting an expedition would take lots & lots of money, time, treasure, ships, resources, etc. The PC's are perhaps going to be a part of a much larger operation.
9. The natives of  Operation Unfathomable are not friendly & should they become aware of the Middenlands Europe, then all bets could be off for those poor people. Or maybe they are aware of these folks & they don't care because their completely & utterly unimportant to their alien plans. 
10. I keep thinking of a campaign world where the world is much weirder & far more dangerous then the provincial fantasy Europeans think it is. The expansion of the West into the lands of Operation are going to be an eye opening experience.
     

Stefan Poag's artwork from the Operation Unfathomable book  quickly illustrates the exact sort of a situation that I'm speaking of.
" The above illustration shows an ‘Underworld ranger’ discharging his lightning pistol at a perfidious mind-bat while another ranger reels from the psychic attack they have already suffered — all creatures and situations from the dark corners of Sholtis’ fertile imagination."


I really can stop thinking about marrying this up with the back story of Henchmen Abuse's the Anomalous Subsurface Environment  ASE1 & ASE2&3 world.  Everything is completely in place for a massive campaign world. The factions, the science fantasy high weirdness, the world churning events, etc.
The whole affair would be massive undertaking with three or more dungeon masters handling the gonzo & completely dangerously insane world affair. This is why I'd run the whole thing with Labyrinth Lord.

 The question is are the adventurers of the Midderlands mini sand box setting ready for the high weirdness awaiting them in the greater world or underworld?!

Highcastle Guard
Under the command of Sir Hestel Vinethorn of Brignorth.

I think that both OSR settings have a lot of campaign milage to offer the players & the dungeon master. This is a sweet little chaos laden campaign affair that could have players coming back to the table for many years to come!

 Next time back to Arduin on the blog tomorrow!

 

 

Commentary On Misty Isles of the Eld By Chris Kutalik & Robert Parker From The Hydra Cooperative For A Dark Albion Campaign Twist

I had a beer with some friends tonight and we were talking OSR settings the Misty Isles of the Eld reared its head. Here's how this happened.


I was rereading The Misty Isles of the Eld From Hydra Cooperative & Dark Albion's The Rose War plus Dark Albion's Cults of Chaos .

When there were several demented thoughts rushing through my head about the cults on the fringes of Dark Albion. What if the cults of Elves were really Eld  & the Misty Isles existed on the fringes of Dark Albion in all of their glory with Vatmen,etc. It got me thinking long & hard about the effects of the occult technologies of the Eld. Perhaps the fact the various dungeons presented in the  Misty Isles might exist on the edges of the Dark Albion setting just out of reach of the borders of reality. This might mean replacing the Elves out of Dark Albion but there are other reasons for this as we shall see. First of all the Eld are complete & utter jerks make no mistake about that. They might have isolated isles of unreality in the form of their misty isles that sometimes drift into the reality of Dark Albion. I know surely there can't be any historical prescient for this? Well not so much historical but mythological that ties directly into the setting of Dark Albion's alternative Earth.


In the Celtic tradition there are the various vanishing islands such as Brasil, which according to Wiki;"Brasil, also known as Hy-Brasil or several other variants,^[1] is a phantom island said to lie in the Atlantic Ocean^[2] west of Ireland. Irish myths described it as cloaked in mist except for one day every seven years, when it became visible but still could not be reached." An isle in the mists that can only appear every seven years?


Journeys into the 'other world' were chaotic, dangerous, & often times really weird sounds similar to the Misty Isle to me. But the chaos index of the isles really does it for me, a sense of unreality that causes normality to go out the window just waiting to take over? Yeah that could be very dangerous if you've got cults of vatmen within the structure of Dark Albion society. So why haven't the Eld simply taken over England and Europe? Well besides the usual magick issues, incompatible realities, and legendary guards against this perhaps there hasn't be the needed blood shed?



Well that's where the War of the Roses (15th century) comes blazing in full guns with violence & desparate people willing to cut deals with the Eld for favor, occult technologies, & all of the corruption that the Eld can bring to Dark Albion. But the problem is that the Eld are straight up nasty when it comes to dealing with humanity. If they can get more then a toe hold in Europe and Albion then your going to see lots of chaos ensuing.
Or will you? The fact is that the inquisition of Albion may have had more then its fair share of dealing with the cults of the Eld. Perhaps this isn't the first time they've seen these jokers on Albion soil. The church of the Unconquered Sun has the tools to deal with these upstarts but it will take valuable manpower and time. These are two things that the Rose War is going to eat up in equal measure.


When it comes to the Eld eying Albion there are several reasons why including slave stock, resources, and pure expansionist empire building. They also a perfect fit for the 'Celtic Other World' But the Eld are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to that other world there could be many menaces that could potentially cause all kinds of harm to parties of Dark Albion adventurers.

"In Gaelic and Brittonic mythology it is usually described as a supernatural realm of everlasting youth, beauty, health, abundance and joy.^[1] The Otherworld is usually elusive, but various mythical heroes visit it either through chance or after being invited by one of its residents. They often reach it by entering ancient burial mounds or caves, or by going under water or across the western sea.^[1] Sometimes, the Otherworld is said to exist alongside our own and intrudes into this one; signaled by phenomena such as magic mist, sudden changes in the weather, or the appearance of divine beings or unusual animals.^[2] An otherworldly woman may invite the hero into the Otherworld by offering an apple or a silver apple branch, or a ball of thread to follow as it unwinds" Misty Isles of the Eld fits quite nicely into the dreamlike weirdness of the Celtic Otherworld.

But the Eld are not the only menace that is going to trouble adventurers, alright let's suppose that some minor noble has made contact with the Eld & has a chaos cult of these bastards in some hidden swamp, manor glen, or ruined temple in the English countryside.
The Frog men just might have something to say about the incursion of the Eld back into the local time space continuum.
Margaret of Anjou through human agents and their witch cults would be able to keep an eye on the situation if such an incursion were to occur. The real world ruler had an extensive spy network was extremely well connected & would have her fingers on the pulse of such a situation. All of this leads me to believe that one of the rival houses would most likely be the ones to cut a deal with the Eld. Most likely ending up on a gallows, dead or most unlucky being dragged away into the not so forgiving clutches of the Eld themselves.

The Frog men might make an alliance with the Eld to make full war on Albion
Why not take full advantage of the blood shed & silly wars of the humans? Lesser Boglings II - Wilderness Encounters - Otherworld Miniatures (x3 figs)



What about the Eld themselves could their reality be simply one more in the onion layered madness that surrounds  Dark Albion? Could the Ursine Dunes reality be the actual Russia of Dark Albion? A place blasted beyond the pale of mankind where the story book like reality has subplanted the true reality of Dark Albion's Europe? The mind boggles with the possible implications of this sort of a weird cross politicization of OSR settings.
A variation of the Eld are featured in Dwimmermount  perhaps that great mega dungeon's location might be in Siberia. Its fell siren call beckoning adventurers across the centuries to their doom.


Could one of the factions of the Rose War send off a expedition to the legendary megadungeon in search of some occult advantage during the civil war? A mythological wonder weapon hidden away for centuries?



This sort of a mix lends itself to half violent fairy tale, part pulpy old school adventure, & high weirdness under the alternative light of the history of Dark Albion indeed it is a heady mix folks!

Unboxing The Misty Isles of the Eld Book By Chris Kutalik & Robert Parker From The Hydra Cooperative For Your Old School Campaigns

My copy of Misty Isles of the Eld By Chris Kutalik & Robert Parker arrived today! My advice is to keep your PC's out of their clutches and here's why.

When it comes to the Misty Isles the psychical book is far better then the PDF in my humble opinion. The the ideas come across far more clearly to my ancient brain. The Isles are a mix of  Frank L. Baum, William Burroughs, & the elves that always seem to be lurking in the sinister corners of fairy tales. You know the dark ones in the back of certain weird and esoteric Eighties gaming magazines twisted through the imagination of Chris Kutalik, & Robert Parker. 

 


My impression from going over the book again is the fact that these evil David Bowie space elves could show up anywhere and be a menace to adventurers in a campaign for a long time to come. The Eld are complete and utterly alien within their own right. I've done a review and campaign ideas in several blog entries.

It really took a while for the ideas & weirdness of the Eld to settle in, the fact is that many of the mini plane's themes, setting material, and more draw from a ton of sources distilled into this nightmare morass of weirdness that is the Misty Isles of the Eld. This is one of the reasons why the Hill Cantons campaign setting has caught on.

 I think that there are several reasons why Misty Isles of the Eld works for me as a DM:

• The Eld and their weirdness fulfill a complete take on the alien 'other' menace in a campaign while maintaining enough familiarity to keep PC's on their toes. They have both enough of the Fey about them to be dangerous but are really their own creation. 
• The mists of Eld could lead to all kinds of worlds and they might have access to a plethora of inter dimensional locations. This means that you could plug them into many old school or retroclone settings seamlessly. 
• The Eld while not as inimical to mankind as some retroclone creations are dangerous and should be used with caution. 

 The book quality isn't bad at all and the binding is quite nice. The text and font are on par with other POD efforts I've seen and the material is easy on the eyes. So not bad for a book that fits those demands. The transitional cover of the book really gives that other dimensional weirdness of the Eld. And that's one of the areas that ties in the various adventure locations that your PC's hexcrawl through. These are some of the tools that Misty Isles brings to the table.  The Eld are evil, weird, and alien as their environment which ties  into the the Psychonaut PC class possibly as bridge gap into other campaign settings. Think about it the Psychonaut is a bridge into other OSR material such as  Weird Adventures by Trey Causey.  The Eld are perfect foils for the weirdness of  'The City' and could easily transition over giving adventurers in that setting more then a run for their money. And that's part of the charm of the Misty Isles of the Eld that universal weirdness that plugs into the back brain of the old school gamers. 

The artwork is nice & there's that fairy tale gone complete wrong mixed with science fantasy pulp magazine bits and pieces to the Eld. They make excellent other dimensional stand in menaces that PC's blunder into. The outcome isn't going to be pretty but it will be amusing on any number of levels.

There's an element of DYI Eld building going on here for the DM where he can take the bits he wants and add in or subtract material without breaking it. Basically this is a setting book that is greater then the sum of its parts with lots and lots of good OSR material pumping through its otherworldly twisted 19th century alternative fairy tale like modern setting. The various tables enable the DM to take and give what they need to create material original enough and yet accessible enough to work in their own home games with Misty Isles of the Eld.

I can see PC's dealing with the various locations absolutely terrified that they might not live through the experience of dealing with the Misty Isle's and its people. There are lots of twist & very dangerous NPC's scattered throughout the book. These resemble in many respects otherworldly takes on familiar fairytales laced through with the author's weird take on all of this. This is something we've seen repeatedly in the Hill Canton's material. But is all of this gamable? In a word yes perhaps a bit too much. In many respects after going over the Misty Isles I suspect one might want to piece meal this book and spoon feed it into a campaign one very cool bit at a time. This is something that I've found with a Red and Pleasant Land by Zak Smith. There is so much cool material that you don't want the players to become jaded or over wrought with the coolness.

 The adventure locations from the  meth-fruit Plantation House to the
The Vat Complex could take months to go through and its all packed in with some really neat bits. The Hydra Cooperative doesn't disappoint when it comes to products of imagination. I could see DMing entire adventure campaigns using this one book. There's tons of potential for all kinds of mayhem.

 Another way to use the Misty Isles of the Eld is to take a classic fairy tale and then rewrite it through the lens of the book, in fact an entire campaign could be done this way. Sleeping Beauty or another classic could have its roots in the weird of the Misty Isles where all kinds of twists and turns could keep PC's busy for a long time.  The Eld are perfect DM foils who can out weird and out deal PC's and adventurers at every turn and this book gives you the tools to do so.

The artwork and cartography suits this book to a tee and the more I look the more weirdness is lurking within. This is a book that has clicked with me and I really enjoy it each time I flip it open.

My bottom line and advice on this book is to grab a copy & start taking the pieces you want right out of here. This is a great little book to expose your PC's to the twisted world of the Eld but mind your manners with them or you might regret it. Remember keep those bones rolling.

Another OSR Campaign Idea - Misty Isles of the Eld By Chris Kutalik & Robert Parker From The Hydra Cooperative Vs. Elven Powers of Dark Albion

So I was away a good portion of the day today with my father at the doctors in my home town. There really wasn't much that I could do and I decided to get away from my old school D&D books and the OSR material to help me get some perspective on this new arch for the Warlords of the Outer Worlds campaign. I was thinking about mixing in old school D&D material, a couple of favorite OSR titles, and a bit of science fantasy. Alright more like a lot of science fantasy in this case with the post apocalyptic theme turned up a bit.
For my version of Russia in Warlords, the human race isn't at the top of the food chain of dominance anymore. I kept thinking about the classic Thundarr The Barbarian cartoon from 'Eighty One' all day. In each and every episode we find out that the human race has ceased to be top of the food chain. That aspect I'm keeping with mankind huddled in technologically advanced city states kept working by almost magick relic technologies.

The Fey  races have returned to the wastelands & wilderness; along with the other mythological races and their sinister progenitors. Where the PC's are right now is right in the cross hairs of a metaphorical stand off as to greater powers are in a protracted cold war over the human population. The Eld and Elves of Dark Albion fame have been in a bloody & very dangerous hot/cold  war over the humans as resources. They're literally fighting  over the bodies, and souls of the local humans. Part of the greater problem is the fact that the humans willingly go to the elves because that's what's been done for generations.  The guidelines that have been given in Cults of Chaos make this very easy to fit into a campaign. It also makes them foes for the fickle and very dangerous Eld.

The two Elven powers mine the dreams of the human population, ravage their souls, & feed off their emotions all of the while dealing with them as resources and slaves. Warfare takes the form  of weird poetry readings, magickal story contests, and high hunts where humans are released and two teams of hunters go after and hunt down the prey. All of this is done in the most alien and civilized terms but it is still warfare none the less.


The humans deal with ancient gods, cut deals with other demons and wizards, and try to forget about the high handed ritual combat going on in the Veil & The Beyond around the corner from reality. Sometimes these wars split reality and the locals are caught in the cross fire. Meanwhile adventurers and wastelands pick up the scraps and relics left behind by the combatants. High Elves & fairies try to protect the humans but ultimate are just as alien as the others but the odd half elves or fey touched are produced now and then. These beings are often drawn into the clutches of the elves because magick and chaos sings in their blood. The siren call is often too strong for them. They are taken by cults & often end up on the sacrifice block or worse.



Magick mutation, and chaos leave its wake many mutants,monsters, and horror stories waiting for adventurers to blunder into communities touched by these beings. Entire villages and isolated societies have had generations of contact with the various Elven and Eld power blocks. Many of the traditional Russian gods and priests take a very dim view of these alien interlopers. Shamans and priests of law often bring down purges or hunts to such places with divine assistance. But still the roots of chaos run far too deep to cause any real extinction in such ancient practices.


As for the Eld they find all of this terribly amusing in a cold blooded and calculating way. They're fickle and highly dangerous nature are a match for the Elven powers of Dark Albion. The Chess game of theirs continues apace with no real end in sight for now.


This is simply another wrinkle I'm working on for my Tuesday night game. Dark Albion's Cults of Chaos isn't out quite yet but Misty Isles of the Eld from The Hydra Cooperative is currently available.
This idea occurred to me the other day when I was going over my notes for the Eld Vs the Astral Raiders blog entry I did a couple of days back.

Misty Isles of the Eld By Chris Kutalik & Robert Parker From The Hydra Cooperative Vs. The Astral Raiders Campaign Set Up

I had a friend come over last night because it was my birthday, there was beer and tequila involved. But there was also a ton of muddled OSR conversations about Basil Wolverton, HP Lovecraft, Misty Isles of the Eld By Chris Kutalik & Robert Parker, and The Astral Raiders from Ancient Vaults blog.
Let me see if I got this right because there was beer and tequila involved.
This as a part of my Warlords Of the Outer Worlds campaign gambit this would work. "An ancient fragment kingdom from Oz part of the dreams of mankind has broken off and drifted into the skies out around the Outer Worlds where the ancient demons and Lovecraftian gods have been held in check by the forces mankind and mutant alike. But only barely'
But then a new wrinkle has been added as the Eld's forces want an ancient artifact on this fragment of the dreaming of mankind's collective unconsciousness. They're not going to get it though because the Astral Raiders and their beasts from beyond want to lay claim to the artifact and the place. The result is all out war!  The Raiders release one of their astral beasts upon one of the colony worlds."


The PC's are brought in as mercenary commandos to sneak in under the noses of both sides and get that artifact for the humans side. The PC's have a limited amount of time because the fragment is still drifting out of orbit and they've got to avoid the vatmen, the forces of the Eld and watch the various factions of the Astral Raiders including avoiding the princess/wizardress
heading their forces.


So what's happening with this campaign idea? Well here's an example of the sort of play that can be used with Misty Isles of the Eld By Chris Kutalik & Robert Parker From The Hydra Cooperative combined with Adventurer, Conqueror, King. The idea of my Warlords of the Outer Worlds setting is to take domain play into the realms of  Dreams, The Astral, and The Lovecraftian. The Misty Isles is a perfect compliment and vehicle for this sort of OSR style game.

Review & Commentary On Misty Isles of the Eld By Chris Kutalik & Robert Parker From The Hydra Cooperative For Your Old School Campaigns

The Misty Isles of the Eld From Hydra Cooperative is a hundred and four page acid trip of a setting if Frank Baum and William Burroughs had gotten together to create a setting over a weekend of drink and drugs. Is it good though and playable? In a word, yes it is because its both engaging and original in its approach to itself. This is the kind of a setting that you want to drop PC's into if they have yen for something weird and more then slightly dangerous.


  Grab It Right Here

I got a chance to take a quick read through a physical copy last night before my game and it's a really unique and more then slightly disturbing setting. The setting does live up to its press too:"Come visit the acid fantasy mini-sandbox of the Misty Isles, a hellish pocket plane that's brutally displaced a bucolic paradise. Marvel at its massive grub-ridges, shake at the body horror of its protein vats—and watch as your players dynamically unleash the Anti-Chaos Index through their own in-game actions. Misty Isles of the Eld is a stand-alone sequel to Slumbering Ursine Dunes and Fever-Dreaming Marlinko."
I'm happy to report that its a packed tool kit of adventure weirdness and the kind of a setting that has lots and lots of useful tools and OSR adventure locations to drop your players and characters into.
There are some really weird and pulpy adventure pieces and dungeon locations to drop PC's into:

•  The Vat Complex (with its menacing sealed off-west wing, body-horrific industrial process and pocket dimensions), this was one of my favorite dungeon locations and reminded me of a mix of something out of a  Cronenberg film and several chapters of Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
•  The flying god-prison Monument Five has a ton of potential for several OSR campaigns worth of adventure and I could see using this with Labyrinth Lord or even Lamentations of the Flame Princess.
• The meth-fruit Plantation House is an adventure location that reeks of Conrad's Heart of Darkness meets Narcosa with lots of helpings of Hellboy thrown into the mix.
• Colonel Zogg's Pagoda Bunker is a location that I want to throw into Mutant Future as a side adventure on another plane. 
• There is a freaking ton of other worldly beasties and monsters that beg to be used for other adventures. 
• Lots and lots of  technological Eldish artifacts and treasure its really worth it to pick this book up for those alone but this chapter includes a random generator for miscellaneous artifacts picked up and adventure fodder. 
• The Psychonaut is a well done and actually useful class for any OSR game with lots and lots of weirdness and themes to it. I can't begin to explain how damn useful the class is for generating adventure fodder on its own. 

Basically this is a setting book that is greater then the sum of its parts with lots and lots of good OSR material pumping through its otherworldly twisted 19th century alternative fairy tale like modern setting. Misty Isles of the Eld is like something a drug idled historian of the 1900's would write if locked inside a library with nothing but mythology & early  science fiction to pull from. I say this in the best possible way because its got lots going for it. This is one of those books your going to want to pull out and run if A.You got off beat players who like a setting with lots of stuff to explore and get in trouble with and B. Are fans of this sort of material of off beat high weirdness in the best Little Nemo in Dreamland style weirdness.

Ten Ways To Use Misty Isles of the Eld
For Your Old School Campaigns

1.  Because of the unique nature of the other worldly nature wilderness crawl spreads itself across the setting and enables a Dungeon Master to pick and choose where as well as when they want their party of adventurers to deal with the various Misty Isle elements. 
2. Because of the twisted fairy tale nature of bits and pieces of Eld, I think that this book is a good fit for a more modern occult Lamentations of the Flame Princess occult side quest. 
3. Another retroclone setting that might work well here as a side set piece is Zak's a Red and Pleasant Land with the Misty Isles and its environs. 
4. This setting could be worked in as a drop in setting piece for OD&D because of places like Arduin given the proto modern occult tech of the Eld's artifacts which are worth the price of admission. 
5. Misty Isles of the Eld could be used with either Labryth Lord or OSRIC with some adjustments but on the whole it has a rather unique feel. 
6. Mutant Future is another great side set piece to use with the Eld because this is a great setting book to use to pump some life into a campaign. The unique monsters, high weirdness, and Eld artifacts are perfect ways to induce your mutants to the horrors of the Misty Isles but some adjustment might need to be made. 
7. D&D gnomes might be horrified or fascinated by the tech and weirdness of the Eld; perhaps its time to organize an expedition to the setting. 
8. There are plenty of cross over potential including for a game such as Boot Hill, hear me out here. Given the almost weirdness of the Eld the technological levels are very similar, quick dimensional door and instant cross over. 
9. A variation of the Eld are featured in Dwimmermount are perhaps one of the ancient sources of the Eld of the Misty Isles. Maybe the Eld of the Misty Isles might have a clue or legend about that ancient megadungeon. Once again plenty of crossover potential between products for the dungeon master to exploit.
10.  Misty Isles of the Eld has lots of potential to be used as an OSR setting in its own right and many of the various adventure Easter Eggs scattered throughout the book could be used to built a rather interesting and unique dungeon adventure location setting for the retroclone of the DM and players choice. 

 Misty Isles of the Eld is a rather unique and certainly gaming changing campaign setting for any DM looking for a completely off beat and yet servicable world setting for their OSR game campaigns. This book has all of the potential to bring a retroclone or D&D game to another level; the setting reminds me a lot of another Hydra Collective product  Weird Adventures by  Trey Causey  has a ton in common with many of the elements of the Misty Isles of the Eld and I feel they have lots of potential to work well together.
 I personally give the  Misty Isles of the Eld  a four out of five with lots of room for the DM to create and give their own thumb print on the pulpy goodness of the this great setting book