OSR Review & Commentary On The Book of Manos: A Grimoire of Handy Spells By James Mishler, & Jodi Moran-Mishler

"The Book of Manos: A Grimoire of Handy Spells is a 16-page PDF that expands upon the classic “hand” and “fist” magic-user spells, providing a legendary historical context in which to fit them; guidelines on their use; 21 new magic-user spells; six new Manos-based magic items (including the infamous relic, the “Hand of Manos”); and not one but three Manos entities that a magic-user can evoke to gain power when casting Manos spells – though often at the peril of one’s soul!"

"Manos Fatidicas, the purported creator of the many spells that bear his name, is known only through myth and legend. He was active in the early days of the Empire, long before its fall and the rise of the Barbarian Realms and Successor Kingdoms. He was said to have been destined to weave great magic which created disembodied hands and fists, as his very name, “Manos Fatidicas,” translates in an ancient dialect as “Hands of Fate.” Some sages dispute these legends, however, and say that the stories about “Manos Fatidicas,” and even the name itself, were fabricated during the long Dark Age to explain the wide variety of spells of this sort."

The Book of Manos: A Grimoire of Handy Spells By James Mishler, & Jodi Moran-Mishler, these spells are designed around  the classic “hand” and “fist” magic-user spells, such as Bigby's & the like. The Book of Manos: A Grimoire of Handy Spells with Labyrinth Lord and Advanced Labyrinth Lord. These spells are very much in the vein of many of the weirder & dangerous Eighties spells for Basic or Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition. This isn't a bad thing but rather it takes the material in some rather gonzo directions. 

MANOS SPELLS BY LEVEL
1st: Manos’ Iron Gauntlet (NEW)
1st: Manos’ Jarring Hand
1st: Manos’ Useful Hand (NEW)
2nd: Manos’ Burning Hand (NEW)
2nd: Manos’ Helpful Hand (NEW)
2nd: Manos’ Under Hand (NEW)
3rd: Manos’ Defiant Digit (NEW)
3rd: Manos’ Flaming Fist (NEW)
3rd: Manos’ Crooked Finger (NEW)
4th: Manos’ Malevolent Hand (NEW)
4th: Manos’ Harrying Hand (NEW)
4th: Manos’ Guarding Gauntlet (NEW)
5th: Manos’ Tyrannous Thumb (NEW)
5th: Manos’ Interposing Hand
5th: Manos’ Fists of Fury (NEW)
6th: Manos’ Hurling Hand (NEW)
6th: Manos’ Forceful Hand
6th: Manos’ Upper Hand (NEW)
7th: Manos’ Black Hand (NEW)
7th: Manos’ Grasping Hand
7th: Manos’ Haunting Hand (NEW)
8th: Manos’ Heart-Seeking Hand (NEW)
8th: Manos’ Clenched Fist
8th: Manos’ Mighty Fist (NEW)
9th: Manos’ Crushing Hand
9th: Manos’ Hand of Fate (NEW)
9th: Manos’ Maxima Manus (NEW)
The Book of Manos: A Grimoire of Handy Spells  is a basic send up & expansion upon the whole cloth of the hand spells of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition twisted through the Mishler's lens. But besides the usual sort of gonzo OSR spells these are are actually really well done take for example ;"Manos’ Defiant Digit Level: 3 Duration: 1 round per level Range: 10’ per level This spell creates a large, ghostly, disembodied hand that hovers 10 feet above the head of the caster. The hand performs all manner of inflammatory gestures and obscene motions at the enemies of the caster, such that the enemies of the caster who can see the defiant digit and are within range are infuriated and suffer a -1 penalty to all attacks, damage, saving throws, and morale checks. Conversely, however, the defiant digit gives gestures of encouragement to the caster’s allies, such that allies who are within range gain a bonus of +1 to all attacks, damage, saving throws, and morale checks."
 The Book of Manos: A Grimoire of Handy Spells  makes magic wielders & spell slingers far more useful & weirder. The Book of Manos: A Grimoire of Handy Spells  fits the OSR aesthetic  with gusto. 

I can even see using The Book of Manos: A Grimoire of Handy Spells  in Dungeon Crawl Classic or even Sword & Sorcery OSR Pulp games where PC's need access to spells that are just that more stranger then the usual Dungeons & Dragons lists. Is The Book of Manos: A Grimoire of Handy Spells  worth your time for down load? It depends upon two things in my opinion. One do you as the DM want this school of magic in your game OSR game systems & does it fit your campaign? For me the answer to  The Book of Manos: A Grimoire of Handy Spells is a solid yes! 

Review & Commentary On The Advanced Labyrinth Lord Adventure Record Sheets By James Mishler Games

James Mishler Games has been putting out some amazing OSR products over the years. Joining the ranks of his various Labyrinth Lord reference pdfs is a brand new set of OSR style Advanced Labyrinth Lord Adventure Record Sheets . 



Basically these are adventure, session, location, & stat journal sheets that let the players & DM's keep track of their Labryth Lord Advanced game sessions. According to the Drivethrurpg entry; 

"This pack contains the following:

A 2-page Party Adventure Record Sheet, which is used to keep track of the party members, locations explored, NPCs encountered, information learned, monsters killed, treasures won, henchmen & hirelings, divisions of the spoils and XP, and mysteries & loose ends of an adventure session.

A 2-page Character Adventure Record Sheet, which is used during ad adventure to keep track of the character’s combat stats, special abilities and skills, and spells, and is used to keep track of locations explored, NPCs encountered, information learned, monsters killed, treasures won, and secrets kept from other party members during an adventure session.

A 4-page Labyrinth Lord Adventure Log includes two pages dedicated to information needful for running labyrinth and wilderness adventures, including rules for time & movement; light & darkness; listen & spot checks; doors in the labyrinth; traps & trap detection; climbing, stealth, & swimming; and foraging & hunting rules. Also included are a page for keeping track of details of player characters and henchmen, plus a page for keeping track of marching order (by tactics), light sources, monsters and treasures, and notable events." 

But are these Advanced Labyrinth Lord Adventure Record Sheets  actually useful & worth the price of admission? Well?! In a word yes & here's why..Labryth Lord  is a retro-clone of Moldvay-Cook 1981 Basic D&D, a very simple and easy-to-mod version of D&D. Moldvay-Cook Dungeons & Dragons is streamlined & plays very well. Advanced LL adds some classes and races and stuff from 1st ed AD&D to Labyrinth Lord, creating a game simulation very similar to AD&D first edition. But characters are a bit under powered compared to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition. However there was a kickstarter that combined the various incarnations of Labyrinth Lord  into one book. If your looking for a really good break down of the differences of Labryth Lord Basic vs advanced there's this great thread on the Rpgsite. 



The Advanced Labyrinth Lord Adventure Record Sheets  bring home the bacon of letting the players keep track of the little 'ins' & 'outs' that happen during adventuring & table top sessions. These events are very important during old school play because they allow the players to keep track of their PC's during the campaign. This relieves some of the burden from the dungeon master whose juggling all of the other details during the game. So in a word yes the The Advanced Labyrinth Lord Adventure Record Sheets  are worth the dollar admission. 

Review & Commentary On The QUICK START CHARACTER RACE & CLASS SHEETS: BY-THE-BOOK By James Mishler

"The QUICK START CHARACTER CLASS SHEETS BY-THE-BOOK are designed to enable a group of players, new or experienced, to quickly create 1st level characters of the various races, classes, and racial classes available in Labyrinth Lord and Advanced Labyrinth Lord. Each race, class, and racial class is detailed on a single sheet with all the information needed to begin play with that class, including requirements, class abilities, a description of basic 1st level spells (as needed), and a list of starting equipment that makes the most difficult and tedious character-creation element – choosing equipment – relatively fast and simple!

Also included are appendices dealing with Rolling Up Advanced Characters, Rolling Up Basic Characters, Equipment Lists, Fast Packs, and Secondary Skills.

Note that the Quick Start sheets do not usually include any information about advancement, abilities, or spells available after 1st level, other than Experience Points required to attain 2nd level. For all such information, consult the Labyrinth Lord, Advanced Edition Companion, or Advanced Labyrinth Lord tomes."

The QUICK START CHARACTER RACE & CLASS SHEETS: BY-THE-BOOK By James Mishler  is essentially the quick jump kit for the  Labyrinth Lord retroclone system. In thirty two pages you have the essence of everything you need to get the jump on getting your game started with players right out of the gate. It does this in two ways one it gives the player all of the meat of the Labryth Lord system in one easy to digest system broken down into the very basics. Everything here is geared around & toward the player creating their PC's. It does this by creating everything needed to create your zero or first level PC.
This is especially useful for kicking off an Advanced Edition game campaign where the player's need to get the action moving right away. The layout is up to Mishler standards & the reading is easy on the eyes. 
All of the traditional Dungeons & Dragons style fantasy races are given face time here. Dwarves, Elves, Men, etc. all have their moment in the spotlight along with many of the common Labyrinth Lord classes & their advanced versions. 
All of the parts & pieces here fit for getting together a prime cut Labryth Lord game. The impressions here are that The QUICK START CHARACTER RACE & CLASS SHEETS: BY-THE-BOOK By James Mishler  are out for blood. Mostly PC blood in order to get you the player into the role of the PC as fast as possible.
Here's the Half Elf  in all of its glory. You'll notice all of the blown out information is focused exclusivly for the player. This isn't really a dungeon crawl guide but it sure feels like its everything for  the player.
"HALF-ELF RACE Requirements: None Ability Modifiers: None Ability Min/Max: STR 3/18, DEX 6/18, CON 6/18, INT 4/18, WIS 3/18, CHA 3/18 Half-elves are the result of the union of human and elf, and as such they seldom fit into either society. They often inherit a love of nature from their elven parent and a vibrant curiosity and ambitiousness from their human parent. In some lands there are settlements of half-elves, where elves and humans have mingled for long centuries. The child of a half-elf with a half-elf, elf, or human is a half-elf. Half-elves have pointed ears like elves and are slighter of build than humans of the same height. Half-elves average 5’3” to 5’6” tall and typically weigh 110 to 140 pounds. Halfelves typically live for 250 to 350 years. Half-elf skin, hair, and eye color are highly variable, depending on the nature of their human and elven parents. Male half-elves have a base height of 5’6”, females 5’3”. To this (d10) 1-2 Subtract 1d6”, 2-5 Subtract 1d4”, 6-8 Add 1d4”, 9-10 Add 1d6”. Male half-elves have a base weight of 140 pounds, females 110 pounds. To this (d10) 1-2 Subtract 2d6 pounds, 3-5 Subtract 1d8 pounds, 6-8 Add 1d8 pounds, 9-10 Add 2d6 pounds. Half-elves start out at the following ages based on class: Assassin 20+5d4, Cleric 30+3d4, Fighter 20+4d4, Magic-User 35+3d4, Ranger 20+4d4, and Thief 20+5d4. When multiclassing, take the highest base age and add modifiers from all classes. Age provides the following modifiers to 1st level characters: • Adolescent (24 to 44) -1 to Wisdom and +1 to Constitution. • Adult (45 to 99) +1 to Strength and +1 to Constitution. • Middle-Aged (100 to 179) +1 to Intelligence and +1 to Wisdom. • Elderly (180 to 249) -2 to Strength, -1 to Dexterity, -1 to Constitution, +1 to Intelligence, and +2 to Wisdom. • Venerable (250 to 350) -3 to Strength, -2 to Dexterity, -2 to Constitution, +2 to Intelligence, and +3 to Wisdom. These numbers include all cumulative adjustments. To determine skin, hair, and eye coloration, choose from the elf and human lists, or roll d6 for each category separately, 1- 3 as per male parent, 4-6 as per female parent. Elf Eyes: Half-Elves have infravision of 60’, and have keen eyes that allow them, when actively searching, to detect hidden and secret doors with a chance of 2 in 6 (1-2 on 1d6). Ghoul Paralysis Resistance: Half-elves have inherited a resistance to the paralyzing effect of ghouls, receiving a +4 bonus to saving throws against this effect. Languages: Half-elves speak their alignment language, Common, Elvish, Gnoll, Hobgoblin, and Orcish. Half-elves may select from the following classes, with the indicated level limits: HALF-ELF CLASSES AVAILABLE Class Level Limit Assassin 11 Cleric 5 Fighter 12 Magic-User 10 Ranger 8 Thief 12 Half-elves who multi-class usually do so in the following combinations: assassin/cleric, assassin/fighter, assassin/magic-user, cleric/fighter, cleric/fighter/magic-user, cleric/magic-user, cleric/ranger, cleric/thief, fighter/magicuser, fighter/magic-user/thief, fighter/thief, magicuser/ranger, magic-user/thief, and ranger/thief. Half-elf assassins and thieves receive the following bonuses to thief abilities: HALF-ELF THIEF SKILL ADJUSTMENTS Skill Adjustment Pick Pockets +10% Hide in Shadows +5%"
So as you can see everything is boiled down into its moving parts & pieces but the overall fit makes this a nice book to have at the table top level for several reasons. One its a one shop playing field with the set up & references needed to get things moving for the players. Two all of the old D&D favorites are here & ready to go. This makes number three a race again to see whose going to take full advantage of this exclusively. But do I think that you should get , The QUICK START CHARACTER RACE & CLASS SHEETS: BY-THE-BOOK By James Mishler? In a word, very  much so because the book is on sale on Drivethrourpg for a $1,& its well worth it. The time & energy that it took to birth these things into the wild makes this an act your gonna want to get in on.



Even the Appendix are useful with things like adventurers back pack to create everything you need equipment wise; "HALFLING’S PACK Backpack (40 lb. capacity, contains 14.75 lb.) contains 1 oz. vial of ink, 5 sheets of paper, quill pen, sealing wax, a vial of common perfume, shaving kit, small steel mirror, bar of soap, flint and steel, 5 torches, 5 days of trail rations, and a small wooden box containing eight vials of spices (4 oz. each salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, cinnamon, red pepper, paprika, cumin, and oregano); a bedroll, fluffy pillow, set of cookware (pot, frying pan, spoons, knives, etc.), and a wineskin (filled with 4 pints common wine) are strapped to or hang from the outside of the pack. A signal whistle hangs from a chain on the neck, and 5 handkerchiefs are stuffed in a pocket. Value: 39 gp, 7 sp, 7 cp Weight: 35.8 lbs.". Again its about getting you to play as soon as possible.
  The QUICK START CHARACTER RACE & CLASS SHEETS: BY-THE-BOOK By James Mishler takes full advantage of its reader to bring them up to speed on all facets of the Labyrinth Lord retroclone experience.

Do I personally think that its perfect for the beginning or expert players who are looking for a bit more in their game. We need more books like The QUICK START CHARACTER RACE & CLASS SHEETS: BY-THE-BOOK By James Mishler to help fill out the rank & files of player's PC's and get in on the OSR action as soon as yesterday.
You can find the The QUICK START CHARACTER RACE & CLASS SHEETS: BY-THE-BOOK By James Mishler  right here. 

Cosmic Calamity, Ultra Weird Violence, & The Return of the Gonzo OSR Dungeon

So I'm not sure when this happened exactly but apparently the stars aligned in a cosmic OSR display again as three things quietly happened at the same time this past week. The first of which is the fact that James Mishler has quietly been building his own gonzo campaign setting based on the Labyrinth Lord retro clone system; 

"This is the first in a series of posts dedicated to building a library of races, classes, spells, magic items, technological devices, and various charts and tables dedicated to building and exploring a new LABYRINTH LORD campaign setting – LEGENDARIA."

This isn't Mishler's first time dealing with these elements within his table top system but its the first time I'm seeing this

I'm no stranger to the gonzo  style of gaming as any reader of this blog knows. The fact is that there are other indications that this style of Gonzo dungeon crawling. Venger Satanis has his latest Kickstarter out which seems to be another gonzo post apocalpytic Dungeons & Dragons fusion setting;

"The world of Cha'alt started as a fairly typical medieval land with elves, dwarves, snake-men, clerics, and magic-users; steeped in superstition along with antediluvian traditions, before the Old Gods went mad.  

Three-thousand years passed. The surface dwellers split from the malevolent creatures who slithered below. Those who remained on the surface lost the understanding of magic, but their civilization became a highly developed, technological empire of domed cities welcoming interstellar travelers, their massive starships hovering high above in blue skies.

But in the deep crevasses of the world, a power older than time stirred from its deathless slumber. The Ancient Gods, long forgot, had not died but continued to dream... growing chaotic and full of darkness.  And those living underground hastened the Old Ones' rising because they yearned to reclaim Cha'alt for themselves.

When the Great Old Ones awakened, they were angered by the lack of worship, sacrifices, or even casual acknowledgement that they had fashioned the world and all life upon it. 

Soon enough, Cha'alt was all but destroyed by those vengeful Gods, jealous of their creations' achievements and bitter that they had been forgotten.  Civilization in ruins, the surface-dwellers of Cha'alt turned to barbarism as sorcery reappeared, dragons appeared in the now-magenta sky, and demons took hold once more.

Cha'alt is a mysterious world where you're likely to encounter mutant bikers with laser rifles, tentacled sandworms in the deep desert, tribal warfare as blood-splotched shamans ululate at the crimson rock, and alien pirates on anti-grav skiffs looking to steal relics of a bygone age."

The more I read about this adventure setting the more it reminds me of a trend that I've seen in the past & Venger's always been about bending & molding his campaign settings into his own. I totally get that & understand the 'hows' & 'whys' of the author's desires & gaming adventure goals.

But today has been one of those days when I was sitting down with two of my friends & speaking about the growing desire to get back to playing in this style of campaign play with traditional original Dungeons & Dragons adventurers. This isn't rocket science, you simply take a set of old school D&D or retroclone rules & go play. But the fact is that as a dungeon master there's an odd mis balance that has to be achieved with players. Its not simply enough to throw player's PC's on to some far flung corner of the planes.

For me the gonzo OSR dungeon goes all the way back to 2011 with the Black Ziggurat project from the Planet Algol blog. Man, I miss the Planet Algol blog there were so many cool OSR ideas that came from that blog & Blair's twisted mind. Even the Wyrmspittle setting had its own Black Ziggurat dungeon from the Hereticworks folks. 

Before my complete party wipe in my recent Mars 9889 setting I was planning on introducing my own version of the Ebonite Ziggurat which lies deep within the Martian badlands. The structure was part of the launching facility of the invaders to the Earth in 1898.  We don't know that much about the structure at all. The superstitious Red Martians avoid the structure  like the plague & there are rumors that strange lights have been seen at night when Phobos crosses the sky.

 If the rumors are to be believed then the structure may be related to the 'Originators' the insect race that terraformed  & engineered the original life forms of Mars. Transcosmic radiation has been detected on the areas surrounding the structure & many psychics as well as mentalists will black out when trying to penetrate the deeper aural levels of reality that surround the Ebonite Ziggurat. There is a vast sea of bones & shattered skulls that surround the red sands of the ziggurat all of which have varying degrees of violence about them. The ziggurat itself gives off strange sub etheric vibrations that cause any who sleep within a 3 mile radius of it terrible dreams.Main canal routes are very ancient around the structure & no modern ones connect with it. The local kilt wearing Red Martian tribes have many strange legends surround it but it is considered taboo by most right thinking people. The ziggurat borders the small human nation state of  Igarth & one of its Martian post colony neighbor nations. Both societies avoid any mention of the place but certain tribes of savage Green Martians use the lands surround it for 'rites of passage' for their young. There have been sparks of violence between Greys & the Green Martians over the ziggurat lands & court yards. Strange alien monsters have been seen destroying any interlopers who come to close to the buildings of the ziggurat & its structures. Few Martians will speak of the rumors of underground structures & the connections to the Martian invaders cities that surround the Ebonite Ziggurat. There are the remains of hundreds of different sky ships & space craft around the place some wreckage has been found from as  far away as Calidar. But once again these are merely rumors & could be considered the stuff of adventurers whose tongues wag from the strange strong Martian drink that they seem to consume in the space taverns of Igarth.

So not only have I began to notice gonzo dungeons entering back into the OSR consciousness but locally a friend is taking about running Faster Monkey Games Realm of the Technomancer. This is because lots of folks have gotten their copies of the combined Advanced Labyrinth Lord retroclone book which has been hitting shelves because of last year's kickstarter. Suddenly, interest in both Mutant Future & Labryth Lord have started again.  Faster Monkey Games Realm of the Technomancer is a 'pay what you want' adventure that combines the games just like the first edition Gamma World/Advance Dungeons & Dragons first edition into one campaign. This adventure makes a great intro for a campaign setting such as ASE1: Anomalous Subsurface Environment by Patrick Wetmore. 

Only time will tell if we continue to see this return to Gonzo dungeon crawling  trend continue in 2019. As for my own tastes in the realm of the OSR Gonzo adventuring or misadventuring only time will tell. The holidays are just starting to wind down now & so well see the where the gaming takes me over the course of the next year. 

Labyrinth Lord Free Across The Planes! The One Man Crusade Continues!

So yeah, I've been on this one man crusade for Labyrinth Lord for the past three or four weeks now. Why?! Well because the game doesn't get enough attention damn it! So its been an interesting uphill battle to say the least.
So I've gone back to the source material in this case way back to the Saturday, April 21st, 2012 Black Gate article by Daniel Proctor as to why he created Labyrinth Lord.

Edit and now it seems that Dan just launched the Kickstarter for the Labryth Lord Advanced Companion with a dozen kickstarter cover options available today!

Already the kickstarter is half way funded! Seems that LL's on the uptick again! But how does the game stack up against Swords & Wizardry?Well in my research on the game I came across,  How does Swords & Wizardry differ from Labyrinth Lord?

Yes I totally posted this the other day but then I contrasted it with this Dragon foot forum thread; " BECMI, B/X, Dark Dungeons or Labyrinth Lord?"

" LL is derived from Moldvay/Cook/Marsh Basic/Expert but instead of a level 14 cap it goes up to level 20. LL is nice as it may not take your character up to level 36, but you do get to level 20 (with some classes) instead of level 14."
This was posted by MageInBlack
But the interesting bit was using classic AD&D modules with Basic

"Oh yeah, I use AD&D modules all the time. I convert the module to suit the PC's, not the other way around. Except for the obvious basics such as Armor Class, Damage, Hit Dice, Monsters, Saving Throws and Spells, there's really not a whole lot of conversion to do. Honestly, most of it can be quickly taken care of "on the fly" while running the module. As long as you're familiar with whatever version of "Classic D&D" you've chosen, it's really a no brainer."
This is entirely unnecessary when it comes to Labyrinth Lord because of the Labyrinth Lord Advanced Companion. The no art versions of LL & The Advance Companion are  entirely free by the way here.

If you still don't believe me then check out this thread over here at the RPG Geek site from 2014 about the Advanced Companion. 

Why would you want such a clone when B/X Dungeons & Dragons is readily available?! Not everyone has access to the B/X books folks. Seriously there are folks who still in 2018 don't have access to the internet & don't even know about the OSR. We have a tendency to think that the OSR is high profile. Recently I gave copies of both the Labyrinth Lord Rule book & the Advanced Labyrinth Lord Companion to a friend whose only now getting into the OSR.

One of this gentleman's players was a former Spelljammer dungeon master & was complaining that the OSR doesn't have any campaign settings like the classic second edition setting.
Now I've posted about this little matter before but another OSR clone that I love that I don't talk about is Dark Dungeons From Gurbintroll Games.

This wonderful little OSR retroclone has a number of  one very interesting wrinkles in it. One of those happens to be cross compatible rules for planejammers in it! They're not called that but that's exactly what they are so have at thee across the planes! Did I mention that Dark Dungeons is also a free PDF? Its one of my all time favorite clones & does an excellent job!

Dark Dungeons Is Available Free Here!

OSR Commentary - B/X Dungeons & Dragons Campaign Waltz & Science Fantasy Campaign Construction

Many folks look at B/X Dungeons & Dragons as a basic or beginning set for the grand game of table top role playing but I have found a bit more respect rummaging through the annals of this game. Lately I find myself referring constantly back to it mixing and matching B/X with Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea second edition & Adventurer, Conqueror, King with bits of Labyrinth Lord. All of this becomes wrapped around a core of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition. The whole is not always the sum of its parts as the players & campaign dictate what comes to the fore for the system from session to session as all dungeon masters have to contend with.




So I've been thinking about my 'Old Earth''s Antarctica & day dreaming about HP Lovecraft's At The Mountains of Madness but after rereading the novella for the hundredth or three hundredth time I'm convinced that there were other entities besides the shoggoths. This is a teaming brand new frontier continient that is possibly one of the most alien & dangerous places on 'Old Earth'. A place teeming with jungles, deadly sub prehistoric monsters, shoggoths, The Elder Ones, raving Tcho-Tchoid mercenary bands,and scores of inhuman ruins, temples, and alien places whose form & function is unknown.


Here I turn back to Clark Ashton Smith & HP Lovecraft where shores of Antarctica is the domain of dangerous guardians. The Dean of Science fiction Jack Williamson early in his career laid down one of the weirder & very dangerous great Old Ones seldom mentioned The Ice Entity. First found in 1937's Thrilling Wonder Stories this god thing is a left over from the war between the Great Race & the Elder Things mentioned in HP Lovecraft's At The Mountains of Madness. This alien monster is both related to HP Lovecraft's The Colour Out of Space & Ithaqua.

The ice entity itself is worshiped by the Gnophkehs,  along with Rhan-Tegoth & Aphoom-Zhah. It keeps the new continent free from most humans & adventurers.The entity also has ties to the new North Pole of 'Old Earth' & forms a world spanning religious cult of great evil. It may its origin out around Neptune & Uranus where many Great Old Ones originated.
Jack Williamson during his early period was heavily influenced by Weird Tales style pulps & another favorite author of mine.
"Jack Williamson's work during this early period was heavily influenced by A. Merritt,^[4] author of The Metal Monster (1920) and other fantasy serials. Noting the Merritt influence, Algis Budrys described "The Metal Man" as "a story full of memorable images""

This same issue of 1937's Thrilling Wonder Stories also contains another great novella and possible creation of the Elder Things I'm speaking of the 'Brain of Venus'.  John Russell Fearn (1908–1960) isn't even known today outside of certain science fiction & pulp circles. He was one of the first British authors featured in American pulp magazines.
The Brain of Venus features what became 'the Venus Treatment' in my home AS&SH campaigns. 'The Venus treatment' is what happens when certain shoggoth & elder thing wizards & priests get a particularly strong individual's mind. They treat it with certain exotic necrotic alchemical formula preserving the thing & creating an undead guardian capable of the spells & abilities of a seventh level necromancer or evil wizard. These entities are free willed chaotically evil entities often carry out the wills of their alien masters. These things are often found in weird temples in strange basins of brine & soul literally rooted to the spot. They have an AC of 5  or more and can hurl a lightning bolt three times per day.
These 'Venus guardians' are often used to control 1d6 hosts of lesser entities around elder thing properties & holdings. These entities fight to the death with little to no regard for their own safety or well being. They are puppets acting out the wills of their twisted masters. The jungles of Anartica teem with creatures not seen for millions of years on Earth. There are darker & weirder entities that serve strange & sinister purposes. The Yzel tend the info temples & bio information storage houses of 'the Elder Ones'


They collect & collate much of the collected super science & higher alien intelligence of the Elder Ones. Speculation runs high among wizards of Old Earth that these entities are actually part of a telepathic alien higher mind system that has not been seen on Earth since the dawn of the planet. Many adventurer's brains have been turned to mush trying to 'hack' the library plant systems of the Elder Ones. Temples & buildings are covered with vast arrays of alien whorls, symbols, and etchings of the highest eldritch traditions. There are rumors of wizards sacrificing fortunes & wealth to study these forbidden places.
There is a 10% chance of a wizard going up a level or saving vs death as their body's are consumed in massive displays of other dimensional fires. Others are hunted down & gutted by shoggoths or worse during the night. The 'Elder Ones' keep their secrets well.


'Art Copyright 2017 Garrisonjames. Used by permission.' the 'Art Copyright 2017 Garrisonjames. Used by permission.'

OSR Commentary B/X Dungeons & Dragons Blues plus Lovecraftian Underworlds

Lizardman on giant lizard (David Sutherland from the Holmes/blue book Basic D&D rulebook, TSR, 1977)

So lately I've been falling back in with B/X Dungeons & Dragons as well as Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition spliced with Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea second edition & Adventurer, Conqueror, King. So like every other OSR Dungeon Master out there I mix & match systems. House rule where & when necessary. So there's no 'perfect' system, I waffle about Goblinoid Games Labyrinth Lord.

Then suddenly I'm back to B/X like an ex girl friend sure we've had our differences but she knows my needs. There's always one prevailing ideal throughout Dungeons & Dragons regardless of edition. The idea of the dungeon as entrance to the 'mythological underworld.'  
Lovecraft dabbled, skirted & outright plugged into the notion of the Chthonic underworld for his Cthulhu Mythos novels  especially the blatantly racist Horror At Red Hook. As an Italian descendant of immigrants I find Lovecraft's New England curmudgeon racism laughable one hundred years later. Lovecraft like many other writers of the time was a product of his times. The wiki entry on the Horror At Red Hook makes his sources abundantly clear but given his gifts of the Cthulhu Mythos to the world & as patronage of other writers of his circle.


""Lovecraft referred to the area's immigrant population by referring to Red Hook as "a maze of hybrid squalor".^[3] He spelled out his inspiration for "The Horror at Red Hook" in a letter written to fellow writer Clark Ashton Smith: The idea that black magic exists in secret today, or that hellish antique rites still exist in obscurity, is one that I have used and shall use again. When you see my new tale "The Horror at Red Hook", you will see what use I make of the idea in connexion with the gangs of young loafers & herds of evil-looking foreigners that one sees everywhere in New York""

Lovecraft stands as a walking contradiction of his times both as product & writer. Dismissing Lovecraft as simply an "American horror asshole writer of the 1920's" misses the point. Simply ignoring the history of racisim doesn't make it go away but instead let's it take root again in a society that has long since moved on (or have we).

 

But the real heart of the strangeness of the 'Horror At Red Hook'  is the warrens, tunnels, & underworld of Lovecraft's  New York City; we see  places & lairs so dangerous that given ghouls, cannibal families, & more makes New York City a superb dungeon location. But there are others along the Eastern Seaboard of America that cut right into the early traditions of science fiction & Weird tales style stories. 

I've been rereading a lot of the early science fiction pulp adventures & 'lost world' novellas, a name that I've seen come up repeatedly is L. (Lucile) Taylor Hansen. She was one of the early Gernsback science fiction writers who used a male writing name. She's not that well known out of certain pulp, lost world, & early science fiction groups. "L. (Lucile) Taylor Hansen is the author of eight short stories, nearly sixty nonfiction articles popularizing anthropology and geology, and three nonfiction books."
Her writing hit on many controversial aspects of science fiction speculation & minor dogma such as the last vestiges of scientific racism which fell away in the years before World War II.
 But one of her earliest tales "The Undersea Tube", her first published story, took the cover of the November 1929 issue of Amazing Stories 

& contains a several very interesting tid bits including an international underworld tube train, the volcanic dangers associated with such a network, & a possible colony of
subterranean civilization, the realm of K'n-yan! Under the Atlantic Basin there could be a network of tunnels & subterranean cities waiting for just the right moment to unleash hoards of under horrors & incredible monsters upon the upper realm.


Because that's exactly what happens upon 'Old Earth' in my current line of a campaign. But it also means that the subtrains of Empire of the Petal Throne & Gamma World have been with us for a very long time. There might be countless cities of the under Earth both inhabited and abandoned waiting for adventurers to find em.
Even Edgar Rice Burroughs made certain references to such possible underworld cities & locations. Pulp Pecullidar by Den Valdron has some excellent  connections in it outlined & referenced leaving a wealth of possible adventure lead ins for an enterprising DM to exploit. For an Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea Dungeon master there are all kinds of possible connections and such to exploit for adventure design.

OSR Review & Commentary On Flower Liches of the Dragonboat Festival From Kabuki Kaiser For Your Old School Campaigns

"When omens portend ill fortune for the city, the priests call upon a Dragonboat Festival: a racing competition gathering swift boatmen from all over the continent. Their ancient chants call forth the powers of the undying, waking the Flower Liches from their distant graves. For a week, the liches roam the city freely, and oversee the race, taking the losing crews as tributes and sacrifices. Once the Dragonboat Festival is finished and the liches disappear, the city's prosperity is magically replenished, and all the monetary wealth the citizenry had before the festival — player characters included — is doubled."
I was recently sent a copy of  "Flower Liches of the Dragonboat Festival" From  Kabuki Kaiser   is both adventure & setting  resource book that can be dropped into your home campaign. The adventure channels as much of the Wuxia ghost vibe as it does the Asian pulp Dungeons & Dragons vibe as the author can pack into one of his efforts. This is an adventure that dips liberally from its sources & the warped imaginings of its author. Much like his Mad Monks of Kwantoom   OSR campaign & setting book the mythological/pulp Asian world of  P. Crespy  Flower Liches presents a world & adventure that is both familiar & utterly new. In point of fact both of these products would work extremely well together.



The artwork, lay out, & presentation is a bit different then other efforts of the author/designer, in this adventure everything dovetails into a seamless product that presents a world of the weird & very dangerous centeral to its setting. There are things to do, experience, and dangers ever present within '/The Flower Liches of The Dragon Boat Festival'. This adventure centers around the party circling and creating weirdness for the party to get themselves into all kinds of trouble.
If presentation is everything within an adventure then this one has some stunning writing, plots, and OSR artwork. The combination reminds me of a Saturday afternoon Kung Fu theater flick. Slick on its presentation and long on its adventure hooks! Everything is double downed on in this adventure from the Kung Fu action to the supernatural horror.

Here's an adventure where the dangers to PC's pale in comparison to the weirdness infecting the adventure throughout. PC's are going to have their hands full and clocking in at ninety five pages there's plenty of dungeon and supernatural action to be had. This is a Labyrinth Lord adventure but it has the look & feel of a Lamentations of the Flame Princess line effort but without the lingering adult nonsense to get in the way of play.  'Flower Liches of the Dragon Boats' is clearly easily adaptable to any OSR game.


There is a sense of whimsy but deadliness about this adventure & it stands to reason that it would given the writer's passions for Asian culture & pop culture Kung Fu. The fact is that dungeon master has another full stop world book & source book in this adventure for a full South Asian style setting. This works as a set up for a full campaign starting city point in such a campaign. From hirelings to starting equipment 'Flower Liches of the Dragon Boats' is clearly designed for such a purpose & very well designed to do this at that!  'Flower Liches of the Dragon Boats' works with both Labryth Lord & The Advanced Companion in equal
measure.



The real strength of 'Flower Liches of the Dragon Boats' lays in the fact that it serves as a fantastic source book for  'Mad Monks of Kwantoom'. In this regard its a great source book & add on for this or really any pulp Asian flavored style campaign setting. But it really fits into the world of 'Mad Monks'. Because of its mini game included the adventure has some solid replay abilities. The hirelings, background, encounters, etc. are all inductive of a popculture far East and it works.



I can also see 'Flower Liches of the Dragon Boats' being used for a post apocalyptic world such as Mutant Future in which cultures are looking to the 'Ancients' for their divine inspiration. The liches take full advantage of the gullible human fools & the result is the world spot lighted in this adventure/source book. 
Another possibility that  'Flower Liches of the Dragon Boats' could be used for a human centric land in 'Apes Victorious' where these humans have used the power of the liches to resist the onslaught of the advancing ape army. So adjustments will have to be made to use
'Flower Liches of the Dragon Boats'  with Apes Victorious. Another possibility for campaign use is to drop the setting of 'Flower Liches of the Dragon Boats'  into 'Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea second edition' whole sale again there is a bit of adjustment as a possible South Asia analog. For Sword & Sorcery play this is an excellent book & tool kit to add such a mix.
In closing is this isn't a perfect to kit to add to the mix of campaign play for old school style campaign. It clocks in at ninety five pages & to tell the truth I wish there was a bit more fluff connective tissue with this book. There needs to be more here and it I want to know more about 'this' world and not simply use this book as another drag & drop book for campaign play. So in closing a solid four out of five for 'Flower Liches of the Dragon Boats'. 

Flower Liches of the Dragonboat Festival Is Available Right Here

Free OSR Adventure Resource - Adventure Module BL1-2: The Ruined Hamlet/Terror in the Gloaming From Barrataria Games For Your Old School Campaigns

So here is a free fifty nine page OSR module from Barrataria Games  it has a sort of Village of Hommlet feel with a twist or two. Are you looking for an excellent adventure to start a campaign with? Then download this book because its bursting with some great OSR campaign resources and lots & lots of hooks throughout.
GRAB IT RIGHT HERE

The set up is pretty nice and ropes in the PC's straight out of the gate and into the back end of the module where they're walking into a situation that they may soon find themselves up to their necks in;"nto the Unknown! The wilderness around the cave stronghold called Gold Hill Trading Post is dangerous and scattered with ruins of large and small settlements. Will your party find fame and fortune, solve ancient mysteries, or just disappear into the Borderlands like so many that came before? This module contains underground and wilderness maps that form a detailed adventure and mini-campaign for beginning characters, including an abandoned village, haunted graveyard, ruined church, traders’ camp, wilderness encounters, and monster lairs. It also includes a ruined keep and dungeon as well as a mapped and detailed “base camp” stronghold"



There are some really nice maps and hooks in BL1-2: The Ruined Hamlet/Terror in the Gloaming  as well as a large assortment of NPC's, factions, powers, and over arching situations to get your party of adventurers into. The material here feels like a compete touch stone to step into a campaign, with a large amount of sword and sorcery action on the side. You get There are fifty pages of adventuring and 6 pages of maps all designed to dovetail and slide into your existing campaign material which is fine. This module has a bit of everything from a small range of spells, monsters, a distinctive flavor about the setting and more but none of this takes away from or tries to perform hugely distinctive adventure setting on its own. Its almost as if this module was designed to seamlessly expand and fit into your own campaign world. I'm all on board with this style of game writing and design. Everything here is fairly evenly put together making this a perfect DYI D&D module for a retroclone, OSRIC, Labyrinth Lord or first edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons game. The settings include a fully detailed hamlet, a wilderness section, a graveyard, a trading post, and much more which makes the price of admission worth a look alone! 
Everything in this module suggests and sets up a campaign from the ground up with the PC's hip deep in the local scene. There are mixes here of the mundane and the fantastic, the module reminded me of the Village of Hommlet more then once making this an adventure module to drop into an existing campaign or as a location to have more experienced PC's deal with some of the adventure hooks that  Module BL1-2: The Ruined Hamlet/Terror in the Gloaming brings to the table.

There are several reasons why this module reminds me of the classic T1 adventure:

• Organic campaign set up and implementation into an existing campaign as well as use for a jump off point for a brand new campaign. 
• Old school no tears encounters with a mix of the bizarre and the mundane. 
• The adventure blends the local scene and politics with the PCs playing into both! This makes the PC's invested in the action. 
• The factions and NPC's are deeply invest in the adventure's plot and themes. 
• The 'Big Event' of  BL1-2: The Ruined Hamlet/Terror in the Gloaming  actually has some solid repercussions on the campaign world and setting and not simply an implied campaign or setting impact. 

The bottom line is to grab this adventure for your old school games and use it as both adventure and tool box. The fact that its free is icing on the cake in my opinion.

Retro Review & Commentary On The AD&D Adventure Module C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan For Your Old School Campaigns

I've been gone most of today as it was my Dad's birthday today and in the back of my mind I was tackling today's blog post in the back of my mind. Everyone I know rants and raves about Tomb of Horrors being their deadly module of choice. Not so for me, I've had eight mid level AD&D characters bite the dust in The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan. 

This is a very difficult module to do justice to, its a complex romp through a pseudo pulpy sort of Meso American jungle; this is a complicated beast of an adventure featuring lots of lost world action, incredibly dangerous traps, and lots of strange and weird monsters. This module does all of that but it does it on its own terms with the PC's blundering into the midst of it and having all kinds of horrors awaiting them within its environs. The 'C' stood for competition and they meant it, this module came out way back in 1979. According to Wiki 'originally printed for the 1979 Origins International Game Expo,^[2] the module was made available to the general public in 1980. This book was written by Harold Johnson and Jeff R. Leason

and while it is incredibly deadly remains a favorite of mine because of its Lovecraft like feel to its internal mythology and dedication to its pulpy weirdness on its own terms.



The PC's are brought into the adventure environs by their own hand as the plot has an entire plot design built around a marathon of events for a long four hour convention set up and play. The back part of the adventure feels like it was ripped straight out of a Thirties style pulp novella. Wiki has a very short but quick insightful overview; "The player characters explore a stepped pyramid deep in the heart of a tropical jungle—the Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan.^[4] The characters must penetrate this Mayan-style temple, which is full of tricks and traps.^[2] Some of the traps include cursed items, firebombs, and triggered statues." That sort of covers the feel of the whole piece of the work but this adventure has it's own internal mythology that pulls the dungeon master and PC's into the back story & world of the Hidden Shrine! This module also introduced me to one of my all time favorite monsters, the Gibbering Mouther. The Hidden Shrine is not for the faint of heart DM. The traps and details of this adventure require the rapid quickness of a DM because one its a very detail orient and trap heavy adventure. In fact I'd go so far as to say that the traps are far more deadly then many folks might be used to. The hidden shrine is in point of fact it's own internal world and requires a huge amount of problem solving, puzzle solutions, and intelligent decision making on the part of the adventurers within its confines.

Parts of this adventure module are bad, nasty, and brutal to players. I'd go so far as to say that this is part of an intelligent design decision on the parts of the writers/designers because of the competition aspect of the adventure. Sixth through Eighth level is really the starting point realistically for PC's with even a micro chance of surviving the horrors, traps, tricks, and evil of the shrine on it's terms.

So what does all of the praise for this module have to do with actually prepping to run it and use it. This module isn't a treaty on real world Meso-American culture, instead this is a deadly pulp artifact from another time period. You can easily place this module within the confines of your own lost world campaign and that's part of the appeal for me at least of C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan. Note that for Christ sake please increase the amount of treasure and artifacts found in this adventure. This adventure is really light on the treasure because of the competition point nature of its origins.



So why do I like this particular adventure so much? Well its a real step into the Lost World vibe that appeals to me so much. Besides that, its such a culture class with the medieval European flavor of AD&D that made the shrine seem just that wee bit more exotic and weird. It played hell with PC's put through its twisting chambers, painted hallways, and hellish traps. It reminded me of a Saturday Matinee come to life. Myself and my players knew what the Hidden Shrine looked like because of the forty pages of artwork that came with the module.

So what can you do with C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan? Quite a bit, actually with a little work the Hidden Shrine can be drafted into your favorite bit of your campaign. This is a module that has stood the test of time and could because of its deadly nature challenge PC's for quite some time as it chews up player's expectations and stands mocking them. Classics are classic for a reason and this piece of C series goodness has a certain deadly charm and appeal for me. Now on the retroclone from there are two choices in my opinion unless you want do quite a bit of modification to this adventure. Given the deadly nature of this massive beast, Labyrinth Lord Advanced is one choice or OSRIC. In point of fact I think that C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan is exactly the sort of old school adventure that would benefit from getting the OSRIC treatment. In closing C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan is a piece of gaming history that while requiring a ton of preparation offers some exciting challenges and dangerous rewards for the PC's.