Review & Commentary On B/X Essentials: Core Rules From Necrotic Gnome Productions

So I received an email last night from Gavin Norman with my sparkling copy of B/X Essentials. Straight up I asked to for a copy for review and boy I surprised at the fact straight out of the gate that its only thirty seven pages long. This really is a boiled down version of B/X Dungeons & Dragons in retroclone form. Right out of the gate The author states exactly what his intent is;
"My love for Basic/Expert-style fantasy adventuring was reignited with the publication of  Labyrinth Lord and the rise of the old-school renaissance / whatever-you-like-to-call-it.   Over the years, I’ve run all sorts of campaigns with the Basic/Expert rules— everything from classic dungeon hacks, to dying Earth science
fantasy, to Lovecraft-inspired, Victorian age horror. Of course, all these campaigns have
added their own twists to the rules: alternate classes, new spells, monsters, equipment,
treasures, and so on. Nonetheless, the core rules of the game remained constant. And I think that’s the real treasure of the Basic/ Expert rules: their timeless elegance, concision,
and very wide (I wouldn’t go quite so far as to say universal) applicability. Through all these years of play, though, what I’ve always missed is a cleanly presented, easy-to-reference rendition of the core rules of the game separated from the associated “accoutrements”—the classes, spells, monsters,
magic items, etc. Neither the original Basic/Expert books nor the various modern clones exactly satisfy this requirement. That’s what this book is about."
But does it succeed in its mission of boiling down everything in the B/X Dungeons & Dragons Basic & Expert rules into its quintessential form? Yes but that's not everything that B/X Essentials does. The mission statement goes like this:

• 100% accurate rules clone. B/X Essentials, unlike other clones or games inspired by B/X, goes to great efforts to be 100% accurate to the original. Nothing is altered. Nothing is added. Nothing is removed.
• Organized for quick reference. The text of B/X Essentials is consciously kept concise and is broken into logical chunks, each with a header, making quick reference possible. I believe this is the clearest expression of the Basic/Expert rules available to date.
• Clarified rules. The original rules are delightfully straightforward, but there certainly exist areas of confusion and ambiguity. (Check out the rules for encumbrance or wilderness chases, for example.) B/X Essentials presents greatly clarified descriptions of these rules.

These rules are the essential systems for B/X Dungeons & Dragons nothing more or less. They are the combined Basic & Expert D&D systems boiled right down to their essence and its done right in my humble opinion.  Is it better then Holmes or Mentzer? No, its a good set of both edits in one system.



But the best part about this product is the following :

"100% Open Game Content. In addition to a fancy, fully illustrated print / PDF edition, the B/X Essentials rules will be released in a simple text format licensed as 100% Open Game Content (under the OGL). The fresh expression of the B/X rules can thus be freely used by other people for the creation of their own house rules documents and B/X-inspired games."

This is one of the places where the OSR excels at by creating a set of rules open for others to create their own game material and settings to put into the OSR but its also a bane because of the sometimes lack of oversight. But this is the drawback with any open game content OSR retroclones but shrug that comes with the territory.

Does B/X Essentials succeed in its mission? I think over all it does exactly what it properts to be a 100% boiled down reference set of rules that has the Gavin Norman style of  'meat & potatoes' approach to the rules. This is where I'm familiar with how the author works in his game design choices and its something we've seen before in Wormskin with Greg Gorgonmilk. Take the high road with the choices but deal with the hard & fast regardless of design conceits. Necrotic Gnome has done this before but its not a bad thing. The quality of rules are here in B/X Essentials and it shows.


Here rules are combined & straightened out without altering the flavor, the essence, and intent in my opinion of the originals. Sure its a new coat of paint but its one with all of the bumps and creases taken out from the material. This means there's enough here to run a campaign but its a set of rules that applies across the board. How does this compare with other retroclones on the market currently? There are choices here that make B/X Essentials stand on its own. And that's the way it should be in my opinion. Over that means that purists are going find little to 'bitch' about but there will be some as always. What I was surprised at was the artwork in the B/X Essential rules set. Its very nice and layout is very well done. The material is easily accessible and its true that everything here works for a B/X addict like me. Overall the effort in my humble opinion is five out of five. There will be a follow up book B/X Essentials: Classes and Equipment so B/X Essentials is exactly what it claims to be the essential rules for B/X.
There is a No Art Work Version available for free here Print editions coming soon! People who purchase the PDF edition will be sent a voucher to upgrade to the print edition, when it becomes available.



The B/X Essentials Paid Version With artwork
is available right here for five dollars for a 37 page PDF full
of great artwork!

OSR Commentary On Necrotic Gnome's 'B/X Essentials' Project For Your Old School Retroclone Systems

 I have a long & storied history with Necrotic Gnome products but Gavin Norman's new project it hits close to home some might say their essentially some of the essence of B/X Dungeons & Dragons. Let's take a closer look.

So while everyone else is all excited about GenCon 50, I've been quietly watching Necrotic Gnome's latest efforts with B/X Essentials. This is Gavin Norman's The City of Iron's blog fame reworking of B/X Dungeons & Dragons.

B/X Essentials is Gavin Norm's reworking of the B/X Dungeons & Dragons rules into retroclone form so that they'll be a bit more open to the OSR audience as a whole. There's lots of stuff already happening with this project. But why is this being done & how will it differ from B/X Dungeons & Dragons ? According to the official word from Necrotic Gnome,"How does B/X Essentials compare to the original B/X books? The main (and major!) difference is that the rules for Basic and Expert play are combined, rather than being split across two books. Also, as mentioned above, B/X Essentials is written as a quick reference, presenting a clarified and better organized presentation of the rules."
How is this on the whole compare with the Labyrinth Lord retroclone system? Gavin Norman's done a lot with Labyrinth Lord so colour me curious, "How does B/X Essentials compare to Labyrinth Lord? LL also presents a restatement of the classic B/X rules, however its text is, in many places, far too verbose and meandering to be really useful as a quick reference. Also, as noted above, B/X Essentials is a 100% accurate clone whereas Labyrinth Lord introduces several changes to the rules. In B/X Essentials, clerics do not get a spell at 1st level!"  You can find out more over here folks. 

As a LL & BX Dungeons & Dragons fan  for years now I'm dying to see how & what changes are going to be coming.


So when is the B/X Essentinals going to hit the shelves in the wilds of the OSR? Official word is that sometime in September 2017. The interesting thing is going to be the format for me, "The primary format is US Trade (6"x9") paperback (perfect- or staple-bound) with a fully-linked PDF. So, yes, this is a small form factor presentation of the B/X rules! The Open Game Content rules will also be provided in a simple text format." So its going to be simple & easy to digest this is going to be a plus for me.
Today's Encumbrance rules preview came out of the blue and there's artwork from by Thomas Novosel. The layout clean, its easy to read, and there's actually some real changes worked in. So this is very interesting from a DM's perspective. Because you're seeing things from the ground up here. Gavin goes into the deeper reasons for this here


So yeah to say I'm watching this with interest is an understatement. Why? Well there's lots of reasons but mainly I love the simplicity of what I've seen so far from the B/X Essentials project & the ideas that the author/designer is putting forth. Plus its nice to see a solid degree of transparency in the choices that the author is making. I trust the choices that I've so far seen by Gavin Norman.  So for a Sunday keep em rolling folks!

Free OSR Resource - From the Vats From Necrotic Gnome Productions

I'm going over some of the resources on my hard drive for OD&D and happened upon one of my all time favorite free community projects that came out from the steady hand of Necrotic Gnome Productions. From The Vats is a free book that came out back last year. Its about fifty four pages of sheer bio sorcery for OSR style games and its as nasty as it sounds. To really use this book properly your going to need to know a bit about the Vivimancer;". This class was first presented, in a basic form, in Theorems & Thaumaturgy (available in PDF on a Pay-What-You-Want basis). The later The Complete Vivimancer greatly expands on vivimantic magic and is the ideal companion to the new content presented in this book."

Because I'm putting together my Accursed Atlantis setting, From The Vats was one of the first books I reached for. Its wall to wall body horror and utter weirdness that I can see using right down the middle. I love the monster section, how From The Vat is put together, the extra PC classes, the magic items, the spells and the over all presentation of the  The Submerged Spire of Sarpedon the Shaper, by Ben Laurence. Everything drips with a slime ridden atmosphere & is evocative of the style of the product.
Here are some of the features of 'From The Vats':

• One full adventure: The Submerged Spire of Sarpedon the Shaper, by Ben Laurence.
• Two one-page adventures by Alex Schröder and Anders Hedenbjörk Lager.
• 25 new monsters.
• 7 new magic items.
• 6 new spells.
  
  This happens to be one of my favorite freebies to throw into the campaign mix. . The two one-page adventures by Alex Schröder and Anders Hedenbjörk Lager take the themes of the book and expand them further and twist the material into other directions. The three adventures within the book are plug and play allowing them to be dropped anywhere into the background of your campaign. In point of fact these creations have a strange sort of universal appeal about them many of the things in From the Vats would fit a wide variety of campaigns from pulp, science fiction,sword and sorcery, fantasy, science fantasy, and even post apocalyptic material. In point of fact this whole book could be dropped right into your favorite Advanced Mutants & Mazes campaign for Mutant Future and not one person would be the wiser.
  Holy crap the monsters are meant for Labyrinth Lord but with a little tweaking would give an OSRIC or AD&D party a hard time and these things are straight up adventurer nightmare fuel. Seriously these things are horrors from beyond the vats of nightmare. These things could be used in a science fantasy game and not one person would bat an eye at their use. This is one of the strengths of these creatures. They would also fit right into the background of a sword and sorcery campaign or a pulp campaign this is again one of the basis of evil that is From The Vats.
  Look if you already haven't stopped reading and grabbed this book let me go on. Everything here is geared for adventure construction and its all well organized. Everything is ready to be dragged and dropped right into your campaigns. This is a perfect add on to science fantasy sandbox or wasteland adventure. Its something to sink into the background of a game setting where you want the elements of bio horror and weirdness within the confines of a small OSR tool kit.
  
   GRAB IT RIGHT HERE

Review & Commentary On The B/X Rogue From Necrotic Gnome Productions For Your Old School Campaigns

I received a copy of B/X Rogue from a friend just as I was wrapping up a leg of writing on a new campaign, more on that later. B/X Rogue is a new Gavin Norman title that takes the thief and defines the PC class in new ways. The book clocks in at about twenty six pages of old school goodness. Gavin is incharge of the City of Iron blog and clocks in some damn fine titles such as the Complete Vivmancer and the crowd sourced Free OSR adventure From the Vats . He is also the man whose put out one of my all time favorite B/X pay what you want PC expansion class books Theorems & Thaumaturgy.
So when B/X Rogue hit the stands today I contacted a friend to grab this title and let me take a look at it right away.  So colour me intrigued, and very happy to have another variation on one of my favorite PC's classes at the table. BX Rogue does quite a bit different, this blurb from the City of Iron blog really intrigued me
GRAB IT RIGHT  HERE

"More than simply a thief, the rogue class has access to talents drawn from a wide array of archetypes, all integrated into a single class. Scouts & spies, burglars & tomb robbers, charlatans & con-artists, swashbucklers & explorers, brigands & highwaymen, assassins & thugs. No need for all of those specialized sub-classes any more!"
Now given that sort of a claim I could see what B/X Rogue was trying to do? But then the second part really caught me by surprise.
Within these pages you will discover:

1. Complete advancement tables for levels 1 to 20
2. 36 adventuring talents
3. Themed packages of talents for a quick start into the game
4. Guidelines for other classes attempting roguish feats
5. Rules for song magic and dabbling in arcane secrets
   Right out of the gate we've got an expansion of the levels of the class and boat load of brand new adventuring talents. And that really is one of the chief things I love about this version of the Rogue. Besides being able to use ALL weapons they have a range of skills that really makes them much more customized. According to the book;The chief aptitude of rogues is the plethora of highly specialized skills of dexterity, stealth, intrigue, infiltration, and cunning that they are able to learn. These are known collectively as talents . The following section lists dozens of talents which a rogue may learn over his or her career, beginning at 1st level with four, as chosen by the player, and gaining one more talent per experience level gained. (For players who do not wish to spend time browsing the complete library random tables and quick-start selections of talents are provided later.)
   Talents allow the players to customize the rogue to their vision of the character and the niche of where the PC is going to fall within the bounds of the party. From a simple pick pocket to an acrobatic assassin B/X Rogue allows for this and more.
   Examples of  talents include Awareness
   Your honed reactions and instinctual awareness of danger make it difficult for
   enemies to sneak up on you. When surprise is rolled, you are only surprised on
   a roll of 1 (instead of 1-2, like other characters).
   Gavin has a great knowledge of the Basic system and the talents system is a nice fit for  just this sort of an application. Take for example Climb Rock Face, a quick and easy talent that can turn a simple thief into a movie style assassin scaling up the sides of cliff faces.
   Climb Rock Faces
   When lightly encumbered, you can climb rough rock faces unaided, with a successful
   DEX check. You can climb less treacherous surfaces without a check. And another thing lurking in the background is the idea of being able to have occult based talents that dovetail into the idea of the magician style thief. Something that has come down to us from the pages of sword and sorcery novels and comic books. Like the assassin its right there in the talents lurking for the dungeon master to approve the matter as they see fit for their own game campaigns. This section dovetails into the next bit quite nicely.
   Magical Talents get's its own section as a PC  option with the Detect Magic talent, and the ever intriguing spell song abilities thrown in for good measure. Spell songs are not complicated concepts and plug into the bard being brethren to the Rogue. A concept I've seen used a couple of times over the years in various game products but this product's explanation of the spell song is straight forward, concise and well thought out ; "You have learned and mastered an enchanted song which you can sing or play on an instrument once per day to magical effect. (This talent presupposes a level of musical skill, with either vocals or one or more instruments" There are rules for the application and casting of this style of magic and spell song spell lists included within it.  There are even archetype PC class style kits included, these are not clunky and ill thought out. These are concise pieces of game design that includes everything a player needs straight out of the gate. All of this comes under the  "Quick-Start Talent Selection". There's even a random talents section that rounds the entire package out.
   
   
   In point of fact this book could be used to create Rogues of all calibers for space based science fiction games, scavengers & assassins for   post apocalyptic hell holes, sword and sorcery religious fanatic cut throats, and even inter planar highwaymen. The limit is really your imagination because of the set up of this product.
   The B/X Rogue is hands down one of the best products I've seen for creating a B/X Rogue that you want as a player or to create an off the cuff NPC rogue, thief, assassin, highwayman or other criminal of the underworld.  I give B/X Rogues a five out of five. I should also mention that I love the black and white artwork that evocates a certain old school something within the pages. It adds a feeling of looking through a mimeographed old school fanzine. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Review and Commentary On The Complete Vivimancer From Necrotic Gnome Productions For Your Old School Campaigns

           

There are important books that come out and then there are books for OSR games that you wonder how you ever did without them at the gaming table. Years ago, I downloaded Theorems & Thaumaturgy, which is available as a free download now: it  contains (among many other things) a basic version of the vivimancer class. The Complete Vivimancer  is essentially not only as a follow up book but an expansion of this class that does some awesome things with biosorcery, magic items, spells,etc.  This is because I've been reading and following through The Complete Vivimancer From Necrotic Gnome Productions after tearing into the free monster & adventure book Out of the Vats .
The Complete Vivimancer does exactly what it says on the tin. It brings eighty eight pages of sheer  wizard master goodness of  gene splicing, cross breeding,and the Vivimancer as a  corruptor of nature itself. In the first two pages of the book we get a complete overview of this class and then the book jumps into the deep end of the darkness . For the advanced edition version of this class we get Elves  and half Elves as the preferred racial foundations for the Vivimancer.  This enables them to advance up to 10th and 11the levels respectively. This reenforces the alien aspect of the Elven race and this is part of an under current theme  in the OSR that Elves really are far more alien to the humanity.  A fact that came in loud and clear in games such as LoFP. This supplement takes full advantage of this fact and even through it claims to be for Labyrinth Lord. There are ton of options for adding this book to both OD&D and its retroclone systems all the way through the various Advanced editions.                                                                      

Grab It Right
HERE


   Another added bonus is the amount of time it takes the vivimancer down in the lab to master the craft of  flesh warping, genetic meddling, neural manipulation, and vat growth to become a  master of mind slaves, mutants, symbionts, parasites, and viruses.The guidelines for this book's chapter are very nice and helps to flesh out the laboratory details and adds a certain Lovecraftian something to the class. The book details a ton of spells for levels between one all of the way to nine. And here's where the book really starts to take off for me. The spells have flavor and add a ton of resonance  for me for the backbone of the Vivimancer as a whole. These twisted freaks are putting together the horrors and weirdness that adventurers loath to encounter. Remember those random monster tables that created horrors with the claws of a lobster, the head of a giant monkey, and demons blood that the DMG guide had in it. These are the wizardly guys putting those together. The magic item section proves that in spades. We get an overview of items for these twisted practitioners of the bio sorcery arts over and over again. Here's why you want one of these guys in your party, not only are they going to know the ins and outs of the biology and applications of this stuff they're going to want some of this of stuff as their  own which means favors and big ones at that. The last sections are appendixes on mutations and psionic powers, these are really needed because of the bio science fantasy and fictional nature of this class. There's lots of icky stuff in this book, slime laden weirdness that brings to mind all of the really cool VHS nastiness of the Eighties horror movies, science fiction 'B' films, and lots of other wonderfulness but it also clocks in with  all of the pulpy bits from the science fiction, fantasy,etc. of the 1930's thru 1950's. As far as I'm concerned this is win/win.
     So let's get right down to brass tacks, is this a good book and even a necessary one? Yes not only is this a good book but it has a huge range of possibilities at the gaming table. You really do want a mad scientist type in your party, you want them as vile villains as well. This brings the dual nature of the class as a whole. This book gives you every last tool to pop these guys into the post apocalyptic wasteland, the science fantasy deserts of your choice, as dimensional travelers and invaders, as motivators for adventures, adventurer patrons, twisted healers, & the list goes on and on.
  In my own Warlords of the Outer Worlds setting, I'm using these guys sparingly and lovingly as a twisted faction. Applying what I've learned about them after reading about them over the last week or so, I've come to the conclusion that one can take the frame work and backdrop of the  Vivimancer and apply their own creations to the class without losing the vitality and freshness of these twisted practitioners of the dark arts of bio sorcery and mad biological magicks. So five out of five for one of the more original and flat out weird books and PC classes to come down the pike in a very long while.

Review & Commentary OnThe Free OSR resource ' From the Vats' From Necrotic Gnome Productions For Your Old School Campaigns

There are books that players are going to hate to see the DM having and know that the PC's are going to be in for a hell of a weirdly strange trip and well get ready for that with this free rpg resource!
 From The Vats was just birthed! The vivimancer.was first introduced in 'Pay What You Want' title

Theorems & Thaumaturgy which your going to need in order to properly use 'From The Vats'. I consider it one of the essential books for Labyrinth Lord or any retroclone game. 

Grab It Right Over HERE

Each year free RPG day gives birth to some wonderfully twisted strange creation that sort of defies convention. There are really wonderfully strange OSR books that come out from time to time and then there are books that you have to have if your a certain kind of DM. Those books that leap right into your lap. Deformed, mewing and sort of like the baby thing from Eraser Head. Wailing this thing wants, no needs you to use it. Well, 'From The Vats' is that thing with genetically engineered bells on.  I have over the years spent way,way too much time with Necotic Gnome Production's creations over the years and this one is no exception.  This book is an eighty four page tour de force about the abominations, creations, and high weirdness of the vivimancer class, a magic-user sub-class specializing in flesh-warping, genetic meddling, neural manipulation, and vat growth. These guys give mad scientists nightmares or genetic drift envy. There are two adventures here. The Submerged Spire of Sarpedon the Shaper, by Ben Laurence is a look into stomach churning journey into the world of a particularly nasty vivimancer. The maps are very nice, the ideas, setting material, monsters, and goals are very nicely laid out. The two one-page adventures by Alex Schröder and Anders Hedenbjörk Lager take the themes of the book and expand them further and twist the material into other directions. The three adventures within the book are  plug and play allowing them to be dropped anywhere into the background of your campaign. In point of fact these creations have a strange sort of universal appeal about them many of the things in From the Vats would fit a wide variety of campaigns from pulp, science fiction,sword and sorcery, fantasy, science fantasy, and even post apocalyptic material. In point of fact this whole book could be dropped right into your favorite Advanced Mutants & Mazes campaign for Mutant Future and not one person would be the wiser.

Holy crap the monsters are meant for Labyrinth Lord but with a little tweaking would give an OSRIC or AD&D party a hard time and these things are straight up adventurer nightmare fuel. Seriously these things are horrors from beyond the vats of nightmare. These things could be used in a science fantasy game and not one person would bat an eye at their use. This is one of the strengths of these creatures. They would also fit right into the background of a sword and sorcery campaign or a pulp campaign this is again one of the basis of evil that is From The Vats.
Look if you already haven't stopped reading and grabbed this book let me go on. The seven magic items are perfectly suited for this book and these things are perfect for wrecking the lives of PC's and making the vivimancer spasm with glee. A bit of warning, use these things sparingly as many of the magic items are life altering things that one might find within the lab of some of the most dangerous members of this class.
The six new magic spells are especially tasty and give the DM even more sauce to get the maxium flavor for the meal of From The Vat. These are very well done and can be vary dangerous to the well being of PC's and are of great use to the vivimancer. The magic here is bold, dangerous, and borders on things man wasn't meant to know.
Many of the things within the 'From the Vat' dove tale into the vivimancer PC  book The Complete Vivimancer 

Much of that material supports and expands many of the elements, themes, setting material presented in 'From The Vats'. The Complete Vivimancer goes into far greater detail into the back setting of the PC class. Filling in many of the gaps and what have you presented in Theorems & Thaumaturgy.

All in all this is one of the best books that I've seen released for the Free RPG day weekend. And its amazing that this book has been released into the wild for free. This is easily a five out of five book for From The Vats. Grab this one right now and don't wait.