Review & Commentary On Ghosts -- The Incorporeal Undead From James Mishler Games For Your Old School Campaigns

There are many OSR authors and then there's James Mishler  and his wife  who turns out more useful OD&D/Retroclone material then several other OSR publishers combined and does it with style. Take his latest offering. Ghosts -- The Incorporeal Undead follows his last last monster titles including Vampires of the Olden Lands and Ogres of the Olden Lands.
The author uses every trick in the book for this OD&D title and like many of his other titles there's no artwork but wall to wall content. This pdf is packed with old school ectoplasmic goodness and its done right. The content includes everything you as a DM could want or need on the subject of ghosts.
"Ghosts -- The Incorporeal Undead! Everything you always wanted to know about ghosts but were afraid to ask! A 64-page in-depth analysis of ghosts, including salient abilities, 10 different basal types from 1 HD to 10 HD, 75 ghostly special abilities, uses and dangers of ectoplasm, 23 new magic items, a complete index of spells and their interaction with ghosts (plus three new spells), and a (mostly) complete Creepy Appendix N! Designed for use with Labyrinth Lord, easily adaptable to any other Old School RPG"
Normally this is about sixteen dollars but given that we're in the middle of Halloween time its price to sell at six dollars and sixty six cents.

Grab It Right Here HERE


Trying to even review this is a bit of a daunting task, don't let the cute little spooky Halloween adjectives fool you this is a packed book. The first part of it is a rules kit which lays out in detail each and every bit of the classic mythological and Hollywood ghost types. This is essentially a rules toolkit for OD&D and Labyrinth Lord; this is everything that you've come to expect from the old school ghosts. What the section is isn't simply more OSR rules but a kit for constructing, laying out, and dealing with your own different styles of ghosts. Everything is laid out in sparkling details for monster construction and its done very well. Everything is laid bare at the DM's finger tips.
Fear Attack 4
Fear Effects Table 4
Spawn Ghost 4
Incorporeal 4
Bodiless 4
Ectoplasm 5
Flight 5
Powerless in Sunlight 5
Weapon Immunity 6
Life Draining Touch 6
Spawn Ghost 6
Undead Special Abilities Package 6
Infravision 6
Mindless 6
Poison Immunity 6
Silent as the Grave 6
Susceptible to Turning 6
Other Special Abilities 7
Special Ability Notation 7
Incorporeal Undead Summary Table
This section is laid out for both monster construction and for PC's to actually play a restless spirit and this tool kit basically has everything you could want to construct a PC in ghostly horror and wonderful detail. This is damn useful stuff especially for any DM who plays a Necromancer or Death Master NPC class.
There is a range of psychic and Spiritualist PC class and options as well; this is a the first book that actually has the psychic and spiritualist as useful PC's for adventuring. This also means that this book is perfect for pulp OD&D style games.
There's a whole lot more to this book  then simply an NPC and PC tool kit and PC option book. You get a ton of ghostly monsters all in one place and not simply scattered to the four winds. All of these can be used as monster templates to create your own ghosts or as monsters for adventure placement. Every entry here is crammed with lots of little details.

GHOSTS – LESSER AND GREATER

   Presence (1 HD Lesser Ghost)

   Apparition (2 HD Lesser Ghost)

   Lost Soul (3 HD Lesser Ghost)

   Wraith (4 HD Greater Ghost)

   Haunt (5 HD Greater Ghost)

   Spectre (6 HD Greater Ghost)

   Spirit (7 HD Greater Ghost)

   Wyrd (8 HD Greater Ghost)

   Phantom (9 HD Greater Ghost)

   Geist (10 HD Greater Ghost)

This book has some damn useful and well thought out appendixes which are not simply there for decoration. These are add ons with utility and with something to add for a campaign incorporating ghostly and spirit realm elements.

APPENDICES

   Ghostly Special Abilities - Here's where the dungeon master gets a few more toys to play with add more supernatural bits and pieces to your monster or PC. The list here is well done and possibly one of the best supernatural elements of the book.

   Uncanny Ectoplasm - Ectoplasm is the one bit about ghosts that no one has exploited until now; this substance is exuded by ghosts and in the author's hands  becomes a drug to enhance and titillate your adventurers. This stuff goes from horrid to full post apocalyptic gonzo with the induction of laser  ectoplasm! That's right material that can blast the hell out of PA adventurers. This is easily one of my favorite chapters and one of the most useful for a post apocalyptic dungeon master; the Mishler's have done a damn fine job of making and adding in some fantastic bits to the material here that can be applied to everything from pulp gaming to full on dungeon crawling.

   Eerie Enchanted Items- These magic items echo and deal with the ghostly and their quite well done in what they do. With a bit of writing slight of hand the author has looped these back into the book so that they are actually useful when dealing with the various types of Geists, Spectres, Phantoms, and spirits in 'The Incorporeal Undead'. These are really vary useful for a DM whose planning everything in a campaign from a sword & sorcery adventure encounter to a full one on one basic OD&D Ghostbusters or Carnacki ghostly investigator romp ala The Masquerade of the Red Death campaign setting. This book is that flexible and interesting.

   Spooky Spells- This is an an overview of how the various OD&D spells and such interact with the ghostly entities and horrors depicted in the book. This list can also act as an adventure hook or two as the DM reads through it and gets ideas from the various bits and pieces offered here. Once again its very well done and really nicely researched.

   Creepy Appendix N - I have a love/hate relationship with Appendix N's but this one tickles me as a dungeon master in all of the right places and covers everything that a DM's going to need to research for the various ghosts and entities. It covers all of the basics with more then a few surprises thrown into the deep end.
Note that this book echoes and builds on many of the principals of the various OD&D,  Judge's Guild style material its not afraid at all to tackle and embrace the gonzo. This makes this book extremely useful for a DM running Mutant Future, OD&D, Basic Fantasy, Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea, Lamentations of the Flame Princess, etc.,etc.,

 So in closing do I think that  Ghosts -- The Incorporeal Undead From James Mishler Games is worth the price of admission?  Well at six dollars and sixty six cents this is a steal. My only real concern and bitch session about the whole product is the lack of a print option! I guess that there are some issues with it but to have this booklet at my table would be a lot easier then simply trying to deal this pdf at four AM. But for what this book does and how it does it?! You'd be completely crazy to grab this book.

Using Ghosts -- The Incorporeal Undead From James Mishler Games
For Your Old School Campaigns
Right, did you as player or a dungeon master see a really cool ghostly or horror themed comic or pulp cover and want to emulate exactly what the supernatural entity on the cover was doing?
Ghosts -- The Incorporeal Undead From James Mishler Games has all of those systems under its covers.
Yes I've seen the various Ravenloft & 3.5 supplements but this book has a fresh take on the ghostly and allows the DM to really flesh out the various genre elements as they want on their terms.


The various settings where Ghosts -- The Incorporeal Undead is incredible. Say you've got a game adventure set on a planet of horror with a ton of alien ghosts and encounters. This is the book that can provide you with the systems to stat that out. Have you ever wanted to emulate the various ghosties and supernatural entities from the Real Ghost Busters or other Saturday morning horror themed cartoons for your pulp or your post apocalyptic game campaigns? This is the book that can deal it out in spades. This book can also be used to set up and execute various haunted houses and horror locations for the Halloween season. From modern alternative Earth Nineteen Forties to the dungeons and graveyards of your campaigns Ghosts -- The Incorporeal Undead From James Mishler Games is a perfect fit to bring the supernatural horror and gonzo old school gaming goodness of horror right to your adventurers door.

Review of Ogres of the Olden Lands By James Mishler Games For Your Old School Campaign

Ogres of the Olden Lands is both a monster book & PC book rolled into one, in the Olden Lands ogres are a menace and a boon. These monsters in this pay what you want title are very dangerous highly unpredictable are a species unto themselves and the author does a good job of getting this very well across. These are tribes of creatures that have traits, habits, norms and a society that is just this south of the usual races of PC's and they're very well detailed in this title. The random tables for ogres and ogre magi are fantastic and add in a bit more color into a race of 'monsters' who are at once menacing and yet understandable. Given the author's background in anthropology its very understandable how he's able to breath new life into a pair of monsters from the Monster Manual that have only been regarded as big dumb humanoids. Here they're anything but. 


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HERE

  The real star here is the the half ogre PC class everything that I've come to expect from the race that appeared in the pages of Dragon magazine and several old school rpg sources instead here we have a working PC racial class with real motives and dangerous intentions. Yet they're not only playable but well done too boot. They're certainly well done with several other random tables to add in even more customization options to your PC's.  This product also features an ogre encounter system, just perfect for generating complete parties of these brutal and dangerous warriors as well as their Ogre Magi counterparts. Make no mistake these are some very dangerous customers and they should never be taken lightly.  This is a living and breathing race of dangerous warriors going about their business in a society with its own rules and ethics, even though these are a some what alien species in many respects. There is a section on advice for generating your own ogre PC's and this is done in such a way give practical advice and really down to Earth guidance with these creatures making them feel realistic and solidly done.
Finally we get a series of maps detailing the lands and world of the ogres of The Olden Lands. Finally we get the Gorge of Ogroth a place of mystery and legend steeped in Ogre lore, the perfect place to drop a party into the deep end of it. A ton can be done with this twenty page piece of OSR gaming goodness, since this is a Labyrinth Lord compatible product its just perfect for use with a wide variety of OSR products. I can honestly see using this book as a part of a Mutant Future Advanced Mazes and Mutants campaign. With all of the information here its easy to see these races appearing in the post apocalyptic wastelands. Ogres make the perfect bogey man and mutation platform in a post apocalyptic jump off point. There is so much detail here that its possible for Ogres to be used as a contact race for a game of Star Ships and Space Men 1st edition with little issue. Seriously these are one of the more versatile races of monsters turned player character races that I've seen and the product is that well done. This product could be used to create a sub race of sword and sorcery characters, monsters, NPC's and plenty more. Because of the LL style of stats in this product and the fact that the advanced companion is considered in the PC and NPC  generation options this book gives a ton of bang for its buck. I can even see using this product with an OSR game such as Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea. 
I don't own a single Castles and Crusades book but I can see given the gaming fluff that there is plenty of sparks and fire to start a blaze of bonfire proportions for a wide variety of OSR style games. Given the amount of time, details, ecology issues, and more for the societies of the ogres this title gets a five out of five from me. Do yourselves a favor and grab this baby today! Highly recommended.