Review of D20 Terrors of Egypt From NUELOW Games

I was looking for some new D20 resources for my upcoming Dungeon Crawl Classics game. I received Terrors of Egypt as a gift from a friend today and now I'm very sorry I did. This pdf retails for around two dollars and twenty five cents clocks in at forty eight pages of public domain horror comics. These are really good horror comics with really zero D20 material. There's one crappy D20 Egyptian themed zodiac chart in this horror comic book anthology for character generation and that's part of the missed opportunity of this book. The author simply looks like he cleaned up the public domain comic book source material and didn't bother to write in the adventure opportunities, D20 monster stat blocks, mystic items, and mini adventures all hidden in the comic book stories themselves there by rendering this book for game use absolutely pointless.




But then again NUELOW Games it seems isn't about giving the public useful D20 gaming resources its about making a quick buck out of public domain comic book material. Terrors of Egypt had the potential to be a really useful forty eight page anthology and source  book woven together from public domain comic book material. Instead they've put together a slip shod hacked title that they've got the nerve to charge the public money for. This book isn't even worth the half a star. The design is crap, the premise is a solid one but one little D20 resource surrounded by some great vintage horror comics that with a bit of work could have been something great. F- for this effort in slip shod writing and design work. According to the Drivethrurpg blurb "The center piece of Terrors of Egypt is Alan Hewetson and Cesar Lopez's tale of the mysterious and bewitching Khefra, collected here for the first time anywhere, but the other stories are also sure to haunt your imagination long after you've put the book down."  Umm not exactly, these comics were taken from the  The Digital Comic Museum which offers free access to thousands  of pre-1959 comic books, uploaded by users who often offer historical research and commentary alongside high-quality scans. NUELOW dusted the scans off & knocked this "comics anthology"  together. Save yourselves two dollars and a bunch  of gaming pain and headaches. Grab yourselves a membership over at the Digital Comic Museum and begin downloading your own precode horror, fantasy, and sci fi comic book titles yourself then create your own old school gaming material.


 Christ, this is the first time in a long time that I've given this low of a rating to a product but what pisses me off is the potential is there but it seems like sheer laziness on Nuelow games part.  If they had put some effort into a product that advertises itself as Terrors of Egypt this title really had a lot of potential to really be something very useful at the table. Next time Nuelow games  please put i a bit of effort into your next Egypt line title. As a precode comic book fan and old school gaming enthusiast Terrors of Egypt left me bitterly disappointed, incensed and totally pissed off at the author whose past work was far more up to par then this drek that passes itself as a "D20"  product. This is one to avoid at all costs.

Free Comic Book OSR Resource & DYI Weird Horror OSR Gaming For Long Term Campaigning Involving The Lamentations Of The Flame Princess rpg

City of the Living Dead is an Avon Periodicals one shot, and its a perfect public domain campaign venue. This horror adventure comic makes a perfect venue for a modern weird horror adventure for a Lamentations of the Flame Princess adventure setting and source book.


Grab It Right Over HERE
Right out of the gate you get everything you need for a South American 1950's or alternative Earth weird horror adventure in the old school tradition. This includes the opening lurid splash page.

 This is one of those settings that exists as a sort of border or fringe other dimensional location that the locals know about and don't bother with. You've got all of the makings of a perfect adventure mega dungeon or nega dungeon location to add right into a modern game. I can hear the wailing about the lack of modern fire arms and technology, check with the OSR library of  David Bay Miller. There are several reasons why Quetana The City of the Living Dead makes a perfect LoFP location.

• Pirate legend background along with Aztec gold connections, like many of the published LoFP adventure locations Quetana The City of the Living Dead is unique.
• The treasure is still there and its completely guarded, who knows how many levels there are to the city and its dungeons.
• Quetana The City of the Living Dead seems to be the sort of location that transcends time and space with a lovely and horrid place to stage repeated visits. This also means that the  The City of the Living Dead could find its way into other place such as the post apocalyptic wastelands or a sword and sorcery vibe.
• Not unlike other LoFP its deity is on site and watches over the place insuring that its minions are perfectly pitched and ready to go should the need arise. 
• The evil of Quetana The City of the Living Dead's ghoul curse and disease can easily spread to other civilizations. Perhaps if its evil spreads then PC's might have to go there for a possible cure. 
• I dig the weird Indiana Jones meets Tales From the Crypt vibe of  The City of the Living Dead
  
  The Great Quetzal Aztec God of Justice is a god of undeath and law, a perfect minor alien god to throw into OSR adventures. He could easily be adapted by clerics as a patron style god and not something to be taken lightly at all. For my own campaigns I'd use him as a minor god of Law with connections to the Beyond.  Given his treatment of the Martins, I'd say that he's got some stiff competition from the Demonic powers of the Beyond. 
  
  
  But this isn't the only story in City Of The Living Death worth taking a look at, Glistening Death has three things worth noting. 
  

  • A unique monster easily fleshed out that can menace parties of adventurers for years to come.
  • Lots of gold and treasure for the greedy and a potential for a cult of horror that can be build into and fleshed out for lots of potential.
  • A tie in that will work with certain monstrous aspects of Carcosa or Lusus Naturae.
    
    Finally rounding out this issue is the Witches Come At Midnight story.
    • Lots of potential here including introducing aspects of the summon spell to a modern style adventure setting. Weird mutated birds, plenty of cult potential, and the possible introduction of a minor demon lord. If this was a LoFP adventure the family would be slaughtered and the adventurers would stumble upon the remains. And who exactly is this minor demon lord that makes his devil impersonation in the story? Or is this actually a sorcerer whose delved too far into the powers of darkness and played around with black forces?
      

 So how is City of the Living Dead good for long term campaigning? Well there are several reasons to go this route with LoFP. The skills and encumbrance rules are top notch, the fact is that the system is easy to adapt for a number of venues and the potential for a one shot developing into a full campaign is perfectly suited in this type of setting. This style of campaign might not be to everyone's liking but the potential for a long term campaign set in a modern era using LoFP is something I've been tossing around for some time.   I'm always on the lookout for old school public domain campaign resources and on occasion I've stumbled upon a real gem. In this case we've got a perfect 1952 public domain comic book from the Avon comic book company.Avon is was one of those comic & publishing houses  that always seemed to be a cut above the rest when I've read about them in the past.According to Wiki : Avon Books was founded in 1941 by the American News Corporation (ANC) to create a rival to Pocket Books. They hired brother and sister Joseph Meyers and Edna Meyers Williams to establish the company. ANC bought out J.S. Ogilvie Publications, a pulp magazine publisher partly owned by both the Meyers, and renamed it "Avon Publications". They also got into comic books. "The early Avons were somewhat similar in appearance to the existing paperbacks of Pocket Books, resulting in an immediate and largely ineffective lawsuit by that company. Despite this superficial similarity, though, from early on Meyers differentiated Avon by placing an emphasis on popular appeal rather than loftier concepts of literary merit."^[1] The first 40 titles were not numbered. First editions of the first dozen or so have front and rear endpapers with an illustration of a globe. The emphasis on "popular appeal" led Avon to publish ghost stories, sexually-suggestive love stories, fantasy novels and science fiction in its early years, which were far removed in audience appeal from the somewhat more literary Pocket competition.' Kinda fitting since its HP Lovecraft's birthday today, because,'as well as normal-sized paperbacks, Avon published digest-format paperbacks (the size and shape of the present-day Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine) in series. These included Murder Mystery Monthly, Modern Short Story Monthly and Avon Fantasy Readers. Many authors highly prized by present-day collectors were published in these editions, including A. Merritt, James M. Cain, H. P. Lovecraft, Raymond Chandler and Robert E. Howard.'

All in all I think that City of The Living Dead is a pretty good addition to my arsenal of tools for LoFP and other OSR games. There's plenty of potential for long term and weird horror games with this style of adventure.  More coming up.

Free Weird Wednesday Comic Book Download - Comix International Issue #5 (Warren Publishing) (1977) For Your Old School Campaigns

Grab It Right
HERE

This is one of those classic Warren publishing reprints from 1977 which includes some great old school comics reprints in the Warren tradition. Some of these are perfect for use with your old school campaigns.
This issue includes : 

Bowser - This is the story of a boy and his monster, the art is great but the twisted story has some very interesting twists and turns, enough to use as the basis for a modern take on a weirdly humorous old school adventure looking for the victims of 'Bowser' and the horror filled Lovecraftian spawn of this monster. 

The Succubus Stone- What happens when those dark and dangerous magical relics and artifacts from your dungeons end up in a modern setting with dark Lovecraftian overtones? Murder,mayhem, and possibly a story with a lead in for a Call of Cthulhu style investigation. There are some nice monstrous possibilities in this story as well. The stone can provide a few twisted avenues to add in as background for even a D&D style adventure. After where did it come from? Was your party responsible for its recovery? 

Vampirella: The Corpse with the Missing Mind - This story has plenty mad science ends and a bit of a twist or two that might be added in to a post apocalpytic or dark fantasy adventure quite easily. The artwork is solid and its a quick read as well. Nice source material to play around with. 

The Mummy...and an End - Warren takes yet another crack at their own version of the classic Universal movie tale without being a Universal movie. There's plenty of hard core horror elements to pull from for a solid Call of Cthlhu follow up investigation or even a dungeon crawl related to this one. Nice artwork and solid mix of stories is what we've got with this end of a series. Plenty of fodder between the bandages here. 

Deja Vu -Witch craft, past lives, dark implications, and dire warnings spell black magic and trouble in this tale. This dark tale is a perfect modern mid level investigation for a team to come into the story after the fact. A good solid shocker with plenty to offer a DM. 

The Demons of Father Pain- Diabolical murder, dismemberment, and a dark story line that could be used for a Lamentations of the Flame Princess style story or a Gothic retroclone adventure with some artistic license and redressing. 

The Origin of the Spirit - The Will Eisner classic is a perfect piece of adventure fodder for a Strange Adventures or modern style mini adventure. The artwork is classic Will Eisner and the tale is a quick read. Very handy for an evening's entertainment. 

In Deep- A nice Gothic take on the classic tale of survival, murder, and mayhem. A very handy tale to have adventurers come in after the fact and easily redressed for a classic Gothic horror or retroclone style adventure. 

Comix International Issue #5 (Warren Publishing) (1977) was a nice shift up from some of the other material appearing on the comic market back in the Seventies. The quality was a nice change of pace and its great material to pull from and not well known among gamers that much. The vibe of high weirdness and horror twisting adds a certain something when pulling on these comics for your old school gaming. Because its free its an added bonus. 

Free Comix International Issue #3 Warren Publishing From (1975) As Fodder For Your Old School Campaigns

Download It Right Over
HERE

Comix International was a short-lived magazine comprised entirely of reprinted material (in color) from other Warren publications that hit the shelves in 1975. There were a wide range of reprinted stories and this issue was no different. 

It featured some of Warren's top artistic talents for these tales including : Richard Corben, Esteban Maroto, Jeff Jones, Jose Bea, Doug Moench, and others. 

 Stories in this issue  to mine for old school games include: Child: Mind of the Mass! by Greg Potter and Richard Corben; Child: Childhood's End by Budd Lewis and Richard Corben. Child was a weird creation & one with a tragic history. He's a great example of a flesh golem and the first tale is one that high lights some of the more tragic and interesting angles from the Frankenstein legend. The second tells one of the weird ends that the Child character came to under the pen of Budd Lewis and Corben. I say one possible end because Child later popped up in the pages of Creepy and Errie. He was a strange and more then twisted character. Very strange stuff that could be easily adapted to a horror game such as Chill or a D&D style clone with easy. 

Wizard Wagstaff by Jack Butterworth and Richard Corben is another Corben effort with darkly comedic undertones that might be shaped into a Weird Adventures style tale with several possible links into a fully fleshed out adventure encounter possibilities. 

Hard John Apple: An Angel Shy of Hell by Jim Stenstrum and Richard Corben, this is a dark and very unPC take on the post apocalpytic wasteland tale. This is a very edgy and darkly saterical tale of a character firmly in the role of anti hero. Just the sort of NPC who would make a great villain in Mutant Future or other classic post apocalyptic wasteland adventure. 

Harry by Jeff Jones; Dead Run by Jeff Jones, need a nasty magical artifact for a horror game? Here's the perfect low level one with a very nasty background. Nice art but dark tale. 

A Wonderful Morning by Fernando Fernandez, ever wonder how those skeletons with all that nifty gear get to be in those caves, grottoes, etc. Here's the tale with the back story to mine for an adventure? This is one of those tales perfect for the post apocalytic wasteland. 

Puppet-Player by Jose Bea, need a tale to get that Lamentations of The Flame Princess game going with a weird death connected with a supernatural backdrop to it? This is just the tale to kick things off with!  Dax the Damned: Chess by Esteban Maroto,  by Doug Moench and Esteban Maroto This is the perfect sword and sorcery one shot to mine for a one shot adventure for a D&D retroclone. Finally  Vampirella: Return Trip by Joseph Toutain and Jose Gonzalez is a perfect over the top  adventure encounter for a Carcosa or Mutant Future over arch with a weird NPC death to really throw NPC's into the deep end of things! 

Rounding out this issue is a group of  artist profiles of Richard Corben, Jose Bea, Jeff Jones, and others. Cover depicts a montage of interior panels in the Seventies old school style I love so much! 

Quick Shout Out For Bloke's Terrible Tomb Of Terrors Horror Anthology Comic Magazine

As an independent and self employed guy I'm all about the DYI comic book movement and the OSR. A good example of this is Bloke's Terrible Tomb Of Terror. A self published horror anthology that hearkens back to the incredible days of the black and white comic magazines like Creepy and Eerie. This is a sold horror anthology genre comic magazine.
The intoduction on Facebook by Jason Crawley does a very nice set up on these horror filled wonders :
A self published magazine size horror anthology (not available in stores) Hosted by The Bloke, a Victorian Undertaker character of writer Jason 'The Bloke' Crawley. Remember when horror anthologies were printed in the glorious over sized magazine format? We do too and so we decided to produce this new anthology in such a format! Featuring painted cover art and a mix of retro and modern style artwork to cater to all tastes, along with a new host called The Bloke to entertain and encourage you to read these tales, Bloke's Terrible Tomb Of Terror brings back the good ole days with a modern twist to keep you entertained as you work your way through each page!

Grab Em Right Over
HERE

The layout is swift and tight, the artwork very well done for a black & white, the interplay for horror anthology is very reminiscence of the 1970's Warren style comics. 
The artwork and everything speaks mes to an even older independent tradition going back in time to pulp magazines like Weird Tales, and other lurid horror anthology magazines. There is a tradition of the lurid and haunting blood soaked stories among the magazine wracks that this title speaks with. 

 The artwork as I said echoes another time period and has something about that carries with it an old school vibe that comes across as part of this new school tradition of comic book independence.
 
There is a certain gut level appreciation that the author/artist has for his subject matter and that comes across here in spades. The attention to detail and subject matter is something that the horror reader would wise to look at. Jason Crawley knows his gut churning and blood filled subject matter. 


Now is one the best times to get on board with Terrible Tomb because the anthology title has collected many of the issues right under one roof. The artwork is some of the better black and white efforts that I've recently seen and echos the old school horror tradition of classic horror anthologies of the past. The artwork below has been used countless times for science fiction shocker stories but that's a good thing because its nice to see quality writing and attention to the little things like traditional comic horror. What we get here is the deep throaty roar of a 1960's and 70's horror magazine done to today. 
Comics like this are as exclusive to our generation as mom, Apple pie, and Famous Monsters of Filmland. This is exactly the sort of stuff I cut my teeth on for old school horror.


Titles such this one are as much homage as they are labors of love. You see nods everyplace in these comics to the greats of the past and Jason really does a nice job of supporting his audience with new artwork,communication and more with the Facebook page of his available right over
HERE


The artwork, covers, and ideas here are solidly done and very well thought-out but these are new tales and not rezip lined 1940's and 50's tales with new chrome and a slick paint job. 
Everything here is creator driven, owned, and published and so I throw my coin with this magazine.