Two Blood Brothers Out For Each Other - Observances of Hawk The Slayer & Anti Paladin From The Best of Dragon Magazine issue #2

 Four A.M. in the morning this morning I found myself reading through The Best of Dragon Magazine issue #2. And once again I found myself crusing through 'The Anti Paladin' article by George Laking & Tim Mesford. Why because early in the evening I'd settled down with my Dad & wife to watch 'Hawk The Slayer'. 

I threw Hawk The Slayer onto the Bluray & it's been a long while since this cultclassic was on. The fact is that in my humble opinion this the Dungeins & Dragons movie some of us grew up with. Jack Palance's Voltan is essentially an anti paladin duped by the powers of darkness. Everytime Palance is on screen he chews up the scenary gloriously. 

Both Hawk & Voltan have renounced the throne for their minor kingdom. The only thing that's out on the table for rulership is revenge. According to a 2015 article on the anti paladin on  Otherside blog Timothy Brannan covers two options; "the better Anti-Paladins comes from the ACKS Player's Companion book.  It captures the feel of the Dragon article quite well I think.  It is also given enough reason to exist without being grossly overpowered.   There is also the Barrel Rider Games Player's Companion that presents a number of new class features and, appropriately enough on page 13, the Anti-Paladin." The original Best of Dragon magazine issue #2 covers the anti paladin's evil quite nicely. 

And according to the original Dragon Magazine article; "Thus, half-ores wil l commonly be found serving in the capacity of assassins, half-ogres—if that variant is employed—will perform as fighters (brigands), while an occaional renegade dwarf or depraved half ling might be numbered as thieves in the Anti-Paladin's service. On the other hand, no self "respecting elf — not even a thief —would ever serve such an evit master (although, under certain conditions as determined by the DM, a solitary Drow might be found acting in the role of "advisor"). Brigands, thieves and assassins are the Anti-Paladin's usual human companions. Occasionally, he might have on hand a defrocked cleric to act as his chaplain, an outlawed alchemist to brew up his poisons or a demented wizard to keep him well supplied with potions, scrolls and other magic items (see Table 3b for details on these "special" human servants)." In otherwords the Anti paladin is the sink of evil for many criminals & scum within his purview. And this fits right in line with Voltan's band of thieves & scum who serve him. 
But as the years roll on & the Anti paladin's levels increase his 'charisma of evil' decreases; "At higher levels of experience, the Anti-Paladin's infamous reputation for self-serving treachery, senseless violence and unswerving devotion to the cause of evil wil l actually deter all but the most vicious or psychotic human types from entering his service. For this reason, both the probability and the number of human retainers decreases with each additional experience level the Anti-Paladin gains." Again this fits Voltan to a tee. Evil has it's own rewards but they are few & far between. 

OSR Review & Commentary On “100 Oddities for a Vampire Lair,” From Skirmisher Publishing For Your School Game Campaign

 "Welcome to “100 Oddities for a Vampire Lair,” the seventeenth entry in Skirmisher Publishing’s popular and bestselling series of system-free sourcebooks dedicated to inspiring rich stories and spicing up encounter areas with exciting curiosities! 

“100 Oddities for a Vampire Lair” draws on the long spanning multicultural tradition of Vampire myth-telling across the world and, of course, the plentiful body of literature and films that feature them. This supplement is dedicated to the places where Vampires lurk and focuses on the horrors that accompany the denizens of their lairs and provides enough detail on each to bring them to life (so to speak). "

“100 Oddities for a Vampire Lair,” is a system agonistic tool kit from Skirmisher Publishing for dressing up your adventures or old school encounters. Vampires are the focus & one thing to remember is that vampires can be some of the most dangerous thinking NPC monsters in old school games. These undead can come in many varieties. The  Ravenloft campaign setting for Advanced Dungeons & Dragon 1st & 2nd edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons have weaponized the vampire. 
Here we have “100 Oddities for a Vampire Lair,” which helps to dress up a vampire's lair within 18 pages with a handful of dice. “100 Oddities for a Vampire Lair,”  is a great addition for a DM's tool box for creating a vampric NPC villain's base of operation. And for a classic dungeon master there's the Dragon magazine article from The Dragon October 1979 #30 'Good Evening' By Lenard Lakofka .

Reference photo taken from Wayne's Books. 

“100 Oddities for a Vampire Lair,” works really well with  the Dragon magazine article from The Dragon October 1979 #30 'Good Evening' By Lenard Lakofka  for creating base or lair, contents, and even perhaps secondary options for adventures & encounters.  So not only can “100 Oddities for a Vampire Lair,” be remote lairs & adventure locations but also lairs in modern cities or fantasy city locations.  “100 Oddities for a Vampire Lair,” goes fast & loose enough to be used with a wide variety of rpg products.  So if we want to take the route of  the Call of Cthulhu rpg  with “100 Oddities for a Vampire Lair,” then there's another Skirmisher Publishing product we can use their classic 'Mythos Society Guide to New England'.  Which goes into the history of vampires in Rhode Island. 

Is there another OSR use for “100 Oddities for a Vampire Lair,” to use this book to generate vampire lairs with Elf Lair Publishing Night Shift Veterans of the Supernatural Wars. 

“100 Oddities for a Vampire Lair,”  From Skirmisher Publishing is agonistic set of tables & reference pieces that brings  that brings home the idea that home & lair are easily the central point of an old school & modern encounter. You can use “100 Oddities for a Vampire Lair,”  From Skirmisher Publishing to dress your dungeons or modern encounters. Its easily worth the down load 

“100 Oddities for a Vampire Lair,”  From Skirmisher Publishing Is Available Right Here 

From Epic To Urban - The Uses of Lankhmar City of Adventure (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 2nd Edition : Official Game Accessory) by Anthony Pryor For Your Old School Campaign

"LANKHMAR...city of thieves, city of the night, city of adventure. Home of Fritz Leiber's famous heroes, FAFHRD™ and the GRAY MOUSER™; greatest adventurers in the world of Nehwon. The city of Lankhmar springs to life as an exciting Setting for the AD&D® game.
Visit the fabled Rainbow Palace, stroll the surly streets of the old town, haggle at the market place or risk the winding maze of the Tenderloin, From the wharves and shipyards to the dark sewers of this mighty metropolis,. LANKHMAR takes you on a full tour.
Also included are many encounters in LANKHMAR and adaptations of the adventures of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Its unique approach makes LANKHMAR a living, changing city.
Leave the dungeons and wilderness and step into a new world of intrigue and adventure. Enter the city of LANKHMAR; if you're lucky, you'll get out alive."

Lankhmar City of Adventure (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 2nd Edition : Official Game Accessory) Paperback – November 1, 1993 by Anthony Pryor (Author), Fred Fields (Editor)

Way back in the 90's I was running a complete Grimjack comic book from First comics  rpg campaign. I learned a lot back then. one of the things is never listen to the 'community' & that's because often over looks the good stuff. Manos review on Amazon  from 2011 encapsulates my feeling about Lankhmar: City of Adventure (2nd edition); "Now this is THE city supplement to buy.The streets are named, the map is very well setup for modding or using as-is, and just so much more.The only thing I didn't care for was in the very center on each district, the GM had to use a geomorph from the book. (The idea was to make each city unique, which was not really needed.)Having said that, it's still a 5+ item. In the second edition they added the sewer maps which just pushed it over the top for great that much more. (And all the Skaven, err... "Ratkin" scraps.)

(IMO) The best part? Most younger gamers have no experience with the old stuff, so you can just mangle it as you wish without breaking any of their sacred cows.

Lord knows this city had multiple names in multiple systems for me: D&D, RoleMaster, Palladium Fantasy... the game might have changed, but same city remained. The players actually dug it."

Here's the thing original Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition's Dieties & Demigods could be scaled back to fit the player's PC's as needed. So could Lankhmar: City of Adventure (2nd edition) a lesson I learned from Grimjack's Mortal Gods story.  Its not about killing gods but bringing in the lessons of mythology. 



 Homer's The Iliad and the Odyssey, killed more gods & demigods then I've personally ever seen in a D&D campaign. The fact was & is that  Fritz Leiber's famous heroes, FAFHRD and the GRAY MOUSER, the greatest adventurers in the world of Nehwon showed that gods were alien, flawed,highly dangerous & profitable from time to time. Trust me I heard about using a second edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons book back then as well from the old timers & from the then 2nd edition crowd of DM's as well. If you've got the players sometimes its best to turn your back & play at your table. Just because its a popular consensus doesn't make it right. Its only an opinion. At the end of the day its about what the players want.


Grimjack is the copyright & trade mark of Tim Truman & its writer John Ostrander. They went through Hell & back to secure the rights to their characters. This is a blog post for educational & entertainment purposes only. Not a copy right or trade mark violation on my part.

I never used the character of Grimjack only the idea of the city setting of Cynosure. What I used instead was Jeff Grub's Manual of the Planes from Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.  This allowed me the AD&D's planes without the cannon baggage of the upcoming Planscape setting.



The real turning point for me was using The Best of the Dragon volume II's article by Ed Greenwood Theory and use of gates: From the city of Brass... to dead Orc Pass. There's a solid love of the hobby in these early issues of The Dragon for me. Its something I return to again & again.


I got really super tired of hearing all of the grumbling of the gamers & dungeon masters at my local hobby shops & what not. So I started doing things with the enthusiasm of the originators of the games that we loved.
Even gods could be scaled up or down for encounters with party members as needed there has never been a fear of not doing things 'right' for encounters. Next time another game takes me in a new direction. Keep em rolling..