OSR Review & Commentary On Wretched Interbellum Campaign Setting By The Red Room For The Wretched Rpg System

 "The shadows of the Great War still loom large in this uneasy interwar period, coloured by the lingering trauma of unprecedented violence that swept the world from 1914 to 1918. Unsettled borders, crumbling empires, and new regimes leave the political landscape fraught with tension. Strange occult forces stirred by wartime bloodshed now threaten the fabric of reality. You take on the role of adventurers in this uncertain era, navigating landscapes scarred by the horrors of trench warfare. Like the roguish sailor Corto Maltese or Steinbeck’s wandering souls, you may have no allegiances beyond your own code of honour. Alliances are prerequisites for survival, yet trust is scarce among scheming factions vying for power in the ashes of war. Moral compasses waver like ships in a storm, the lines between heroes and villains obscured in swirling fog." Ever since Wretched Interbellum Campaign Setting By The Red Room was announced we've been waiting for it. And Wretched Interbellum does not disappoint. If your looking to get your Wretchedverse on with Indianna Jones with a European flare then Wretched Interbellum might just be the campaign setting for you and your players.

What is the  Wretched Interbellum Campaign Setting ?! This is the time period right after the Great War aka World War I and World War two. These were the years leading up to the Great Depression in America and a time of great instability in Europe. And it's in the center of this time instability that we find ourselves. The  Wretched Interbellum Campaign Setting clocks in at three  hundred and sixty nine pages of disillusioned veterans, vagabonds, drifters, adventurers, and the like. The kind of scum and decidence that Indy and co would find themselves right at home with. 
Add to this the unknown of the supernatural and weird making the  Wretched Interbellum Campaign Setting weird, different, and strange. This campaign setting has a bit of everything from European Pulp asthetics to full on Weird Tales strangeness. All of this wraps itself around a Europe railing back from World War I while the social fabric is a powder keg watching the steady rise of facism in Germany and Italy. Oh did I happen to mention the fact that your playing the not so nice scum & adventurers who are trying to make it against the Pulp Noir background of the  Wretched Interbellum Campaign Setting?
Lost worlds, supernatural horrors, and worse all exist right along with a Europe hip deep in the blood of the horrors of World War I. Blood soaked battle fields where the dead do not rest easy on one side of the world while lost worlds teaming with ancient tribal warriors who want to sacrifice you exist on the other side of the world to lost gods of the Beyond. Yes this is a time when men and women can and will make thier fortunes but it's also a time when thousands will perish in the blink of an eye with World War II looming on the horizon. 
The  Wretched Interbellum Campaign Setting is perfect for the DM looking to move up his or her Wretched Epoque campaign into the next era. There are brand new PC options,skills, backgrounds, historical notes, etc. within this expansive campaign. And there are lots & lots of new details on Europe against the  Wretched Interbellum Campaign Setting. And the campaign setting is a solid one with lots of European and world details taking full advantage of both historical and fictional Wretchedverse details. 
This is without a doubt one of the best game campaign settings that I've seen out of the Wretchedverse. And because it continues the Europe of Wretched Epoque there's a ton of utility and use for Wretched Interbellum. 

Is Wretched Interbellum worth getting?! In a word, oh yes there's tons of adventure potential. And lots of fiction that can be pillaged to create a full on Wretched Interbellum campaign. And for the OSR Wretched Interbellum is perfect for use as a campaign for Night Owl Workshop's Raiders of the Lost Artifacts rpg. 
Wanna get your Indianna Jones on with a twist or two?! You can use Wretched Interbellum as the campaign and Raiders as the OSR system. The two work really well together.  

OSR Commentary - The Law Vs Chaos War In The Hyperborea rpg Campaign

 “Barbarianism is the natural state of mankind. Civilization is unnatural. It is the whim of circumstance. And barbarianism must ultimately triumph”
― Robert E. Howard

Chaos on Hyperborea has always been a very weird area for me as a dungeon master. There are lots of indications that sometime in the past of the passing of Old Earth and The Green Death something rather nasty took place on the flat plateau world of Hyperborea. And there are indicators that it might have been some form of the conflict between Law & Chaos. 

Given the influence of Clark Ashton Smith I think that such a conflict would look vastly different. More akin to the author's Weird Tales leanings. And less in the vein of DC comics or Michael Moorcock even though Moorcock is a huge influence on the Hyperborea rpg. 
And through reading about the Lovecraftian and demonic monsters of Hyperborea a hypthosis forms in my mind. Hyperborea was a battle front in the war between Chaos and Law but only a minor dust up. To the Earth however this might have been a major world  end event. Law won but there was a cost. Chaos's soldiers & monsters have been left behind having slinked off to the four corners of Hyperborea with thier purpose over. But is it?! There a sense of circular purpose to Hyperborea like the fact that Ice Worm will devour the artificial planet. The Chaos forces are slinked into the forgotten places of Hyperborea. 

If the Chaos vs Law war happened it was long time ago and the believers have long since turned to dust. Thier cults however continue on even after the war ended eons ago. The proof of this is in the fact that only Appollo, Artemis, and Boetzu are the only gods of Law still in any capacity of power on Hyperborea. These cults continue to struggle for power in any real solid form on our version of Hyperborea. Really there are actually still a ton of artifacts of Law waiting to be discovered in the lost dungeons and fortresses of Hyperborea.  And without the influence of Law the civilization of humanity could be sliding into the Abyss of barbarism and Chaos. 
The gods of Chaos stroke humanity's ego and power by influencing the tribes of warriors and worshipers to cleave towards violence. Don't believe me? Take a look at the nine axiom alignment system that the Hyperborea rpg uses. This is all a part of the natural Lovecraftian cycle that happens to worlds. Seldom does civilization rise from the morass of Chaos to embrace advancement. 
In Clark Aston Smith's Lovecraftian gods patheon's placement these alien gods seem to be there to end an epoch of mankind. As if Chaos and entropy itself are a part of the natural cycle as an age declines they come in and clean the slate for another era. And yet they guard the ruins until the natural order swallows up these lost dungeons & ruins. We see this in CAS's The Weird of Avoosl Wuthoqquan. We see this on CAS's Hyperborea and I hard to guess we also see it on the Hyperborea rpg campaign setting as well. 

Murder and Mayhem -- A Zaibatsu/Hostile Mini Campaign On Colony World - Earth Session Report - The Roddy Unit Goes Rogue! - Session Report 10

 This little session report comes on the heels of last weeks South of the border fiasco.  Nikita Crusca weapons expert is in our infirmery. And being guarded against any unforseen occurances. 

Today coming back from breakfast at our favorite diner. The group of players needed some extra cash to trick out thier new lair in Houston. So they decided to do a bit of bounty hunting to get some extra coin. They checked in with some of the old group's contacts & found a bounty on a soldier clone named Max Reed. Reed is a bioroid with some heavy duty skills working for the Clone Underground & has been doing supply runs to a combat drug operation down in Mexico. 
The September group contracted out with a shadow bank who wants several of thier assets back after Max had murdered the family of a local mafia Don and took over his operations. The contract was for a termination and asset recover. 

Our plan was simple take out the Clone Underground facility that is masquerading as bandits where Max is making the supply runs too. We did that and collected several bounties from there and then secured the facility. Things went a bit South when the bandits that were using the base came back. We fragged them and then moved on. 
Max came in hard and fast, but he came in with other forces! So needless to say after a protacted fire fight we secured the bank's assets ( helicopter, planes, etc). and then secured the bandit's base as well as the drug factory. From here we blew Max Reed to kingdom come. Yes we're not the good guys. Something was bothering us. Who had alerted Max?! 
We've got the partially disassembled Roddy Android unit at our base at Houstan. We returned to find that the thing has escaped into the Texas desert after reassembling itself and murdering two of our NPC hirelings! He also warned Max Reed about us. My players want him badly. 

Now the Roddy unit is out in this new Earth with a head full of technologies and techniques unknown to several of the mega corporations. And the bastard seems to have several systems we didn't detect. He's a slippy android and very dangerous. 

Two of our number are going after the android and we think we know where he might be headed?! And that's near what used to be Hong Kong. So we've got two of our trackers on him. We think he's going to try to hook up with the Chinese Mafia. 

OSR Commentary On Castles & Crusades The Goblins of Mount Shadow By Brian Young For Your Old School Campaigns

 "Many long years ago the denizens of Mount Yr Wyddfa crawled beneath the earth; foul minded fey, goblins and others of that ilk; they fled for reasons unknown to any but themselves. The terraced slopes, the valleys, ravines and forested highlands settled in peace, farms spread along the greens, people settled and prospered. But the world unfolds, for ever turning, mirroring the past. It began with nightmares, followed by haunts hounding farmers in their fields, terrorizing them on the roads, chasing them to their sanctuaries. And then the goblins came a-hunting. Not seen in many years now they waylay travelers, despoil them of their belongs or worse, killing them on the road. And to all this the terror only adds, spreading even to hearth and home; young women have begun to disappear, kidnapped from their homes. Rumors speak of a new power, called the Grey King, which settled in the mountain. It is he that stirs up the creatures and has brought the goblins to life."

"Drawn by a string of random attacks on the locals, vandalism and sightings of eerie beings about the mist shrouded mountain, the characters must band together to discover the cause. To save the local villages from further devastation, the characters will need to hunt down the goblins and find the source of their rise to power.

This set of adventures is made for characters numbering 2-5 from 1st-5th level or higher, employing a diverse band of adventurers with preferably an elf or two. The campaign centers on the haunted dark mountain of Yr Wyddfa and the rise to power of the dark faeries within, being guided and led by their mysterious leader the Grey King or the Brenin Llwyd ('Brin-in Thloo-id')."

"The story focuses on Celtic myth and folklore but able to integrated into any fantasy setting and Aihrde with ease. The locations in this adventure are essentially fictional but taken from actual Welsh sources with only a few real place-names (Yr Wyddfa, Penllyn) but the rest are contrived Brythonic locations." 

Brian Young doesn't get half the credit he deserves and less so in certain circles. The Goblins of Mount Shadow By Brian Young is well done with both wilderness & dungeon crawling with a Fey mount filled to the brim with evil and dangerous Fey creatures. The Goblins of Mount Shadow

is heavily rimed with Celtic and Dark Ages folklore. The Goblins of Mount Shadow is designed for two to five characters ranging between levels 1 and 5. And make no mistake it lives up to this wide range of levels. 
And this is because the Grey King has arisen and his dark path oriented Fey are wiping out village after village turning them into what was. The Grey King cuts a bloody swath across the landscape. And so I caution anyone with first level PC's to even attempt The Goblins of Mount Shadow. 
The encounter, the wilderness encounters, etc of The Goblins of Mount Shadow are going to challenge even 6th level player's PC's. Balance is right out with the window and this is for a well done adventure like The Goblins. Layout is excellent, font style is well done, and The Goblins of Mount Shadow looks like a pleasure to run.
And running the The Goblins of Mount Shadow within a 'The Mythos Complete series' campaign looks like a blast. 

 

The Goblins of Mount Shadow is an epic module and adventure with the rise of a major power within it. The Grey King is a power unto itself and within 'The Complete Mythos' series he totally looks like he fits the bill as a major bad. And this is all made clear by The Goblins of Mount Shadow adventure!

Review & Commentary On Cha'alt X-Cards (Free) By Venger Satanis For Cha'alt or Any OSR Campaign

As a player, have you ever wanted to influence the game to make it slightly more gory, tentacled, bizarre, ridiculous, or the kind of late-night movie where cannibal nuns start giving the Kool-Aid Man a lap dance? As a GM, have you ever wanted more player participation… and helpful suggestions to prompt spontaneous improv?" 

Cha’alt X-Cards aren’t for safety. They’re the next generation in fiction-first roleplaying tools. Use this FREE product with the Cha’alt campaign setting, something similar, or your own stuff!"
So Venger sent me a link to Cha'alt X-Cards (Free) but it was watching Brandon's video review on Cha'alt X-Cards (Free)  & followed by First Look at Cha'alt X-Cards by Venger Satanis from DM Bluddworth. Finally this was followed by the Red Room's Cha'alt X-Cards overview (get them at the Red Room store). What exactly Cha'alt X Cards. These are cards that players can draw and add interesting events, items, etc too your games with a Cha'alt theme. And I can definitely see using the Cha'alt X Cards with the Cha'alt Trilogy adventure/campaign books or even Alpha Blue. These are an interesting meta fictional OSR tool to add to an OSR style game. They certainly have merit but like about 90% of Venger's gaming supplements the Cha'alt X cards are optional. These cards do have merit the Wretchedverse and I can certainly see using them in any of the Red Room's games. 
The Cha'alt X cards certainly add in the gonzo to any OSR game. And the deck does work because I tried tonight with players. The X cards certainly work and work well for moving events during gaming along. 

My problem is this does Cha'alt X-Cards give the players too much agency during a game?! There are guidelines with the Cha'alt X-Cards but knowing players the Cha'alt X-Cards could well be abused by the players during a game. So I think that the DM and players should know what thier getting into so the game campaign isn't completely derailed by meta gaming with the Cha'alt X-Cards. 
So while the Cha'alt X-Cards are an awesome and rad idea. Uses these sparingly or they could derail a campaign even if the DM knows what he or she is doing. Cha'alt X-Cards are a powerful tool to keep the gaming moving along. They are incredibly useful and a well thought out idea. However they could be used by players to derail an entire campaign even Cha'alt. So have a bit of an understanding with your players before using them. 
We used them tonight with Wretched Space and they work really well. However I spoke with the players ahead of time to get them used to the idea. 

Review & Commentary On The New Marvel Phile Issue #82 Curtis Horror By Steve Jolly, with Andrew Goldstein, & the Whole Merry Marvel Super Heroes RPG: The Unofficial Canon Project Crew

 "Happy Halloween everyone! I hope everyone survived... I apparently didn't do so well, as I forgot to post this yesterday! "

"We are excited to present this year's Halloween issue (a day late), featuring characters from Curtiss Magazines - a Marvel imprint, featuring some classic horror characters we know, and some new ones we've never seen before in the RPG! Thanks to Andrew Goldstein for putting this one together!

You can find this one (and all our back issues) at our Google drive!"

https://drive.google.com/.../0B5CaFYN4clT6Z2tOdnVmWjRfbWc...

The New Marvel Phile Issue #82 Curtis Horror By Steve Jolly & Andrew Goldstein has been put together with Write-ups by Andrew Goldstein with contributions by Chris Tyner and Steve Jolly Layout by Steve Jolly and lives up the New Marvel Phile by Marvel Super Heroes RPG: The Unofficial Canon Project usual player's standards. All illustrations by the Marvel bullpen.The New Marvel Phile Issue #82 Curtis Horror hits all of the usual standards set by the New Marvel Phile's standards for layout, fonts, artwork, and the solid use of the FASRIP gaming materials.

The Curtis Horror Imprint is an overlooked by Marvel magazine imprint from the Seventies. We get the low down and history of the imprint from Steve Jolly; "Back in the late 1960s and early 70s, the comics market saw the rise of new publishers who found a loophole through the restrictions of the Comics Code Authority. The loopholeinvolved branding their content not as comic books, but as magazines, packaged as larger formatted black-and-white stories, padded by text content like prose stories, interviews, and industry news. Without the restrictions of the Comics Code, the publishers were able to publish more mature stories with stronger content such as sex, profanity, nudity, and gore. As publishers like Warren and Skywald rose in sales, Marvel wanted a piece of that pie. Using the same stable as its popular comic-book creators,Marvel made use of its parent company, Magazine Management Co. Inc., to form a new imprint -- Curtis Magazines. Established in 1971, the Curtis imprint did not feature the Marvel title or logo, although it did feature a handful of Marvel characters as well as new creations." The first character we get is Desadia whose an on again off again clair voyent and the Gabriel The Devil Hunter the exorcist's asstantant." Gabriel the Devil-Hunter became possessed by the demon Catherine after the death of his wife. After forcing

Catherine out, Gabriel met Desadia for the first time outside of the cathedral where he battled Catherine. Desadia approached him and spoke using the voice and words of Andrea Gabriel, Gabriel's deceased wife." And so Desadia plays a second fiddle to Gabriel often giving occult advice but ultimately her fate after being swept away by demons is unknown. We get a Werewolf By Night foe in the form of Dragonus a demonic servant and tied into the Darkhold. Dragonus serves whatever dark sorercer or black wizard wields the right dark spells of the Darkhold. And he's no push over giving even experienced occult foes pause.

Gabriel The Devil Hunter is a flawed exorcist and former priest whose mixed it up with everyone from the Werewolf By Night to demons from the dark pages of the Darkhold. His lower tier occult knowledge is formitable and he makes an excellent horror NPC for the player's PC heroes. Gabriel is especially good when dealing with minor demons and such. He was rendered invilid after he was caught in the dealings of Damion Hellstrom aka The Son of Satan. However this the Marvel universe so he might have gotten better.

Two occult foes in the form of Hexman a powerful occult ally or NPC whose a voodoo practicier who tortured Quincy Harker after he insulted the gods for months. One of the chiefs of the native tribes Hexman is a powerful NPC to get on the wrong side of. The second foe is a possible mutant called The Hungry One who feeds on sound and was found by hippies Shelia and Denny in a haunted house in New Jersey. The thing's ultimate fate is not known. The thing might still be in the house waiting, after it was called up from it's former home a prehistoric water fall.

It The Thing That Wouldn't Die is a typical undead plant monster in the vein of Swamp Thing that may still be there after it seemingly parished. And then there Marcia Kenwell a germaphobe that became a part of a mutant roach hivemind. She or they may still exist to this day in the walls of a New York City highrise or tenament. A potential source of information or occult lore for PC's. And finally we get the succubus Satana Hellstrom former Defender, daughter to the Devil, sorcereress, and potentially either enemy or occult ally to the PC. Satana Hellstrom is a complex and deadly character to introduce into a Curtis style horror rpg game. One thing that I noticed right away of the The New Marvel Phile Issue #82 Curtis Horror is the morally grey area that these characters operate out of. These are characters whose brushes with Marvel's supernatural have left them broken, changed, and or fully demonic. Still this is a solid Marvel Halloween issue and highly recommended!

Awake & Asleep - James Ward's Tainted Lands & Cultclassic Eighties Movie Mixed With Castles & Crusades A2 'Slag Heap' by Davis Chenault.

 " The Tainted Land's corruption & madness is no longer contained! The horror spreads into the world of the waking."

"The hunt is on! Agents have hired out the infamous Redcaps to raid along the Hruesen River and Baron Botkin wants them brought to justice. A mad run by the goblins left a trail of ruin along the river road but the time to act is now, beforre the trail goes cold. the evil doers broke off the raid and now lie in hiding somewhere in the Baren Wood. There in the deeps of the forest stands the legendary Slag Heap - an ancient complex of unknown origin and terrifying reputation for years ago the Heap served the horned God's minions as a bastion against the fey of the Barren Wood. But now all the forest is hostile to outsiders, whether good or ill.

The men of the Barren Wood are fierce, independent, and distrustful of outsiders. Facing them is a daunting task in the best of times and now they seem to be protecting one of their own. Discovering the real powers in this region only brings the characters closer to doom as they travel to piles and heaps of slag and detritus that was once a glorious abode and temple to the dark powers before the age of man."

Now I've always loved the cover artwork for  Castles & Crusades A2 'Slag Heap' by Davis Chenault.  If events from Troll Lords A1 are picked up here with the Tainted Lands crossing into 'Slag Heap' then we have the PC's right in the middle of the deep end of the Fey's affairs. And while Slag Heap might not seem a likely candidate for an Eighties  horror game. There is potential in directions that the players might not have considered! 

A1 Slag Heap might be striating the waking world & events might coincide with the affairs of Fairy & man. We're talking about Jim Henson's Labyrinth from '86 now the two might not seem related. But here me out here. If in 86, sixteen year old Sarah's half brother Toby is taken by the Goblin King. Then things could be far more ill defined between the human world & the Fey courts. Consider that Jareth, the Goblin King, is walking in the human world looking to take young Sarah as his bride. Are the events of Jim Henson's Labyrinth merely the latest indicator that the royals & Fairy courts in complete shambles?! 

So where does this leave the Tainted Lands?! Right in the middle of everything using its influence to turn the waking world into a living nightmare. The Fey courts are in shambles and events of Slag Heap only point this up. 
Adventurers are going to need to be right in the middle of this or things could fall apart. 
The events of Jim Henson's Labyrinth could be peripheral to the adventure. Things, events, etc. that happen over on the side. The notion that Jareth, the Goblin King, has almost taken a human bride incenses the Fairy courts inciting the events of S1 'Slag Heap' and there are calls for a new Goblin King. 
The Tainted Lands are encroaching on the waking world as Fairy continues to break down. The Goblin King is not fulfilling his duties. 

This has been taken advantage of by the horned god's minions & Slag Heap itself is another bastion of chaos for the Fey. 

This has allowed the Slag which is deep in the Tainted Lands to become a bastion for the forces that seek to over throw the Goblin King! And  insert a minion of the horned king on the Goblin Throne instead. Things can go from bad to worse as the PC's have to brave the Slag & its environs. 
Then there's the Barren Wood & its ties to the Fey. There are a lot of moving parts & pieces here in this campaign. The PC's are going to be deeply in over their heads as they get involved with the Fey courts & issues related to them. 
 

The Slag itself is a piece of the Tainted Lands given form & power. The thing wants power and it doesn't want to share it. So its using violence & blood to obtain dominance over both the Fey & humanity. 

So let me take this further with the Tainted Lands being someplaces between the Dreamlands and the Darker Realms near the borders of reality. The Tainted Land's Lollygag inn sometimes shifts over into the reality of Jason Vey's Nightshift Veterans of th Supernatural Wars looking for victims. 
The PC's must beat back the hordes of undead that come flooding into Nightshift's reality from time to time. And the PC's have to beat back the horrors that come into the reality of Nightshift. 

Review & Commentary On Bounded Fortune: Independent Merchants in The Clement Sector By John Watts For The Clement Sector Campaign & Old School 2d6 Science Fiction Rpg's

 "Are you ready to live the independent life?

Bounded Fortune is the sourcebook for the independent merchants of Clement Sector.  This book builds on the trade and merchant rules in Clement Sector providing more detail and additional insight into how to be an independent merchant."

"This includes sections on how to buy a starship and how to obtain funds for an item that is expensive but essential to living the independent merchant life as well as how to set up your own independent merchant business and the obstacles presented to you by the various challenges established by the Clement Sector setting.  This book covers ship quirks, hiring crew, leadership styles for captains, crew wages, freight hauling, mail contracts, and passengers.  It also includes expanded speculative trade tables as well as random encounter tables to make the Referee’s job easier."

"_This book also contains 11 careers which are involved in being an independent merchant based on our career progression system first detailed in Hub Federation Navy.  Start your career as a cargomaster, move up to being the purser, and then become a member of the bridge crew, and finally take your place as captain of your own ship!" 

Can you handle the challenge of being an independent merchant?"

Bounded Fortune: Independent Merchants in The Clement Sector By John Watts is a monster of a book covering almost every aspect of the merchant trade on the Science Fiction Western frontier. Bound Fortune has it all with all the merchant trade to shipping & receiving this book. This includes almost every aspect of being a merchant and yes it definitely can be used with other 2d6 or Cepheus Engine powered game. 
Bound Fortune has everything a DM needs to run an on going merchant powered Clement sector campaign from the ground up from set up to running player's PC's through the ins & outs of commerce. And this is done with a fantastic career progression system that we first saw in the Hub Federation book. This enables the player to see actual career and life progression in thier PC's. 
And Bound Fortune brings home the other aspects of commerce in the Clement Sector with market flux, supply and demand, and other things that can spin a ship's fortunes into the red. Bound Fortune centers on the interstellar scene of a starship by covers ship quirks, hiring crew, leadership styles for captains, crew wages, freight hauling, mail contracts, and passengers. Bound Fortunes is well done with solid easy to read fonts, well done graphics & artwork, good layout, and hits the high marks set by other Clement Sector products. 

Bound Fortunes covers quite a bit of the trade and being a merchant in the Clement sector and this extends into the finiances and upkeep of a ship. And this includes expanded speculative trade tables as well as random encounter tables. Who cares?! Well this presents the trader or merchant business opportunities they may not expect. This gets into the fact that the Ships of Clement Sector 17 Atlas is also on sale. Ships of Clement Sector 17 covers the Atlas-class freighter which is the second most commonly found ship in Clement Sector. The Altas trade dress and ship ties directly into Bound Fortunes as a complete package. We've encountered Atlas numerous times in our Clement sector game sessions. 

 Bounded Fortune: Independent Merchants in The Clement Sector By John Watts is in my mind one of the most important Clement Sector supplement. All of the information in Bound Fortune is fantastic if you want to run a merchant or trade campaign. The info in Bound Fortune covers the DM with a plethora of solid trade encounters, information markets, frontier infomation, and really does a fantastic job in one hundred and seventy one pages.  Bounded Fortune: Independent Merchants in The Clement Sector By John Watts is highly recommended! 

Dark Wizard Games Mail Call! - #0 Village on the Borderlands – 1E Softcover Book- 5th Edition Softcover

 The Hamlet of Taldren has been a peaceful settlement for many years, however dark times have fallen upon its denizens. Roving bands of Ogres have been raiding the stockpiles and animal pens in the night! It is believed they answer to a rambunctious giant living in a nearby lush green valley known as the Hill Giant Highlands. There have also been reports of strange animated fungi plant monsters appearing in the Caverns of the Wicked Peaks. Folks have even spotted bandits lurking around the ruins of Sternholm Keep and wandering skeletons in the old cemetery in the Forest of the Fallen Oaks. The villagers have cobbled together a ragtag group of willing adventurers to put an end to these dastardly fiends wherever they spawn. Fame, fortune and glory await those brave souls who can defeat these evil monsters and restore order to the Village on the Borderlands!"

Dark Wizards Games mailed me a fantastic package of the modules Village on the Borderlands – 1E Softcover Book & 5th Edition Softcover! . The envelop was solidly packed and nicely done. Yes I know it's an envelop but I have gorillas that deliver my mail. 

The packing was good and it came in without being creased or torn up. I've been looking forward to grabbing these. Village of the Borderland is a lower level tier PC adventure. And it fits the bill rather nicely as a side quest for B2 Keep on the Borderland. 
#0 Village on the Borderlands fits a really solid place as a land off to the side of the keep and as a part of the borderland network. 
And with ACKII coming out through it's Kickstarter campaign. 

The Recipes from The Inn of The Whistling Pig really adds to the immersion for the Borderlands. 

 The Recipes from The Inn of The Whistling Pig brings some excellent recipes from the Hamlet of Taldren. The Hamlet of Taldren is a very settled and prosperious. 
The Hamlet is also an excellent place to raise a family or it was until the armies of humanoids and Chaos show up. 
And then things go downhill very quickly. From here the PC's come into play during the events of Village on the Borderlands. Village of the Borderlands is focuses on the PC's filling in the gaps as the network of fortresses needs to be manned. Right out the gate there are problems that roll up on the PC's. 

#0  Village on the Borderlands is well written, the formating is easy on the eyes, the cartography is top notch and the material is fantastic. What works is the way that the Village of  The Borderlands can easily be ported into your own home campaign. And this is very true of Village of the Borderlands Fifth edition module as well. 

And the fifth edition version of Village of the Borderlands is an excellent way of introducing a group of players into the Castles & Cruades game rather easily. The events proceed along and things go from bad to worse as the humanoids & orges come into play. But theres far more at stake here & unseen forces at work during the events of Village of the Borderlands.