Review & Commentary On Famous Characters of the Old West By John Watts From Independence Games For The Rider & Other 2d6 Old West Rpg's

  "Make new friends (or enemies)!

This book features 19 famous historical characters from the Old West. Each has a full character sheet and a short biography and each is ready to be added to your Rider campaign. Meet such figures as Billy the Kid, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Jesse James, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and Johnny Ringo!"

"Use them as NPCs for your next Rider campaign or even as player characters in an all-star Rider campaign!

Become part of the legend! "

If there's a favorite genre that the 2d6 Cepheus Engine crowd loves it's the American Old West! And why not with the amazing Rider rpg series by John Watts and Micheal Brown's Under Western Skies: 2D6 Adventure on America's Frontier. This is truly a golden age for the 2d6 American West fan like myself. Now the differences between both Rider rpg and Under Western Skies is pretty obvious to the casual Old Western rpg gamer. The Rider rpg series is built on detail and 2d6 campaign driven play. While Under Western Skies is pure 'pick up and play 2d6' action. Now while these games can be combined it might be at cross purposes depending upon the players & dungeon master's purposes. That being the case this brings me to a product that can be used with both systems and that's 

'Famous Characters of the Old West' By John Watts From Independence Games. John Watts is a huge fan of the Old West and you can tell from the author's range of characters that he packs into this fifty six page book. 

We get a solid layout & easy on the eyes text that dives deeply into the cabilities, background, history, & skills of each of these NPC's from real world history. 

Take for example the famous lawman Pat Gerrett; 

"Pat Garrett Strength: 9 (+1) Dexterity: 8 (+0) Endurance: 10 (+1) Intelligence: 7 (+0) Education: 5 (-1) Charisma: 8 (+0) Reputation: 9 Primary Language: English Birthdate: June 5, 1850 Draw 2 Gambler 2 Gun Combat (Revolver) 2 Investigate 2 Recon 2 Streetwise 2 Tactics (Military) 2 Advocate (Politics) 1 Animals (Riding) 1 Carouse 1 Leadership 1 Melee (Unarmed Combat) 1 Navigation 1 Persuade 1 Stealth 1 Survival (Plains) 1 Art 0 Broker 0 Patrick Floyd Garrett was born on June 5, 1850, near what is now Cusseta, Alabama. After his father, John, purchased a cotton plantation in northern Louisiana, Garrett would spend his childhood there. The Civil War would destroy the Garret family’s finances, and this would force Garrett to take work as a cowboy at the LS Ranch in west Texas in 1869. In 1875, he became a buffalo hunter. In 1878, he got into a quarrel with a fellow buffalo hunter, W. Skelton Glenn. During this disagreement, Garret killed Glenn. Garrett confessed to the killing when he returned, but he suffered no reprisals. He moved to Fort Sumner, New Mexico later in the same year and became a cowboy for Pedro Maxwell. The following year, in 1879, he would quit his cowboy work and open a saloon called “Beaver Smith’s”. It is said that it was at this point that he started gambling with and befriended Henry McCarty (aka “Billy the Kid”, see p.45). He would get married to Juanita Martiniez during this same period, but she would die only 15 days later. On January 14, 1880, he would marry Apolonia Gutierrez with whom he would have eight children." 
We get all of the details on Pat Garrett, & the real world history as well as it can be known at this time. And this is one of the places that both Rider & Famous Characters of the Old West excels. We get all of the good & the bad in one entry. The writing is straight forward, matter of fact, and too the point. The DM get's Garrett's history, carreer, and life's journey. Any one of these points in Garrett's life the player's PC's could encounter him for better or worse. 

And this is where Famous Characters of the Old West By John Watts shines because in fifty six pages it gives a fasinating grand tour of the Old West. And Famous Characters does it in a solid, easy to use, and digest way that actually works at the table top level for your 2d6 Old West needs for Cepheus Engine rpg. 

Famous Characters of the Old West By John Watts From Independence Games For The Rider & Other 2d6 Old West Rpg's Is Available Right Here. 

OSR Review & Commentary Clash! Rules-Lite RPG By Paul Elliot

"Clash is a fast play, rules-lite roleplaying game, the bare bones of its bigger Zozer Games brothers: 43AD, and Clash of Steel. Characters are simply defined, and play moves quickly and without needing to look up rules. This makes it great for pickup play, solo play or a game for kids or newbies. Being rules-lite, the referee gets more leeway and plays a key part in setting difficulty levels for tasks and spell-casting. This involves a measure of trust between players and referee."

 The Clash Rpg is a rules lite Sword & Sorcery set of rules from Zozer Games. This little game has everything you need to pop a campaign right onto your players in five to ten minutes. Rules for sorcery & tasks right out the gate all in eight pages. Magic weapons, combats, modern settings, and more. This all is designed in only eight points.

 Clash has solo rpg rules and it's perfectly suited for the player looking to get on the ground floor of the Sword & Sorcery rpg scene with a different set of rules from the 'World's Most Popular Rpg'. Clash hits the Conan without hitting your wallet hard. And it does it with style. There are literally seven pages of rules and then a character sheet. Now go play! But is Clash actually good?! Are you kidding me this game plays faster then snot. Within less then ten minutes, I knew the rules set up a PC and then it's off to the races. Look Zozer Games knows thier gaming and design and Clash is a no brainer to get you the player into the ground floor of a Sword & Sorcery campaign! 

OSR Review & Commentary On The Creature Feature Compendium By Jeremy Hart For OSR games

 "160 new monsters for your OLD SCHOOL ESSENTIALS game."

"+ Extensive Fluff including Descriptions, Lore, Ecology, Adventure Seeds and some ideas for memorable Loot.

+ Paper Mini designs for EVERY monster! Designed for easy print and play so you can easily get them on your table quick!

+ VTT tokens for EVERY monster if you prefer to play your oldskool on Roll20, etc."

Jeremy Hart has done a huge monster book with his Creature Feature Compendium. The Creature Feature Compendium is a massive six hundred and forty page monster and creature book. This is fantastic supplement through which your favorite OSR games can get an upshot of massive monster infusion. And what OSR rules systems does this monster book book use? Well it's useable with Basic/BECMI or OD&D, Labyrinth Lord, &  Old-School Essentials. 

Jeremy Hart's monsters are excellent for both modern and fantasy adventure games. This includes OSR horror rpg's especially OSR horror rpgs. Each of these monsters could really ruin the day of any party even with firearms. The writer includes adventure hooks and hints for each monster. 

 The monsters here are geared to old school play at the table top level especially against PC's. And if your into the diabolic and other dimensional monsters as well as creatures these are for you. These monsters are featured in ways that allow them to be easily inserted into adventures. 

Dungeons & ruins are solidly in need of compelling monsters Creature Feature Compendium has those monsters. These are creatures that will have your players returning again and again for slaying and plundering. 
There are a few minion monster races that would be excellent for a horror campaign or as a part of a dungeon or ruin adventure location. These could be especially good as minion races within a Red Room game campaign such as the Darker Rpg.  

This is the flexibility of the Creature Feature Compendium  it allows the DM to bring home the horrors for the holidays and beyond. This is a solid monster book and all around OSR horror creature feature book for your adventures! 

OSR Review & Commentary The Pundit Files Issue 25 – The Wild West Timeline By The Rpg Pundit

 "New Pundit File: Wilde West Timeline. a real chronological guide to the peak period of the American "Wild West", focusing on the major icons of the West and the major locations, like Deadwood, Dodge City, Las Vegas, and Tombstone. It's particularly crafted for providing adventuring opportunities in a Western setting, such as Wretched Country. "

 The Pundit Files The Wild West Timeline is a solid Old Western timeline that covers all of the major and minor pieces of the events of the Old West. 
This makes it easier for the dungeon master to create and design old school Wild West adventures. 
For old school sphegetti Western adventure this means The Pundit Files The Wild West Timeline. 
The adventure locations such as Deadwood, Dodge City, Las Vegas, and Tombstone are highlighted on this timeline. 

For an Old West campaign that's using Wretched Country rpg second edition the Pundit Files The Wild West Timeline is invaluable.  
To know where the gun fights, criminials, gangs, and more helps too bring the Wild West to life. 

Wretched Country Second Edition has the movie anti heroes PC's. For awhile the PC's could become the outlaw adventurers that terrorize the West. That is until the Pinkertons come after them. 
The PC's as outlaws & The Pundit Files The Wild West Timeline fits right into a campaign with little issue. And this enables the DM to inject real world history into thier campaign. 
And there's plenty of room for the crimes of the PC's as they make thier marks on history. Time is going to catch up to the PC's but what a ride. 

As far as Rpg Pundit presents titles this one is a super addition to the DM's tool box. This is a solid title that will be great for the Old West Rpg  hobbyist. 

OSR Commentary - OD&D volume 3: The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures (Jan 1974) By Gygax & Arneson

 

  So I was looking through the OSR Grimoire blog's entry on OD&D volume 3: The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures (Jan 1974). Original Dungeons & Dragons hits me square within the guts of my love for this hobby. And OD&D volume 3: The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures (Jan 1974) By Gygax & Arneson hits the wilderness & dungeon crawling bug right between the eyes. 
Back in 1974 I'd have been four years old but three years later I'm imagining my PC crawling through some slime covered moster infested  dungeon. Volume three covers;"The third volume of the original D&D rules is divided into three main sections.  The Underworld (covering dungeons), the Wilderness (including rules for establishing a domain), and rules for mass combat (land, aerial, and naval)."
This volume was especially important because it's literal DNA was in later editions; "Much of "The Underworld" section was incorporated into the Basic Rulebook edited by J. Eric Holmes (1977), and again in revisions edited by Tom Moldvay (1981), and Frank Mentzer (1983), creating an association between "Basic" D&D and the dungeon adventure."

In order to know where your going in this hobby, you have to know where we've been as players.  This is something I've observed about rpg's & wargaming as a matter of course. OD&D volume 3: The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures (Jan 1974) By Gygax & Arneson has the roots of expansion for the  DM to take thier original Dungeons & Dragons game to the next phase of campaign expansion. This of course is the Wilderness section;"

"The Wilderness" section involves overland exploration, castles/jousting, wandering monster tables, construction of castles/strongholds, specialists, men-at-arms, player/character support and upkeep, and baronies/domain management." OD&D volume 3: The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures gets into the heart of the wargaming/campaign aspects of OD&D; "
The final section of The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures provides rules for mass combat (Chainmail), aerial combat ("Battle in the Skies" or BITS, based on Mike Carr's "Fight in the Skies"), and naval combat (including special suggestions for monsters in naval adventures" Sure these rules were revisited and revised in "Swords & Spells" (1976). But the basics were there already and this  gets into my point there is a clear and defined linage of original Dungeons & Dragons running through Dungeons & Dragons right down into Mentzer Dungeons & Dragons.  This also includes the arerial combat rules;"Rules for aerial combat were derived from Arneson's "Battle in the Skies", demonstrated at Gary Con XI, this past March. " And having reread these rules they are nuanced. 
Basically,I'm still learning about and from the games that I love. And this is at least to me part of it's own reward. 

Review & Commentary On Primordial Chaos: Gonzo Like A Fucking Boss! By Venger Satanis For Your OSR campaigns

 "Unformed, omnipotent, oscillating, undulating, chromatic, prismatic, and ultra-telluric.  Primordial Chaos is the throbbing gristle of our hobby, the pale underbelly of a sandworm coughing up a hairball akin to the dark messiah who shall change the unchangeable.  Neon fuchsia reflected on the chartreuse palm of an all-seeing eye.  It is the prophecy!"

"Gonzo is awesome in and of itself, but gonzo can also be used to enhance the roleplaying experience in a variety of ways.  The problem is that, for many gamers, gonzo is inaccessible, hard to understand, and difficult to implement successfully."

Venger Satanis and I go wayback in time & he sent me a ton of titles to review as well as play. And that brings me to his magnus opus on gaming advice on bringing on the gonzo Primordial Chaos: Gonzo Like A Fucking Boss! So what is in this hundred and ten suppliment?! Well,this is a whole ton of articles that you can actually use to bring in the gonzo into your old school campaign such as bringing in the guest spot, the expect the unexpected table, nuturing your inner 14 old (to make the campaign more gonzo, Gonzo but not stupid, and much, much, more. Because this is a book end to his series of books such as 'How To Game Master Like a Fucking Boss'.   Primordial Chaos: Gonzo Like A Fucking Boss! By Venger Satanis has all of the editing, solid artwork, and good layout with a nice selection of cartography thrown in. 

 

Primordial Chaos: Gonzo Like A Fucking Boss! By Venger Satanis brings the gonzo chaos because it's Venger's advice & ethos on OSR gaming from the bottom up. He adds in his ubiquitous random tables. These really bring this book into the realm of  usable and as a tool for the DM this is something we see time and again with Venger's gaming books. Primordial Chaos hits that vibe with a wet tenticled gusto and keeps going. This is a hundred and ten page book that hits the OSR rpg tool box approach right out of the gate. This is something we see time and again here. Is there a ton of sleazy and sexual material here?! Naw, not really instead there's tables like 'Find your PC's Doppleganger' and more. But is Primordial Chaos: Gonzo Like A Fucking Boss! By Venger Satanis actually useful?! In a word, oh yes! This supplement distills down a good deal of Venger's experiences and advice to both experienced dungeon masters and newbie players for a gonzo experience.  Venger's written more then three Cha'alt mega dungeons that have sold & continue to have solid sales. 

So he knows a thing or two about gonzo dungeons, ruins, and adventures. This book distills that down and brings home the gonzo. And it shows with his latest adventure included in this supplement, 'Sent by The Gods'. 
'Sent by The Gods' is a solid old fashioned dungeon crawl with Venger's usual flare thrown in.. The adventure does a good job of adding in and demonstrating Venger's ethos without overstaying it's welcome. And 'Sent By The Gods' can easily be added into the Cha'alt trilogy without creating a ripple at all in your campaign!  And that can also be said for Primordial Chaos: Gonzo Like A Fucking Boss! By Venger Satanis which I think is a fine addition to the Kortthalis Publishing family of books. Grab  Primordial Chaos: Gonzo Like A Fucking Boss! By Venger Satanis when it hits the shelves on Drivethrurpg.

OSR Commentary - The Long Shadow of The Zaibatsu rpg by Paul Elliot From Zozer Games

 "As the street soldiers of the world’s most powerful corporations (the Japanese zaibatsu) you become expendable and deniable employees fighting for profits, power and your lives. You’ve been recruited from the dark and murky Japanese underworld to carry out illegal terrorist activities on behalf of that employer and have one foot in the stylish corporate-minded boardrooms of the zaibatsu, and one foot in the filth and squalor of the criminal underworld."

The Zaibatsu rpg by Paul Elliot remains one of my all time favorite's by Zozer game. This is a game that springs deep into the Cyberpunk genre & it all dives into the world of the Hostile rpg. The Hostile rpg has a ton of snakeheads and gangs that surround this criminal underworld.  This criminal underworld is rife with unscuplious character. The PC's are totally the street scum and criminal elements. The PC's are working for the very corporations that they are making war & combat on. 

Why?! Because of the fact that the PC's are prisoners who have to give back to the corporate society. They are sent on missions by thier corporate sponsors. This way they get so many years off thier sentences. If this sounds like the classic Cyber City Oedo 808 anime? That's because it's because that anime is such a classic to our players and family. This was a classic anime element that we added into our own Zaibatsu rpg campaign. 
Many of the classic elements here are excellent because they connect right back into the Earth of 2225. Zaibatsu is perfectly aligned with the burnt out husk that is Earth. 

The PC's could find themselves on the border between Texas and the rest of the states dealing with the cartels for the corporations. Then moved into the slums of Tokyo and the underbelly of Japan's criminal underworld. Because the party are agents of the corporations there's lots of flexibility to a Zaibatsu. 
And the enterprise zones are begging for agents and mercs to help them take control. There's plenty of work for agents and mercenaries who work for the corporations. And this is where are players come in and thier rather desparate PC's. The fact that they work for the very people that they hate is both iconic and very dangerous. They may find themselves hunting the very people that they once called friend.  

OSR Commentary - Sometimes You Just Need A Boat Load of Ninja - M1 Marvel Super Heroes The Hand By Necromancer- Session Report

 So I had to introduce a side quest in tonight's Marvel Super Heroes rpg & fortunately I had grabbed a copy of M1 Marvel Super Heroes The Hand By Necromancer which introduces all of the movers and shakers of Marvel's own black magic undead ninja organization the Hand. 

We've been doing classic Marvel Super Heroes Advanced  module The MLA2 Night Moves By Anthony Herring. The Si Fan paid the Hand to asassinate a minor crimelord. We came face to face with a rather nasty clone of Daredevil who was fronting the organization. There's plenty of opportunity for combat as we put the 'wreck' on an entire building. We started at the top and moved right down to the bottom. 

The Hand ninja were not stopping because most of them turned out to be undead! These bastards wanted our blood. And these things were nasty. 

This was a war from top to bottom as we split heads from bodies. And our guys aquired sword and stars. This was a huge battle and we had our silent partner Priest who came in to clean house. He is an opportive of the Catholic church that eradicate undead. And he went to town with his faith and sun based powers. We'd made it through most of the Hand operatives. And saved the local crimelord and then his guys were going to attack us! We shut them down real fast. We had Cloak and Dagger check in on us and our guys want that Dare Devil clone! Next week we return to the Gang Wars triology! 

OSR Commentary - Christmas Chaos With Special Edition Modules #1 Goblin Raid On The Winter Stockade Kickstarter

 

  "The holiday season is in peril! The jolly workshop of Santa Claus has been invaded by a horde of mischievous goblins, led by the evil, gluttonous, and greedy Snarfle Waddlebelly! This vile goblin boss and his goons have turned the magical stockade into an evil dungeon, stealing enchanted toys, festive treasures, and the very essence of holiday cheer itself. The local village has assembled a team of brave adventurers to breach the snow-laden walls of the Winter Stockade, navigate its frosty halls, and confront that fat bastard and his mischievous gang of minions! The fate of the holiday lies in your hands as you rescue Santa and his friends, restoring order and the spirit of the season to the world. Amazing riches, a chance to get on the "nice" list for once, a few awesome toys, and the joy of millions of children hang in the balance if you can you save Christmas from the Goblin Raid on the Winter Stockade!" 

 Mark Taormino of Dark Wizard Games has come up with thier 'Special Edition modules' #1 Goblin Raid on the Winter Stockade  which are collectable models that fall outside the normal range of OSR products. And this is a perfect module for a Christmas themed rpg mini campaign especially for Castles & Crusades! Why?! Because eveything is already set up for your player's PC's to dive into the mix! 

 Castles & Crusades is a great rpg vehicle for 'Special Edition modules' #1 Goblin Raid on the Winter Stockade  because the system easily accomidates every encounter, monster, etc. that this adventure sets out to play through. This is a legendary module with the PC's saving Santa and his workshop. You know that it's going to be complete Christmas Chaos! 

Dark Wizard games does an excellent job of bringing that Chaos to your table top with new monsters, encounters and horrors. Knowing the guys at Dark Wizard this module is going to have plenty of opportunities to customize this adventure to allow the DM to bring home the horror of the holidays. 

House Of Doom - Red Room's Darker Rpg Session Report!

  We've been doing an investigative game involving The Red Room's Darker rpg. Our party has been approaching the entire In Wretched Depravity rpg adventure tonight. This session picks right up from this session report on the blog. 

A family has been terrorized by dark forces as the supernatural forces are closing in around the family. 
In tonight's game the party began to experience some of the events of In Wretched Depravity.

The violence started with polergiest activity with flying furnature & nasty shadow manifestations. The PC's got smacked with food, fecal material, and ecotoplasm! The PC's started doing research into the house finding out about a murder that happened in the house. 
There's a portal to Hell in the basement of the house! As the PC's found out when diobolical imps began manifesting. These things began to manifest as the damned only to tumble into a pile of imps! 
The imps mocked the PC's and took on one of the investigators one at a time as a means of looking for the weakest link. 
They tried to kidnap one of the PC's down into the Underworld. This didn't happen as one of the PC's had prepared a blasting staff! The imps were not amused! Half of them were banished back to the underworld! 

The second thing we need to talk about is too talk the Darker Rpg for a moment. There are aspects of the Darker Rpg that works very well for a horror rpg without strings attached. First is the fact that the combat is downright lethal. 

 Darker is geared around the ritual magick scene in spades. The fact is that the Red Room did a killer job with the Darker Rpg. The system is deadly and plugs right into the OSR scene with little issue. You can easily adapt your favorite diabolical horror from an OSR source. This is exactly what I did tonight with a classic Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manual creature. 

This has allowed me as a DM to bring in monsters from my favorite old school sources. This means that I don't have to keep working at pulling in old school resources. Darker is an excellent game! 

OSR Review & Commentary On Mineral Rights By Joseph Mohr For The Cepheus Engine rpg

 "The Borus system has recently been discovered on the edge of the Sonora sector. This system was believed to be unpopulated until a recent Kilgari Corporation mineral survey discovered a race of inhabitants known only as the Berzan on Borus Prime. Borus Prime appears to have significant mineral resources worth potentially billions of credits to the company."

"The Kigari Corporation is a mining concern which routinely surveys planets on the edge of the sector for valuable mineral resources to exploit. Such efforts have been extremely profitable to the corporation which has recently become a major player in the mining industry in recent years. The corporation begun extraction operations on dozens of uninhabited worlds on the edge of the Sonora sector."

"Little is known about the Berzan other than they appear to be primitive in terms of a lack of jump drive development or high tech weaponry. What is known is that they are very small in number. There appears to be less than one hundred on Borus Prime."

"Charles Kowalski of the Kilgari Corporation summons the travelers to his office. He has a proposition. For CR 300,000 he would like to see the Berzan “removed” from the planet Borus.Prime He suggests that they could be relocated to Borus Secunda or to some other viable planet in the system."

 Mineral Rights By Joseph Mohr For The Cepheus Engine rpg brings home a solid adventure with a base premise and a solid little set of encounters. I like the way that Joseph Mohr lays everything out in Mineral Rights. He does a great job of bringing the home where everything is laid out. This is a great adventure to add right into the Clement Sector. 

The Clement sector is the frontier of the Space Western & Mineral Rights plugs right into the genre and the game. The encounters are well done. The adventure plot hits the high marks for the whole cloth of a campaign. 

Mineral Rights works well for a campaign because it can be inserted anywhere within a 2d6 Clement Sector game. The whole adventure balances out because it works on two or three levels. Level one is because of the fact that players are going to come up against two or more factions. Level two is the fact that the encounters are solid. Three is the fact that Mineral Rights could be used as a spring board for a campaign. 

Mineral Rights hits the high notes for a Clement Sector rpg campaign setting. There's always conflict over mineral resources and these conflicts make for excellent drama for player's PC's to get into trouble and seeing all aspects of such a conflict. Mineral Rights hits this adventure plot and history on all gears. Grab this one and present it too your players. 

OSR Review & Commentary On Independence Games Contessa Class Fast Trader By Michael Johnson For The Clement Sector rpg

 

Out in the midst of the frontier of the Clement sector, there are times when you need a dual roled star ship and that starship is the Contessa class Fast Trader. 
This is an award winning Anderson & Felix class ship 600 ton  starship that competes with Borne's Thorpe class vessels. 
The Contessa Class Fast Trader is a mean ship able to take full advantage of the latest offerings in technology and design. The Provision class is a sqaudron support class vessel that accompanies a fleet as a logistics support vechicle. While the Einsatz class is a forward deployment ship with two platoons of Hub Fedration or Cammando marines along with equipment, vechicles, etcs that can be deployed at a moment's notice.  This is an adventurer's vessel though make no mistake about that. 

The Contessa class Fast Trader  fufills these roles and more because in this book's fifty three pages we get the complete history, roles, variants, and solid plans or diagrams of these vessels. This is a well written supplement with Michael Johnson getting into the meat of this vessel. The layout, fonts, artwork and more in this book are very well done. They fit the temper and rigor of the Clement sector. The Contessa class Fast Trader  is a vessel that fills a number of roles within the Clement sector and the frontier. The adventurers may not want to encounter those vessels however! They have teeth and can destroy even an experienced set of Clement sector spacers..  I really like the artwork that Ian Stead (Cover ,p.2,4,13-16,26,27,38-40); Michael Johnson (p.9,12,19-24,30-35,44-49);&  Bradley Warnes (p.11,38) brings to the table with the Contessa. 

The Contessa Class  Fast Trader is a bold and dangerous trade vessel that can open up lots of opportunity for experienced spacers. This is a vessel that will take adventurers into a whole other level of trade and spacer style company trade houses. And this is because the vessel is a whole cloth starcraft that will work hard for the party. This is one of the roles that this vessel fills in spades. Get the  Contessa class Fast Trader  if your looking for a hard working and 

OSR Review and Commentary On Liber Diaboli -- The Book of Fiends By James Mishler -- A Shadowdark Supplement or Is It!?

 So James Mishler sends me some awesome stuff! Take for example James Mishler Games latest offering Liber Diaboli -- The Book of Fiends By James Mishler is straight up world's greatest fantasy role playing game demons! Now let's talk about these demons for a moment. These things are straight up Chaotic evil from the ground up. Liber Diaboli gives all of the tools for use and full on customization of these fiends from the Abyss. Clocking in at forty eight pages there's tons of options here for the DM to grab the PC's by the throat! 

These tools are baked right into the whole cloth of the Liber Diaboli supplement; 

Cosmology and The Damned
Discourse on Demons & Devils and Other Denizens of the Underworld
Summon Fiend Spells
Ilks – “Ancestry Classes” of the Underworld
Fiendish Ranks
Fiendish Level Advancement

Abilities & Talents Details, including:
Elemental Attacks
Impervious Details
Multiform Ability
Fiendish Power
Size
Spellcasting Ability
Summoning Ability
Optional Possession Rules
D66 Chaos Talents
D666 Unusual Trait Table

From here the Liber Diaboli starts getting into the whole cloth of the demonic entities that have become so iconic from the world's most popular role playing game. And these are nasty. While I know that Shadowdark has become iconic. But these demonic entities would fit right in with Castles & Crusades rpg. Now let me elaborate here! Castles & Crusades is the OSR sweet spot because the system is close enough to fifth edition as to almost but not to be seamless. 

The Liber Diaboli has a ton of OSR goodness that can work very hard for the DM and challenge the player's PC's in spades. These demons can work for you as monsters and horrors to challenge your players in dungeons, lairs, & ruins. There's enough fluff & tools to keep your player's coming back for more. The demonic entities are nasty and highly dangerous because they hit all of the check boxes from lowest to highest encounter. 

Wretched Epoque Rpg - Bad Blood By Silvia Clemente - Into The Paris Night - Session One

 So we got together tonight to go deep into the Wretched Epoque campaign that my friend DM Paul has been running. Its been a couple of months since our group of sseven players got together. 

Deep in the heart of Paris we were helping our breathen within the Golden Dawn who have run across the wampirs of the Parisian underworld. We had come into the situation from the London temple and it was interesting because the inner temple was divided. Why?! 

The situation was because the DM was running Occult Blood by Silvia Clemente & the young faction of wampirs has been infiltrating the local branch of the Golden Dawn. We were ushered into the temple at night. Keep this in mind as we were confronted by two wampir royalty. 

We didn't want to get into a confrontation so that we did pick a fight. Instead we listened to our monsterous guests. And they explained about the war that the older royals were reigning down on thier heads. Among our number is a former Appache ganger who had been turned into a Lovecraftian ghoul. 
We are sizing up the situation before we jump into a wampir war! So the plan is to get in contact with an 'old friend of the family' ie another ancient wampir whose not a part of the current status qoute. This might be easier said then done was we've not seen her in five years (game time folks). 
Now we also want to check on our digs from our last game which were put into the hands of a family retainer.

So we've stalled the Paris temple of the Golden Dawn until we can speak to our sources and find out what's going on before descending into the fetid underworld of the Paris catacombs

Shadows of Saltmarsh Amazing Adventures! Rpg Session Report #1- Updated!

 

The Green Man a menace to the PC's coming up.


I've just started an Amazing Adventures rpg  by Jason Vey game last night. The PC's ended up crossing over into an alternative world time line of 2100. This blog post picks right up from November 19th blog post. 

The mono skyscrapers of the preserved New York Sky line greeted them. This was after tracking down the cybernetically enhanced courier of Nazi dimensional traveler  from 1952. The world of these Nazi is world where Operation Spark in 1943 succeeded in killing Hitler(or did it). Germany sued for piece in the world courts but continues hostilities with the Allies They turned over the hierarchy & infrastructure of the German high command responsible for the Final Solution  
Israel was founded much earlier in this world & continues to play a part in Western affairs.

This Nazi Germany has been locked in a Cold War with the Allies since the war's 'end' & continues to operate through powered agents, individuals, & teams. Now they've been raiding alternative dimensions & time lines. They've stumbled upon the world of 2100 where the countryside has mostly been abandoned & come across a Great Race of Yith library beneath the ruins of a castle in up state New York. These ruins have recently been unearthed in the upper part of New York state. Authorities have moved in to secure the site. 


What the characters also learned is the criminal mastermind known as 'the Alchemist' has been running a slave trade & human traffic ring in New York city of this alternative 1952.This bastard controls all of the major smuggling & drug traffic from the Salt Marsh neighborhood down on the water fronts. He has ties to the Nazi smuggling agents into New York. Their latest agent came in on the Sea Witch.



Yes I'm running U1 The Sinister Secret of Saltmash by Don Trumball with a Troll Lords Amazing Adventures pulp/super hero spin. So I'm dumping the whole Scooby Doo aspect of U1 & turning the Alchemist into a lich/pulp villain of incredibly evil aspect.

OSR Commentary on Troll Lord Games Adventurers Spellbook For The Siege Engine rpg System

 Troll Lord Games Adventurers Spellbook is a complete reference for spells throughout the Siege Engine rpg system. There are 379 Cleric spells (0 to 9th level), 366 Druid spells, 437 Wizard spells, 305 Illusionist spells, and over 200 rune magic spells all packed to into 170 pages of book. 

What the Adventurers Spellbook does is distill down the spells from the Players Handbook, Adventurers Backpack, Players Guide to Aihrde, Amazing Adventures, Hallowed Oracle Players Guide & Elemental Spells. This book is for Castles & Crusades, the Amazing Adventures second edition, and any Siege Engine powered games. There are over  200 hundred spells put into it for magic users, wizards, and etc. This is a well organized resource for your OSR games & Siege Engine systems. And the  Adventurers Spellbook sits as a supplement to it's sister book The Adventurer's Backpack. 

The Adventurer's Backpack features TONS of new classes, spells, items, niche rules, and even a complete new magic system! That magic system lines right up with the Adventurer's Spellbook! Because both of these books give more PC options to the players. And this is a good thing because it allows the players to build thier characters the way they want with the spells and classes that they want. This includes Rune magic and it's substact of spells & powers. 

For magic user style PC classes the Adventurers Spellbook offers a surprising variety of spells for reference and adaption for thier classes. Want an Elemental school spell to take care of an Air elemental or Earth elemental? We've got you covered in spades. 
Want an alternative set of spells for your illusionist or wizard? We've also got you covered. And that's only the tip of the ice berg. The Adventurers Spellbook has the complete plethora of spells for all of the usual spell using classes in Castles and Crusades. This is a must have reference for any magic and spell loving players.