Sunday, February 9, 2025

Review & Commentary On Together, To The Beyond By Mathew Tomas for The Wretched Rpg

 "This supplement is a quick-start toolkit for running an alien invasion game using the Wretchedverse offerings from The Red Room. To play, you’ll need The Wretched RPG and Agents of W.R.E.T.C.H. Inspired by the 1980s television series V (and its short-lived 2009 reboot), the film They Live, and the cosmic horror of H.P. Lovecraft, this adventure introduces the Beyonders— a twisted alien race mutated by their exposure to The Beyond. Because of their exposure, they have become an insatiable, all-consuming threat to humanity. Only a band of wretched bastards and scoundrels can stand in the way of their sinister machinations (18 pages)."

  


 Together, To The Beyond By  Mathew Tomas For The Wretched Rpg is an adventure supplement with deep Eighties roots. This supplement is a  homage to the Eighties cultclassic TV movie and mini series 'V' about alien invasion. Mathew Tomas goes a great job of weaving the Wretched rpg's Beyond and the thematic undercurrents of the infamous miniseries together into a campaign add on. The Beyonders are an alien race from an interstellar Hell. All of this is given in an eighteen pages with a nice font, layout, and solid take on the subject. 
Together, to The Beyond presents an essential tool kit to add to your own Wretched rpg's. The author suggests using the Beyonders in Agents of  W.R.E.T.C.H.but this supplement also works Wretched Darkness or second edition Wretched New Flesh as well. 

Together to the Beyond's Beyonders might be well known to the supernatural races. These aliens could have well have created the wastelands of Wretched Apocalypse . The Beyonders are alien locaust that move from world to world plundering the planetary resources. 
These aliens are incredibly deadly especially with the Lovecraftian twist! The Beyonders are incredibly evil. There's no redeeming them except for the occasional exception. 
These aliens are highly deranged and they are out promoting thier agenda for the Earth. This may not be main Wretched Earth but an alternative timeline. 
These alternative timelines intersect occasionally the Wretched Earth. These are the UFOs's of the Wretched Earth and occasionally take a 'sample' or two of the Earthlings. 
These Beyonders are perfect menaces for an Agents of Wretch, Wretched Darkness, and Wretched New Flesh. 






Friday, February 7, 2025

OSR Review & Commentary On 'The Pay What You Want' Malcon's Tome of Artifacts By Joseph Mohr For OSRIC & Other OSR Systems

 "This is an OSRIC supplement."

"This volume brings you a selection of some of the most powerful, and most dangerous, artifacts and relics in Zanzia."

"These ancient treasures are priceless. They may also be quite lethal both to the owner and those around them. These rare objects are the subjects of legends sung by bards in taverns all over Zanzia and even beyond. Many of these objects have never been found. Their very existence may just be a legend. No one really knows for sure."

'The Pay What You Want' Malcon's Tome of Artifacts By Joseph Mohr is a thirty six pages of artifacts & magic items of legend & lore. This supplement is jam full of legendary artifacts perfect to inject as a rumors or legends told around a tavern fire. 
These items are also perfect to inject at the center of a campaign as goals of quests or as center pieces of adventures. What these do is to add colour and campaign value to an old school or OSR adventure. 
Does 
Malcon's Tome of Artifacts live up to it's time for you as a player or DM to download?! Yes, this tome works very well for an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edtion or OSRIC rpg style games. Malcon's Tome of Artifacts works very well for other games such as Castles & Crusades rpg. Because let's face it Castles & Crusades can always use a few more artifacts and powerful magic items to inspire OSR campaigns. 
The layout and design of Malcon's Tome of Artifacts is veru well done. The font is easy to read & easy on the eyes as well. The artifacts are not too overwhelming if the DM keeps an eye on them. And doesn't over do it adding in powerful and highly dangerous magic items. 

Seriously there's some campaign wreckers in this tome. And many of these items are connected to deeper artifact background that can easily be exploited by the dungeon master. 
The thing is that Malcon's Tome of Artifacts fits a niche within a campaign and the DM needs to respect that point of his or her campaign. 
As a pay what you want title 
Malcon's Tome of Artifacts By Joseph Mohr is a great little supplement for the DM who needs another supply for artifacts and powerful magic items for thier games! 

Thursday, February 6, 2025

OSR Review & Commentary On The Black Protocol By Mark Brooks For The Darker Rpg & Red Rpg System

 "Welcome to the Sentinel Initiative.

"The reasons for your being here are not important. What is important is that you understand that from the moment you read the following excerpts from our case files, you can never turn back. You can never pretend you do not know. You can never tell what you know. This isn’t just a matter of our security. This is a matter of your survival. We are not the only watchers. "



"And not all watchers are human. The information that follows is an addendum to threats you studied in your orientation. It should be treated as Eyes Only. Do not share it with anyone. If you find a copy without a Security cover, report it immediately to your Counterintelligence and Internal Security Unit officer."

The Black Protocol By Mark Brooks is a thirty four page campaign setting, faction book and background for the Darker rpg. The Black Protocol is definitely a product of our era for OSR DM's and players who want to run a full on SCP style Darker rpg campaign; "THE BLACK PROTOCOL: Invoked by Sentinel Initiative field agents when facing a potential Level IIIE+-0 arcanohazard, and approved by a quorum of the Inner Circle, or by the Director. This requires a full assembly of 13 trusted occultists with CSU tracking numbers to assist in containing the hazard, along with whatever banal resources — armed interdiction agents, researchers, support staff — are needed to assist. This is a very expensive and very dangerous exercise, and is rarely granted. Use of CSU-tracked field specialists is also granted on a case-bycase basis."
We are taken deeply into the Darker Protocal's organization and set up as well as a number of threats for the PC's. Some of these horrors are straight up terrors that can take up a whole cloth campaign. 

The PC's are brought into a super secret government organization that tackles these supernatural threats & dark forces that threaten to destroy our world. But is The Black Protocol  worth the free download?! If your into the Red Room Red rpg system then by all means get it! 
The scope of this campaign is impressive and for the Darker rpg presents a horror rpg campaign perfect to hit the ground running and then some! The scope is global with a micro approach that works for the material. 
For New Flesh this campaign could easily be modified to work on a global level. The Black Protocols's threats could easily take over Avilidad 's Earth in spades. As a governmental body the organizations of the Black Protocols fit into it's own dark corner of Earth. They might be able to hold back the darkness for a while but it's going overwhelm them eventually. 
 The Black Protocol  is a well done and well thought out supplement for  the Red Rpg system. Easily integrated into your own Darker rpg & OSR horror campaigns. 

Wednesday, February 5, 2025

Shadows of Saltmarsh Amazing Adventures! Rpg Session Report #5 - Confronting Evil

   So tonight's session picks right up from last game session here on the blog.  We began by having our party let the Deep One hybrids let go & had the other half of the adventurers go upstairs in the house to free the captives! 


We got upstairs & almost immediately got into trouble with finding two giant spiders that dropped onto the party. Then it was a tangling fight in the hallway then up the stairs to free another sea elf that was being held. Afterward the party found that the house wasn't as unoccupied as it seemed. They found two secret rooms and the laboratory of the Alchemist. 
They also found the Alchemist's corpse & they examined the room. Things were going good for the party until the corpse moved! The Alchemist isn't dead you see but a lich! 
The party lost two members who were  hit by spells. Then it was gun fire and confusion! The party bolted! They left the haunted mansion so damn fast! 
Yes running is an option folks! They have no idea if thier team mates are alive or dead!
The party regrouped on the beach and needs another plan of attack! They have no idea what type of undead the Alchemist is. So thier going into the house by the use of the smuggler's caves coming up. I've gotten so damn tired of the players who have played this adventure calling it a Scooby Doo romp. Not this time folks. 
The Alchemist is a criminal mastermind and quite dangerous! He's also out for blood after using a speak to the dead spell on the corpses of the party members. 

The smuggler's caverns are now guarded by Deep One hybrid thugs. They've got four warriors covering the cavern & secret enterances. 
Then the party saw the rest of the Deep Ones exitting the sea. Things are getting dicey. They managed to get the two sea elven prisoners out! 
And they found a chest of weird greenish gold artifacts that seem to have been buried by the Deep Ones! We ended here. 

Amazing Adventures Rpg and The Warriors of the Wasteland#1 Mutants in the Moonlite Bowl-A-Rama - Session Report One

 "In the desolate stretches of your post-apocalyptic world, the dusty and abandoned “Bowl-A-Rama” stands as an unlikely beacon of hope. Powered by a hidden, ancient energy source which has suddenly turned off, it is the last known lifeline for locals in the nearby Village of the Burning Sun. However, the building has recently been invaded by a biker gang of mutant orcs, known as “The Outriders,” led by their evil boss “Chainbreaker” who has taken some locals captive and transformed the place into his new fortress and party headquarters!"


" Because of its significance, the locals have cobbled together a brave group of survivors from the hamlet to set out to breach and reclaim it. Your challenge is to restore the power, rescue all captives, gather any valuables and destroy the evil Mutants in the Moonlite Bowl-A-Rama"


We created Amazing Adventures rpg PC's for tonight's The  Warriors of the Wasteland#1 Mutants in the Moonlite Bowl-A-Rama. The PC's were taken over into an alternate timeline onto  a post apocalytic Earth. The 
 Moonlite Bowl-A-Rama has stopped broadcasting power & scouts were sent in. They didn't expect the pig faced orc motorbike gang 'The Outriders' has taken over the Moonlite bowling alley.The scouts were captured by 'The Outsiders' & only one of the scouts managed to escape.  We got called in by the shaman's council of Village of the Burning Sun. 
The 
Moonlite Bowl-A-Rama is twenty miles from the village & we had to march through wasteland. And came face to face with mutant bats by night after we camped and faced down giant rats by day! 

 We secured our camp and moved onward. Our party encountered several 'Outriders' biker scouts but we hid to observe. 
They dropped actual bottled beer on the roadway that runs through the woods! So we know that they've been to the Moonlite. We came face to face with a giant mutant snake with acid breath. Our Elven archer Raven Oakleaf took this thing out. We found another area to camp in. 
We went hunting for food and ran into a very large mutant dinosaur. The party ran away leaving the dinosaur to eat the deer. The camp was by a lake & we found another herd of deer. And we shot a deer and this time checked it over for physical or other  mutations. The white tail deer was normal and delicious. Apparently the smell of cooking deer attracted a giant rat of unusual size. We gutted this thing and began smoking & salting meat for our continuing  trip to
The Moonlite Bowl-A-Rama.


Tuesday, February 4, 2025

Ending The Night Life (MLA3) Adventure By Anthony Herring For The Marvel Super Heroes Advanced & Session Report

 


"You've been through more in the last few weeks than most normal folks go through in a lifetime. From stolen artifacts to synthetic chemicals, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art to Chinatown, from firelights to fireworks: you've seen it all.
"Well... you thought you had."


"A boy-genius has been reported missing, and clues are few. On top of this, the gang wars are still blazing, and the Imperial Dawn is about to break. Bi|t, there are those UFO's in Central Park... and that problem in Coney Island to deal with.., and naturally, you're the only ones for the job!
NIGHT LIFE is playable as a stand-alone adventure, or as the final part of the GANG WARS trilogy. Alternate starting points are provided for characters who have not gone through the first two sections of this storyline."

 During tonight's Marvel Superheroes Advanced rpg we wrapped up The Night Life (MLA3) Adventure By Anthony Herring. Coney Island was in flames as we broke no only the back of the Si Fan but the Hand as well. At least the two cells of these organizations that had brought Fu Manchu back from beyond the grave. This part takes place from here on the blog. 
We recovered two of the spirit bombs from last session and then began plowing through an assassins or ninja that we came across. We wound up back at the museum and met up with several agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. & got at lead on the Si Fan agents in Central Park. 

At Central Park we displaced & teleported away several Fixer's devices that were centered around amplifying Fu Manchu's magicks. We also had a run in with the Faces of Fear and almost got our clocks cleaned by the Blizzard. Then it was a mixed encounter with gang members, thugs, and assassins. Actually the whole gang were Si Fan assassins disguised as gang members. We also went toe to toe with the Sons of the Tiger who were working with S.H.I.E.L.D. & in the past had run ins with Fu Manchu's minions as the super hero White Tiger. 
We finally caught up with Fu Manchu & his forces and began dismantling his forces along with S.H.I.E.L.D's agents. Our party finally sent Fu Manchu packing back to Hell. The fall out of the Gang Wars adventure is a drastic scattering of New York City's criminal elements especially of the Si Fan & the Hand's cells. 

Monday, February 3, 2025

Ceres Contraband -- The Long Shadow of The Zaibatsu rpg by Paul Elliot From Zozer Games Session One

 'You have one hundred years removed from your sentences', the chirpy robot's voice echoes through the former luxury appartment on the Mexico/Texas border 'Free Enterprise Zone'. The warehouse was completely checked out by our cybersneaks. This session picks up with our heroes deep in the clutches of the cartels. Last time we were shown the contraband from Ceres. This session picks up from here on the blog. 

Our heroes planted two homers for the corporate forces to come in. And do some clean up after they met two of the heads of the local snake heads. 

There are other warehouses within the city & we haven't found them.. yet. The party was able to get outta of there with mininum fuss. There's a ton of officers and soldiers of the cartels. 
They were heavily armed but why?! Sure there's the contraband but then we saw them. A Ceres slicer queen was held within a biological specimen holding cell. These horrors were found on ruins on Ceres 14 years ago during the first recession. They wiped out the entire expediation. The general population of Earth is unaware of the alien species. The corporations are aware of them. These slicers secrete a highly addictive hormone to attractive prey animals for baby's first meal. These horrors should not be on Earth! They're outlawed on every nation on Earth. 
Our party planted miro explosives all over the ware house to have the corporate forces do clean up. Our cybersneaks warned us about the bigger bosses of the cartels coming in. This might meet that we've had our cover blown! Fortunately we bluffed our way out just as the cartel bosses came in. And then the explosives were triggered. 
Our next task is to locate those other warehouses and then do a deep dive into the other tendrils of the cartel. We regrouped back at our apartment. 




OSR Adventure Construction In The New Flesh Rpg By The Red Room crew

 "Enter the dystopian world of New Flesh, a future-noir roleplaying game where cyberpunk meets biological horror in the neon-drenched streets of Interzone. Set in then near future, when corporate power runs unchecked, this game draws inspiration from the works of William S. Burroughs, David Cronenberg, and other masters of transgressive fiction."

"New Flesh embraces the surreal and visceral, biotechnology reigns supreme over chrome and steel, transforming human bodies into corporate commodities. Underground labs conduct forbidden experiments, pleasure dens offer metamorphic experiences, and reality itself distorts in the wake of chimeric entities. In this haunting setting, player characters inhabit a world where flesh warps at corporate whim, consciousness fragments across biological interfaces, and survival demands moral compromise."

New Flesh rpg has a ton of new improvements and changes we've covered this on the blog here. The New Flesh rpg is a complete OSR rpg & setting campaign. What New Flesh does is pull from the Red rpg system and this makes it's horror far more biological & Cronenberg like. The future of New Flesh is a whole cloth Neo future nightmare campaign setting. This game takes full advantage of the historical leap in biotechnology & biological insights.
The Darker rpg has two time periods when humanity made historic changes to it's place in the universe;" the
Age of Enlightenment and later the Industrial Revolution, two historical periods that fundamentally reshaped humanity’s relationship with the divine and spiritual realms." Sometime between these two games within our campaign settings there were significant historical upheavels. These cracks in the fabric of reality have allowed the Underworld to grab a foothold. These dark forces have come to shut down and destoy humanity. It's very easy to port over the ritual magick and dark powers over into New Flesh. The cults of Darker are some of the most underrated horrors within the game. And they can manifest parts of the underworld on Earth. The locations of the Underworld manifesting within the world of New Flesh between the cracks allows the horrors of the demonic to invade Aviladad and the rest of the world.In terms of the OSR and adventure locations it's not going to be enough to simply contain them. Instead the player's PC's are going to need to close any doors that the dark powers open. These doors swing both ways and perhaps the advanced weapons of New Flesh can help close these doors. The ruins of the old world are still around in the brave new world of New Flesh. Many of these ruins allow the rot of the underworld to spread. And it's these places in my humble opinion that allow a DM to bring the old world's influence into the New Flesh era. These adventure locations can be a roller coaster ride for a group of players to face.

Sunday, February 2, 2025

Battling The Solution on The Mad Scorcerer's Isle - The Campaign World of CROM THE BARBARIAN By Jothanathan Nolan For The FASERIPopedia! Rpg

 During tonight's edploration of the scorcerer's tower on Crom's world  in the Mad Sorcerer's Isle hex we ran straight into another group of superheroes called 'The Solution'. These guys were tough to say the least. We've been dealing with our Ascendant Rpg  campaign. And we've been dealing with security robots, cybernetic sabertoothed cats, etc. within  the CROM THE BARBARIAN By Jothanathan Nolan  For The  FASERIPopedia Rpg. This of course picks right up from our last session here. 

Everything was going pretty solidly until we'd gotten a particular artifact called the Cyberseed. This is when we ran into Dropkick a cybernetically enhanced martial artist. 
Dropkick wasn't alone! He's part of a team called 'The Solution' . We ended up battling them through at least two levels of the tower! This was getting ugly fast and so we let the cyber seed go! Outrage was a real monster of an alien mercenary who rocked two of the PC's world. 
Charlemane's Champion took him one to one and almost got his clock cleaned. Almost until he dropped three walls on him with his sword. 

Outrage will survive but he did end up with quite a few sword cuts but they'll heal. Eventually anyway. The group took out 'The Solution's sorcereress Shadowmage early in the melee. 

The party was not amused because afterward we had to go deeper into the wizard's tower. We found a bunch of cyber seeds within a laboratory. And a dozen security bots. 
The party was getting tired and punch. Fire Falcon wasn't amused and went full 'nova' and melted all of em. 

We make use of the Ascendant's Rogue's Gallery rules and add ons. 'The Solution' in tonight's game are an up and coming super mercenary group with the rules for factions getting an excercise. 

Friday, January 31, 2025

More OSR Commentary On The Baptism By Fire Rpg By Rpg Pundit

 The Baptism By Fire Rpg By Rpg Pundit is one of those games that bares a closer inspection when it comes to Medieval culture. The player's PC's have the chance to change the course of history in the Poland & Europe of the Eleventh century. This commentary picks up from our review of Baptism of Fire on the blog here. 



Baptism By Fire has all of the classic adventure elements we've come to expect in an OSR product. This game takes them into a completely different direction with it's European setting. The monsters and creatures are highly dangerous and the player's PC's are able to take them down. There's plenty of social and politic intrigue baked into this game. All of these elements plug right into the Silk Road campaign settting. The Silk Road campaign setting is filled with tons of NPC's that can help or hinder your PC's from trade to full on warefare in China or the near East. Tons of these NPC's are available within the Heroes & Villains of the Silk Road  supplement. 

These NPC's are deeply connected into the Silk Road setting as a whole. From patrons to playing or generating Ismaili Nazari Assassins. These NPC's are fully realized with histories, background, and even adventure hooks. 
The Silk Road is almost an NPC unto itself and this campaign setting loops back into The Baptism By Fire rpg. There plenty of opportunities for dungeon crawling all the way to full on trading on the road. Eleventh century Poland and Eastern Europe is an area rife with comflict, combat, and warfare. The dynasties that PC's can set up is staggering. Remember that there's also social rank that plays heavy within this setting. Baptism By Fire works in two ways for OSR play one it takes the PC's as center stage. Thier actions are literally making history. The second way is that this rpg takes it's setting as being the center stage for the PC's. Your PC's are the instruments of God and country. This is an Epic rpg and it expects your PC's to do deeds of high adventure. 




Thursday, January 30, 2025

OSR Review & Commentary On Amazing Adventures Shadows of the Red God By Jason Vey For The Amazing Adventures Rpg

 "A Shadow Rises from the Distant Past...

During an extravagant gala in New York City attended by luminaries of the metropolis, all was going as planned. But whose plan? Mysterious forces are unleashed during the ceremony creating undead horrors that terrorize everyone in attendance. 

Shadows of the Red God presents three adventures that take the player characters on a world-spanning adventure against a dark cult, lost for millions of years, and stunningly tied to another world, a world once known as Aihrde. "



"An unusual request to track down a missing scholar takes the heroes from the Louisiana Bayou to long abandoned ruins in the deserts of Saudi Arabia crossing paths with Voodoo Queens and Nazi cultists along the way. "

"After becoming entangled in an Allied spy operation, the characters discover a plot to unearth horrific technologies from the dawn of time and plans for an invasion of some alien species. 

When their enemy escapes under mysterious circumstances, the heroes uncover a scheme to summon a strange deity from another world, another dimension, from the shadows of a distant past. It is a race against time as our heroes dash across the world, tracking a would-be prophet of the dark being known only as The Red God. "


Amazing Adventures Shadows of the Red God By Jason Vey is a great introductory adventure for Amazing Adventures rpg. This adventure is pure Pulp adventure goodness that starts in New York City and sends the PC's down into the Louisiana Bayou & into the  deserts of Saudi Arabia.  Or it can be set within  your own campaign's remote Earth's location. 

Inbetween is this the fact that your PC's go up against Vodoo Queen & finally  Nazi army officiers & soldiers. Shadows of the Red God thrusts our heroes deep into the machinations of an Allied spy operation and finally the deep horrors of the summoning of the  Red God. 

The party needs to react to the circumstances that they are brought into in Shadows of the Red God. The machinations of the Red God are chaotic, evil, and highly dangerous to Earth. 
The Red God is a god of Evil that has deep ties to  another world, a world once known as Aihrde.
Aihrde is the house campaign world of the Castles & Crusades rpg from Troll Lord Games. This ties the two games together. Amazing Adventures rpg default setting is Earth in my opinion. This isn't a bad thing because it allows the DM to pull from hundreds of years of real world history. Or at least seen through the imaginative lens of Amazing Adventures rpg. 

Amazing Adventures Shadows of the Red God By Jason Vey takes this approach and builds upon it. This is right in line with the fact that this adventure is written for PC levels ones through five. If the players are stupid thier PC's will die without a second thought. Shadow of the Red God is going to last probably maximum about 5 or 6 sessions. This is the perfect length of play without having this adventure over stay it's welcome. 

Amazing Adventures Shadows of the Red God is a revised adventure which means that perfectly aligns with the revised  Amazing Adventure rpg. And I think it's a great introductionary adventure for AA and will be a great spring board for an AA campaign. 

Wednesday, January 29, 2025

Review & Commentary On Knuckles of Steel By The Red Room Crew For The Wretched or Red Rpg

 "A role-playing game module set in the fictional city of Hammettville during the 1970s. The scenario is inspired by blaxploitation movies and revolves around Lois St. John, a Black model and aspiring actress whose sister Jacqueline has been kidnapped by Heung Wei, a Chinese triad boss and Lois’s former boyfriend. Wei is using the kidnapping to force Lois into marriage. Knuckles of Steel includes many adventure seeds and an adventure generator that can expand the basic rescue mission into a larger plot. It provides statistics to both Wretched and Red (56 pages)."

Knuckles of Steel By The Red Room Crew is an adventure for the Red or Wretched Rpg. Lois St. John a model is kidnapped by her former boyfriend Heung Wei,  the top  Chinese triad boss in the city of Hammettville Texas. This adventure comes straight outta of the Exploitation films of the Sevenities. 
The PC's are called in to save Lois St John from a forced marriage and kidnapping. There's also a ton of subplots to Knuckles of Steel. 
This is an adventure that can be used as an action packed spring board into a Red & Wretched rpg campaign! 
The cast of NPC's is fully fleshed out with lots of hooks to get the PC's involved including crime, drugs, turf, Nazi and worse. 

Knuckles of Steel is made to emulate the late Sixties and Seventies exploitative films from Blacksploitation to full on horror. Everything here in Hammetville is over the top and well done. There's enough to do a classic Warriors film style campaign as well. Knuckles of Steel really taps into the Blackspoiltation film vein. However this adventure takes place in the world of Sexual Holocaust. This means that it's easy to do a horror campaign along with an exploitation adventure element. 

Hammetville is a happening place and 'Crime City' section is point where there's tons of stuff happening. This plugs into the random adventure generators that are great for continuing the Knuckles of Steel campaign vibe. This is neccessary to keep the players interested in continuing to play. 
This utility aspect of Knuckles of Steel is one of the best options available within the Red Room's games and adventures. 
Knuckles of Steel is a fifty seven page solid adventure that takes full advantage of it's roots, elements, and feel. This is a great adventure with well done fonts, layout and easy to read layout. 
Knuckles of Steel is moderately priced and easy to incorporate into your existing Red or Wretched Rpg campaigns. 


Review & Commentary On Castles & Crusades Adventurers Backpack For The Castles & Crusades rpg

 "Adventurers Backpack is a book designed for the player, introducing a wealth of content to expand your player experience, but also your character’s survivability! Within you’ll find:

  • 13 new classes
  • mountains of spells for all classes
  • counter spells and spell duels
  • bandages and healing
  • a fresh easy-to-use approach to unarmed combat
  • war mounts
  • rune magic
  • a new look at pole arms."


"Backpacks for Every Campaign

But more than that, Adventurers Backpack delivers a new, innovative approach to equipment and equipping your character. There are 34 unique backpacks complete with all the equipment your character will need! Each backpack comes with cost, weight and encumbrance value. The backpacks cover it all. There are class-based backpacks for all character classes, general purpose backpacks for dungeons and overland, and special purpose packs such as the medic or dungeon mappers pack. Equipping your character was never so easy."

Castles & Crusades Adventurers Backpack is one of those C&C rpg titles that I've been hemming & hawing about for years. Do I need another supplement with tons of player PC options. Do I need another equipment book and another book with the planes in it plus new spell and magic items. The Adventurer's Backpack covers this all and a bit more. 
The first part of the Adventurer's Backpack is the 13 new character classes which have been featured elsewhere in the past. What this supplement does is update them and put them into one place. We get an overview and placement of these classes. Easy to use or discard depending upon the needs of your players or your campaign. 

From here we slide into the equipment & backpack section which is customized for backpacks and equipment for every character & campaign types. This allows a DM or a play to drop equipped characters into a campaign right away! 


There's a literaly ton of spells and counter spells for many of the spell using PC classes. These are all optional and that should be used with care for your campaign. Then we dive into pole arms and thier uses. This is an article that hits all of the right Gary Gygax buttons. Then there's tools for DM's to customize thier own campaign from planar travels and adventuring. On the whole Castles & Crusades Adventurers Backpack is a highly optional but highly useful supplement. While the rules & articles that appear within this supplement have appeared elsewhere. The Castles & Crusades Adventurers Backpack brings everything into one useful tool box for both dungeon master and players. 

Tuesday, January 28, 2025

Review & Commentary on Monastic Knights By Thomas Denmark From Night Owl Workshop For your Old School Campaigns

 "Three unique character classes designed to fill the role between Clerics and Paladins in your favorite OSR roleplaying game campaign.




The monastic knights come in three general types:

Knights of Sanctity (Sanctifiers) are balanced between being warriors and healers.
Knights of Ardor (Ardents) are compassionate healers and only fight as necessary.
Knights of Vindication (Vindicators) are formidable warriors with a few spells.


Monastic Knights are designed to work with any OSR style RPG that is based on the original fantasy roleplaying game.

This PDF includes:

  • 3 Monastic Knight Character Classes
  • A "White Box" addendum
  • Fully illustrated Character Sheets
  • Sample maps of Monasteries "

    Right so this isn't so much a review as a sorta of article on why  Monastic Knights exist. As is the fact that the Monastic Knights does exist! These knightly orders exist to provide the DM a character class that bridges the gap between the cleric & the fighter class asthetic. And they do it very well! The  Monastic Knights are only written within nineteen pages of very tight descriptions & classes. These knightly orders are up to Night Owl Workshop's usual standards. 
    Knights of Sanctity (Sanctifiers) are good balance between the healer roles that we see in clerics & the kick ass for good types that we've seen before. The difference here is the fact that the 
    Knights of Sanctity (Sanctifiers) bring a bit more of the martial to the table top. Yes they are servants of good but no the will murder you in the name of said good in the blink of an eye. 
    Knights of Ardor (Ardents) are the next up and here is more healer then martial warrior but that doesn't mean that they won't fight. It seemly means that they're reluctant too. They remind me of many army veterans that I've played with. 
    When you need martial & millitary knightly orders the 
    Knights of Vindication (Vindicators) is the route to go. These guys go into dungeons & root out evil. They put the monsters to the torch & don't look back untill the gods sort it out. 

     Monastic Knights By Thomas Denmark From Night Owl Workshop isn't going to put your nose out of joint instead it's going to act as breidge gap between clerics & paladins. Knights act as hand of both the royals & gods with the common folks. All in All I believe that  Monastic Knights By Thomas Denmark From Night Owl Workshop is a good buy! 


     
    Monastic Knights By Thomas Denmark From Night Owl Workshop Is Available Right Here 

Sunday, January 26, 2025

The Cube By Joseph Mohr & Trey Causey's Strange Stars - Stars Without Number & Cities Without Number Session Report Part 5 - Jericho Station

 We picked up our normal Trey Causey's Strange Stars/ Stars Without Numbers campaign. right from last session here.  Our party ended up deep within the Cube and our time aboard was coming to and end because the Cube was leaving the local planetary system. 

Our party communicated with the A.I. & it seemed to get very difficult very quickly when we wanted to leave. 
Then the security bots got very handy with us. This was our singal to engage in communication with our cybersneaks who disengaged the locks on the trading room which suddenly became our prison! 
Our party fought our way back to our ship wih a few cleverly disguised grenades and side arms. 
Things were going from bad to worse as we came across more alien remains of past alien traders and travellers. 
We made it to our ship and had the cybersneaks open the Cube star ship bay doors. With a few successful rolls and some role playing we got the doors open and our ship off of the Cube. We got some scrapping laser fire from the Cube. 
We were in the middle of unexplored space as the Cube took off at high speed outta of the solar system. We were at the edge of unihabited space. This morning I picked Joseph Mohr's Jericho Station & this afternoon it got an excercise as the station is one of the last places along one of the last hyperspace gates in that sector. We entered cryo sleep for two years and made our way to the nearest hyperspace gateway to get back Jericho station. Several rolls and two short jumps we entered cryosleep 

Everything came off without a hitch and we made it to the gate & ran straight into a party of Star Folk Nomadic hedonists in living ships.
They were curious about our experience with the Cube. We warned them from pursuing the Cube. And engaged in three days of trade and refueling with thier  living ship. 

Then we made Jericho station that lawless den of inquity that we were very glad to see. Our spacehauler is in bad shape but we've got  tons of intel to trade about the Cube and it's A.I. cybernetic organism inhabitants! 
So we're trading the info for repair work. Our party ran into the 3 
Moravecs Robo-sophont poet missionaries. They were looking for Jas 7 who went missing over three centuries ago. Jas 7's fragmented A. I. personality was found aboard the Cube. We gave the personlity remains to them and started to get medical attention for our party. We'd experienced genetic degeneration from radiation aboard the Cube. 





Saturday, January 25, 2025

Amazing Adventures Rpg & Edgar Rice Burroughs's Pellucidar as An OSR Campaign Setting

 Edgar Rice Burrough's At The Earth's Core is one of my favorite books because of the setting of the fictional "hollow earth" land of Pellucidar. The prehistoric lost world of Pellucidar is perfectly suited to use with Troll Lord's Amazing Adventures rpg is a great campaign setting. 

"At the Earth's Core is a 1914 fantasy novel by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs, the first in his series about the fictional "hollow earth" land of Pellucidar." from the wiki entry on the ERB book At The Earth's  Core. 
The Pellucidar setting has a huge number of prehistoric tribal nations from cavemen to fully Neanderthal tribal peoples. There's no real day or night in the world of 
Pellucidar except from a sort of star that hangs in the sky and has an erratic orbit. .
The biggest problem is the inclusion of magic and it's attendants into an ERB inspired world. Although this did not stop DC Comics back in the Seventies with Mike Grell's Warlord which drew quite a bit of inspiration from the worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Pellucidar also may have baked in psionics. While a controversal in the world's most popular fantasy role playing game's circles. Psionic powers  look to be essential in  Pellucidar especially in ERBzine's article  Telepathy in Pellucidar. But how does a DM incorporate the fantasy element of Castles & Crusades into such a prehistoric setting??! Use another dimension (yes this is one option) but another is too simply make another continent within Pellucidar.
If Seventeenth century pirates can exist along side of prehistoric dinosaurs. Then it's an easy link to add magic and C&C style fantasy into a Lost World campaign. 
Page Eighty seven of Amazing Adventures Players Handbook goes into using C&C character classes in Amazing Adventures campaigns. 
So it's really easy to get into using your own version of Pellucidar.This is exactly what I'm going to be doing. 
Going forward my player's have been on my back to get back into a prehistoric version of an Amazing Adventures campaign. Over the years I've used Lovecraftian rpg elements into ERB style campaign worlds. 

Thursday, January 23, 2025

Review & Commentary On The Castles & Crusades: Winters Bite By Stephen Chenault For The Castles & Crusades rpg

 "Something haunts the river folk…

It steals into homes and snatches the unwary, the weak, and the gentile. For those whom the horror does not abduct, death comes swiftly. Those slain by the monster are found strangely maimed, with bloody gums, devoid of teeth."

"An apparition? Some fiend of the old world? A black hearted fey? Few can tell for few have seen it, and those who have speak only of its pock-marked skin and crown of teeth."



























"The river people hide now. They seal their doors with wax every night, stamped with magical runes, in hope of keeping the haunt at bay. The long winter is made longer still, and more evil given over to the Winter’s Bite."

 The Castles & Crusades: Winters Bite By Stephen Chenault  is an adventure designed for 3-5, 3rd level characters. This is a great adventure that hits the PC's right in the middle of mid stride for an adventuring party. This is an excellent joining adventure that can be dropped into a existing Castles & Crusades rpg campaign. The artwork is a very well done adventure and it only comes into twenty pages. The editing and fonts are easily readable and Winter's Bite hits the high notes for bringing a Winter adventure for the player's PC's.

As an OSR adventure the texture of this adventure feels like a small scale and highly dangerous adventure. This is not a stepping stone adventure. Instead this is an adventure that acts as a bridge adventure across a campaign.

This Castles & Crusades adventure fits the feel of the game. There's nothing however stopping a DM from dropping Winter's Bite into thier own campaign. The writing on this adventure is tight. 
Winter's Bite is very much at a minimum for PC's of third level and that's no lie. There's some dangerous stuff happening within this adventure.  Winter's Bite has all of this going on and takes full advantage of the Castles & Crusades rpg system in spades. 
Winter's Bite could very easily be set within Greyhawk or your own old school rpg campaign. This adventure easily fits a wide variety of campaign styles. But it is  a highly dangerous adventure consider yourselves warned.