Reviews & Commentary 100 Undead (Dark Fantasy) From Chaos Factory by Eric Diaz For Your Old School Campaign

"100 Dark Fantasy Undead is a collection of undead creatures for your dark fantasy games. There are undead of all types here... the creepy, the funny, the scary, etc. 

"There are no statistics or mechanics here; this is moslty a collection of ideas. " So I've been looking into variant undead for my upcoming Halloween campaign & 100 Undead (Dark Fantasy) From Chaos Factory by Eric Diaz..   100 Undead (Dark Fantasy)  is an undead & monster banaza.  100 Undead (Dark Fantasy)  is perfect for OSR games.

We can see this in the introduction;"This book is a collection of undead creatures. Like other books from the Dark Fantasy line, it focuses on the grim, creepy and scary. However, it came out a bit darker than planned. There is nothing here that you wouldn’t see in a horror movie, but some of the themes are quite heavy. You’ve been warned! This book doesn’t follow the tradition “bestiary” approach, with a collection of monsters and statistics. The goal is not opening the book when you need a monster on the fly. Instead, each entry is a collection of visuals, stories and ideas for your games. Some monsters are distinguished by appearance, others by origins or goals (or all of these things). Some monsters are connected by a single theme or idea. Some are cooler, scarier or funnier than others. I tried to avoid the obvious and trite, and hope I have succeed (if not 100 times, at least most times)."

 100 Undead (Dark Fantasy)  is a rpg system agnoistic supplement & paints its monsters very nastily.  100 Undead  is perfect for games like Lamentations of the Flame Princess rpg & even games such as Castles & Crusades. Here's an example of the type of undead that we say ; "Porcupine zombie. As the name indicates, the porcupine zombie is bursting with sharp, long spikes. In life, this creature was infected with the bonespike plague. This disease eventually kills the hosts by piercing the internal organs. Out of ten infected, seven die after a week, one fully recovers, one lives on with great bone deformities, and one turns into a porcupine zombie. The creature tries to impale the living in its spikes, further spreading the disease"

Because we're going to be doing a campaign that centers on a material planet that intersects with the Negative material plane that is invading our campaign world. Because of this this a campaign where horror reigns   100 Undead (Dark Fantasy)  are going to be very unexpected undead types to visit upon the player's PC's. This Halloween  adventure event is going to be covering some surprise monsters. 
One of the OSR books that works well with  100 Undead (Dark Fantasy) From Chaos Factory by Eric Diaz.is Adventurer, Conqueror, King rpg's Lairs & Encounters.  You've got the lairs of the monsters & many undead this makes this book perfect fodder to insert a variant undead or its ilk. These are perfect to insert into your campaigns. 

 100 Undead (Dark Fantasy) From Chaos Factory by Eric Diaz is a good book for the DM who needs some solid random OSR monster & undead. Chaos Factory is really producing some interesting OSR supplements.  100 Undead (Dark Fantasy) From Chaos Factory by Eric Diaz is one of these perfect books for the DM who wants to do their own DYI Dungeons & Dragons or OSR games. 

 100 Undead (Dark Fantasy) From
 Chaos Factory is available here 

Reviews & Commentary A Groats-worth of Grotesques From The Skull as a Complete Gentleman Co By G. Edward Patterson III For Your Old School Campaigns

" Being a SYSTEM-AGNOSTIC Role Playing supplemental treatise ON MONSTERS; which is to say a BESTIARY for your Tabletop Games of Fantasy. Styled in the manner of the Baroque Period; a Curiosity Cabinet of Creatures for enlivening the table!"

"The over 100 entries were gathered out of sundy authors, philosophers, physicians, and poets; sacred and profane. The illustrations are collages of diverse prints and emblems. From the lowly ant to the earth shattering Behemoth, the mundane dog to the alien Ch M G, this collection is a rollicking gambol through history and myth"

A Groats-worth of Grotesques* from G. Edward Patterson III, came in the mail today. This is so very cool, what A Groats-worth of Grotesques is actually is an in universe 'Monster Manual'. A Groats-worth of Grotesques is made up of creatures, monsters, & nasties done with public domain artwork. But done so in such a way as to take many Middle Ages creatures & animals with a brand new OSR spin. 

A Groats-worth of Grotesques takes these familar animals & turns them on their ears! We get ants with alien 'in universe' qualities that takes the ant in a completely new direction. There's two hundred and fifty one pages of monsters & creatures. These are done in a complete OSR fashion. This means that the OSR retroclone of your choice can now feature a familiar animal with completely different spin. So you can get the drop on your players with some really nasty or normal creatures. 

Ants for example make friends & enemies of other insects. These can be vary dangerous for farmers or other food stuff producers in OSR & D&D style games! This is only the start of this. 

G. Edward Patterson III does an excellent job of taking these monsters in weird & different directions. This means that you can get maxium adventure or encounter utility out of the monster or creature from A Groats-worth of Grotesques.The set up is familiar & yet weird for your OSR adventures. 
The idea that another world or campaign setting is actually different from a creature or biological standpoint is going to keep players on their toes. The illustrations while public domain are put to excellent use. The monsters are colourful & engaging. There's a ton of stuff going on in A Groats-worth of Grotesques. 
These are all push overs and there's a touch of the alien about many of these familiar creatures of myth & legend. 

Many of these creatures & monsters looks like they would feel right at home in a wide variety of OSR systems. Some these in my mind include Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Lion & Dragon, & even B/X Dungeons & Dragons. A Groats-worth of Grotesques is also perfect for a mythic or Middle Ages Castles & Crusades game! 

 So what can you actually do A Groats-worth of Grotesques?! The monsters & creatures of 'A Groats-worth of Grotesques' is perfect for setting up a Fairytale land or plane. These monsters could also be used nicely as a Jim Henson 'Labyrinth' style game setting dressing or adventure potential! Other uses spring to mind include the following. 

Many of these creatures & monsters could well be used as unusual & rare monsters as magical or Fey disease vectors within old school or OSR campaigns. The idea that the monsters from 'A Groats-worth of Grotesques' could serve as the basis for a magical or Fairyland related plague for an OSR game isn't far fetched at all. 
So is A Groats-worth of Grotesques worth getting?! In my humble opinion, 'oh Hell yes it is!' And its only recently that we discovered that the Keep Off The Borderlands podcast back in May had covered A Groats-worth of Grotesques