Commentary On The Free OSR Resource - Companion Expansion From Barrataria Games For B/X D&D & Retroclone Systems

Ask any OSR blogger or publisher & they'll tell you that they publish for the sheer love the of old school rpg hobby. Today there are literally hundreds of good, solid publishers out there but there are lots that have fallen through the cracks. Which is a shame.


Case in point with  Barrataria Games which produced one of the best damn B/X D&D & retroclone companions out there going all the way back to 2009.
Like I said I'm digging deep here folks but what's in it? Well according to Barrataria himself on Dragon's foot; "The Companion Expansion presents additional classes, spells, weapons and equipment, creatures and magical items for fantasy roleplaying games for basic- and expert-level players and gamemasters. It includes 8 additional character classes (bard, druid, wildwood elf, gnome, half-elf/half-orc, half-ogre, illusionist, scout), expanded experience, combat, and saving throw tables, two additional types of magic (druid and illusion) and additional magic-user and cleric spells (90 in all), over 130 new or additional creatures (with a comprehensive index and suggested experience point awards), dozens of new or additional magic items, and extended treasure generation tables. There are also expanded spell tables for use with Labyrinth Lord, Basic Fantasy, and Swords & Wizardry.

These rules will be the basis for the WORLD OF STRONGHOLD gazetteer(s) as that setting is further developed. There will be additional or variant monsters and classes presented, and other information including stronghold establishment and management and additional information on maritime adventuring and combat, but I felt that a "world neutral" version could be immediately useful to GMs running basic- and expert- level games."

So what happened to Barrataria Games? 

I don't know but hope that Barrataia is doing well. What happened?  I have no idea at this point but the OSR market isn't an easy place to make a living in.  One thing I've learned about being in this hobby since 1977 is that there are no winners or losers in a zero sum game only to be the last man standing. The idea is to have fun at the table & for this hobby to create new friends and continue gaming with those friends. This needs to happen or the hobby of table top rpging will die a slow death.
Surely some free OSR download from 2009 can't be relevant to today's OSR games? Well actually I would say its even more so. The The Companion Expansion is a tool kit for B/X D&D that can also be used with Labyrinth Lord, Basic Fantasy, and Swords & Wizardry. Which means that it can also be used with Adventurer,Conqueror, King,  Stars Without Number & other retroclone systems with some adjustments. This basically means that your range of material for everything is expanded by three fold. This means you can take your home campaigns up the level  ladder without spending a huge fortune & the quality of material is there.



This companion expands the products of the imagination with new races, classes, kits, etc. all done with NEW thief skills, new spells, monsters and magic items etc. But I've got  the Rules Cyclopedia or the free  Dark Dungeons retroclone system From  Gurbintroll Games. 

That's perfectly fine & this companion actually complements those fine products but the focus here is narrower. This companion focuses on PC expansion with lots of interesting little twists.
Here's my advice if you own B/X D&D or Dark Dungeons, Or any of the retroclone systems  then grab this one too.
Alright So You Can Grab The Companion Expansion From Barrataria Games For Free  Here

Since there are plethora of lulu codes floating out there, you might want a physical copy which is available through Lulu HERE   

I'm not in anyway affiliated with  Barrataria Games but I do think they make excellent quality products .

Free OSR Adventure Resource - Adventure Module BL1-2: The Ruined Hamlet/Terror in the Gloaming From Barrataria Games For Your Old School Campaigns

So here is a free fifty nine page OSR module from Barrataria Games  it has a sort of Village of Hommlet feel with a twist or two. Are you looking for an excellent adventure to start a campaign with? Then download this book because its bursting with some great OSR campaign resources and lots & lots of hooks throughout.
GRAB IT RIGHT HERE

The set up is pretty nice and ropes in the PC's straight out of the gate and into the back end of the module where they're walking into a situation that they may soon find themselves up to their necks in;"nto the Unknown! The wilderness around the cave stronghold called Gold Hill Trading Post is dangerous and scattered with ruins of large and small settlements. Will your party find fame and fortune, solve ancient mysteries, or just disappear into the Borderlands like so many that came before? This module contains underground and wilderness maps that form a detailed adventure and mini-campaign for beginning characters, including an abandoned village, haunted graveyard, ruined church, traders’ camp, wilderness encounters, and monster lairs. It also includes a ruined keep and dungeon as well as a mapped and detailed “base camp” stronghold"



There are some really nice maps and hooks in BL1-2: The Ruined Hamlet/Terror in the Gloaming  as well as a large assortment of NPC's, factions, powers, and over arching situations to get your party of adventurers into. The material here feels like a compete touch stone to step into a campaign, with a large amount of sword and sorcery action on the side. You get There are fifty pages of adventuring and 6 pages of maps all designed to dovetail and slide into your existing campaign material which is fine. This module has a bit of everything from a small range of spells, monsters, a distinctive flavor about the setting and more but none of this takes away from or tries to perform hugely distinctive adventure setting on its own. Its almost as if this module was designed to seamlessly expand and fit into your own campaign world. I'm all on board with this style of game writing and design. Everything here is fairly evenly put together making this a perfect DYI D&D module for a retroclone, OSRIC, Labyrinth Lord or first edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons game. The settings include a fully detailed hamlet, a wilderness section, a graveyard, a trading post, and much more which makes the price of admission worth a look alone! 
Everything in this module suggests and sets up a campaign from the ground up with the PC's hip deep in the local scene. There are mixes here of the mundane and the fantastic, the module reminded me of the Village of Hommlet more then once making this an adventure module to drop into an existing campaign or as a location to have more experienced PC's deal with some of the adventure hooks that  Module BL1-2: The Ruined Hamlet/Terror in the Gloaming brings to the table.

There are several reasons why this module reminds me of the classic T1 adventure:

• Organic campaign set up and implementation into an existing campaign as well as use for a jump off point for a brand new campaign. 
• Old school no tears encounters with a mix of the bizarre and the mundane. 
• The adventure blends the local scene and politics with the PCs playing into both! This makes the PC's invested in the action. 
• The factions and NPC's are deeply invest in the adventure's plot and themes. 
• The 'Big Event' of  BL1-2: The Ruined Hamlet/Terror in the Gloaming  actually has some solid repercussions on the campaign world and setting and not simply an implied campaign or setting impact. 

The bottom line is to grab this adventure for your old school games and use it as both adventure and tool box. The fact that its free is icing on the cake in my opinion.