Sword & Sorcery Commentary - Using Elfmaids & Octopi's Free OSR Resource Stone Age Sorcery With Hyperborea Third Edition rpg

 So Hyperborea rpg third edition & The Hyperborea Referee's Guide  has been released & we've been reading through these books. And speaking with DM Steve & he suggested that I take a look at the Elfmaid & Octopi blog's Stone Age Sorcery free download.  You can find the Stone Age Sorcery under the Gamebook section. Chris Tamm did a great job with this campaign book. 

For a Sword & Sorcery campaign with a Stone Age slant, Stone Age Sorcery puts the cards on the table with antagonists, artifacts, adventure locations, & more. Stone Age Sorcery  makes the Hyperborea have a more Ice Age feel. Because the book brings the forty eight pages of old school goodness & primitive violence. 

The entire setting of Stone Age Sorcery  could be moved into Hyperborea whole hog & dropped into the setting without a problem. Huge hunting trails & wild trails of mammoths or giant prehistoric animals are going to attract the tribes of cavemen & indigenious tribes of Hyperborea. Humanity attracts magick & dark sorcery! 

You Can Find Stone Age Sorcery Right Here! 

A Tale of Two Hells Geoffry O'Dale's Judge's Guild Inferno & Spell Books Games Journey through Malebolge Book One With An OSR & Old School Spin

Today I've been quietly doubling down on the OSR, since about '08 I've been mostly a silent observer of the OSR. I didn't start venturing into the movement until I started this blog. But over the last twenty four hours I've gotten two older gamers have paid a visit & left a very nice prezzie for me. Oh yeah the classic Judge's Guild Inferno By Geoffry O Dale. This my copy that hasn't been home in years. I let a friend of mine 'barrow' this classic for a couple of years & finally today it came back home.
Recently Josesph Mophr's Old School Blog posted a nice review of the classic. 


Even though this is an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons module how could I approach it to DM it? I began to have a good think about it & came up with possibly using Grey Elf's Age of Conan free OD&D Conan hack for running this classic module. Why?! Well think about. The fact that you've got a ready made forbidden & corruption Sword & Sorcery set of rules fits the aesthetic perfectly.



But if I really want to get into some really interesting territory I'd port over Lamentations of The Flame Princess rules for the Weird Tales doubling down on the Hellish adventure aesthetic of Geoffrey O'Dale's Inferno. The Judge's Guild module only covers six circles of his vision of Hell. But  the Journey through Malebolge Book One From  Spellbook Games completes & expands upon the Judge's Guild module. The Busybody blog has a very nice review of this book from 2014 & goes into some detail about the book. 

I don't want to get hung up on all of the details of Dante's Inferno & a cross comparison of these two modules by the same author. I did that back in 2016 with very detailed break downs of the Journey through Malebolge Book One . No here I'm starting to go into the actual running of this module with a more OSR or old school rules set to run the Judge's Guild adventure & then perhaps expand into the Spell book game's Journey Through Malebolge as a fully fledged campaign. Right now these are only thoughts & Hellish dreams. But things are starting to gell & I'm very glad to have this Judge's Guild classic back home.

 Another option might even be to take

 the Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia & use that
classic collection of Mentzer
Dungeons & Dragons to bring
home the old school campaign vibration to Hell.
It should not be forgotten this is a high level campaign &
only the most fool hardy players should attempt this.

This is an aggressive Dante's Hell & one which awaits your PC's.
There is plane jumping but this is nine circles of
alternative cosmology that waits for & punishes PC's in spades.
This dire high level  & very dangerous adventure romp that is
going to test the PC's & players to their limits. The cosmology
does fit in a round about way into the classic Dungeons & Dragons mode
but only just. This isn't the nice Ed Greenwood's nine planes of Hell.
Instead this is waiting just beyond the campfire Hell that will take
& damn PC's when & if it wants. 

Five Spells Of Space Age Sorcery & Lovecraftian Space Opera

"An alien sorcerer crawls to a lone stone at the edge of the universe & calls upon the power of unrivaled fury!
The space & dimensional ways quake with the stirrings of an ancient power & the ley lines at the ends of the universe buckle under the pure power of cosmic might. He calls upon ancient pacts & demons flow to his side from the darkest of places on the small rock. His form wracks & changes sex several times as reality cracks around the wizard's body. Then his body reassembles itself with the with the arcane cosmic powers  & might! 
Five spells floated in his mind's eye with red horror & spiritual promises. Now his revenge could begin. His mandibles & teeth clicked with the resemblance of a smile. "

The time is ripe for the OSR to remember the occult powers of Space Age Sorcery! The Garrisons of Hereticworks  & I created some awesome spells of cosmic power & potential for your old school games wayback in the mists of time from 2013 as a free pdf. 

But now I find myself once again turning to "Lovecraftian Space Opera" & its time to get back to work on using these twisted creations within my own OSR hybrid games. These spell would be perfect for something like Dungeon Crawl Classics or your own home games. So here are five brand new spells from my own home campaigns completely compatible with Space Age Sorcery! 

Can't Stop The Signal Mal
Spell Level: Cleric level 1st/Magic User 2
Range: 240 ft.
Duration: Instantaneous
Caster calls down an explosive combination of transcosmic EMP &  radio waves to disrupt & damage  the electrical systems of anyone or anything  within a twenty foot radius. The target  must save vs spells or take 1d6 points of static & trans electrical damage. Any technological devices caught within the spell must save or stop working as the power supply is shorted out. The caster may create a taunt or insult within the blast of no less then 140 characters heard only by the target. 

Flight Of Spectral Phoenix

Spell level: 2nd Level Cleric/3rd Level Magic User
Range:self 
Duration: 1d6 turns 

The caster calls upon the trans cosmic power of the great fire bird of the planes & two flaming wings appear upon the caster's back. These wings do 1d4 points of damage per turn to anyone caught within them. They allow the caster to hover & fly as a hawk for 1d6 turns. But anyone seeing these wings will be affected as per a fear spell as they recognize the power of the entity providing this spell's power. Each time it is cast the Spectral Phoenix gains more of a toe hold upon the soul of the caster which will eventually have dire ramifications.

Transcosmic Trans Teleportation
Spell Level: Magic User 3rd/Cleric 2nd
Range: 240 ft.
Duration: 1d8 light years

This spell calls down the power of the cosmic planar guardians allowing the cleric or magic user to transmit their atoms across space & time 1d8 light years almost instantly. There is a strange swirling of cosmic energies  effect that manifests around the caster or his target which must make a save vs spells. There is a 1 in 6 chance that a transcosmic demon or gremlin may manifest should this spell be abused by the caster. 

Claws of the Ether Demon 

Spell Level: Magic User 3rd/Cleric 2
 Range: self
 Duration: 1d6 turns 

The wizard or cleric summons in the cold Hell music of the dead universes unto themselves where the Ether Demons play with the dead gods & alien corpses of demons from previous incarnations of the universes.
The power of absolute nihilism manifests around the caster's hands allowing them to gain +3 damage against any technological & or manifestation of Order. The price is 2 points of subdual damage to their hands as the emotional trauma warps their souls. Targets hit by the claws of the ether demons must save vs spells or be affected by crippling & suicidal depression as their actual place in the universe is revealed for 1d6 days after the attack.

Hide of the Space Whale

Spell Level: Magic User 2nd/Cleric 1st
Range: self
Duration: 1d4 days

The caster summons & takes on the semblance of a space whale. The caster's Charisma becomes -4 as they take on all of the abilities & powers of the space leviathans. Their armor class drops by two & they can gain sustenance from the light waves & trans cosmic energies of space itself. Their senses are bombarded with the alien input of the space lanes  as the holy power of the Grand Space Whale sustains them. Space & all its problems will not effect the caster for the spells duration but there is a 2% chance of the caster remaining as half breed space whale when the spell ends.

H P Lovecraft Videos Created by The Lone Animator & A New Free Lovecraft Download Resource As Inspiration For Your Old School Campaigns

I'm huge HP Lovecraft fan as anyone who knows me in real life can attest to, last night I got together with some friends for a beer or two. I got a chance to see some incredible work by the Lone Animator last night. Needless to say, I'm also a fan of this gentleman. He & his team's take on HP Lovecraft's The Outer Gods is very well done in my humble opinion. I love Lovecraft's Dreamlands Cycle of stories, poems, & novel.
Anyhow on with the Outer Gods!

So after downing still more brews we were ready to take on Lin Carter's poem "The King In Tatters"; set in the mythic world of Carcosa, where Hastur is the King In Yellow. Its a well done short piece of film that hits all of the major bases of Carter's work with the animator's own twist on the Lovecraftian creations.
But then again that's one of the beautiful parts of Lovecraft's work,everyone has their own interprations of the horrors & weirdness of the mythos.

The Lone Animator has a paetron page & he pretty much has a few opinions that I share especially with regards to Ray Harryhausen. He's done a page video & he's some great stuff which can have applications for rpg miniature or model making as well as film.

You Can Find Out More About
The Lone Animator's Work Here 
And His Blog Here 

Alright obviously this gentleman's work can serve as an inspiration for those engaged in old school Lovecraftian role playing. I'm not associated or affiliated with the Lone Animator but I try to help out where I can. So I'm not trying to steal or violate his trade marks & copyrights on his Lovecraft work.
I would love to segway this into the fact that there is a brand new revamp & expansion of Lovecraft's work's on the Internet Archive;"The Complete Works of H.P. Lovecraft contains the original stories which Lovecraft wrote as an adult. It begins in 1917 with “The Tomb” and ends in 1935 with his last original work “The Haunter of the Dark.” The book is ordered chronologically by the date the story was written. Because Lovecraft was a terrible businessman and left no heirs to his intellectual property, all of his works are already in the public domain. It does not include collaborations or revisions because some of those works may still be under the co-author’s copyright. There also left out two completely non-Weird very early stories. "
Since I'm looking to do an Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea campaign eventually I wanted to see what resources were out on the Net. The work came up last night over beer & with my friends.

You can down load The Complete Works Of H. P. Lovecraft

by H. P. Lovecraft Here

Celebrate Robert Howard's Birthday With Free Sword & Sorcery Pulp Downloads

Happy birthday to Robert E. Howard, born on this day in 1906! If there was any writer whose had more influence on me or my life its probably HP Lovecraft or Edgar Allen Poe. But Robert Howard was the creator of Conan, Brian Mac Morn, and as host of other incredible characters! He is the father of the modern  sword & sorcery story. 

In his short  life time he changed the face of the pulp story with his writing but it wasn't until after his death at again thirty by his own hand that he was truly appreciated.
“I have known many gods. He who denies them is as blind as he who trusts them too deeply. I seek not beyond death. It may be the blackness averred by the Nemedian skeptics, or Crom's realm of ice and cloud, or the snowy plains and vaulted halls of the Nordheimer's Valhalla. I know not, nor do I care. Let me live deep while I live; let me know the rich juices of red meat and stinging wine on my palate, the hot embrace of white arms, the mad exultation of battle when the blue blades flame and crimson, and I am content. Let teachers and philosophers brood over questions of reality and illusion. I know this: if life is illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and am content.”
― Robert E. Howard, Queen of the Black Coast

I first encountered Robert Howard at the tender age of 11 down at the five & dime store when one of the Seventies reissues of his writing hit the stands. The damn thing dropped into my hands & changed my life. His writing was/is evocative, fast paced, & pulpy to the core but speaks volumes to me even to this day.


So with it being Robert Howard's birthday I figured it was a fine day to grab a few titles from the Internet Archive! They've got a mess of Robert Howard's writing for free!

Free OSR Retroclone System - The Sabres & Witchery RPG By Simon Washbourne For Your Old School Campaigns

So I'm quietly looking around The Beyond Belief Games website for their free fan based Blake Seven rpg and came across a monster hunter style retro clone based on the Swords and Wizardry engine called  Sabres & Witchery. Described as "an 18th Century supernatural horror roleplayiong game based on the Swords & Wizardry (Whitebox) fantasy role playing rules." The game takes the usual tropes of monster hunting ala Solomon Kane and relaunches them into a slick little system of horror role playing.
GO HERE TO DOWN LOAD THE GAME UNDER THE 'Other Free RPG Downloads' Section & CLICK  ON THE The Sabres & Witchery RPG HEADING TO DOWN LOAD THE PDF




Your players play several different alternative PC classes from the usual magic user, fighter, cleric, thief party combination. Instead you have a complete wrap around of the PC classes with more of touch of the pulpy horror swashbuckler and sword fighter style of party; the classes are the Fighter, the Magus, the Scoundrel, the Woodsman and the Hunter (a Witchfinder or Vampire Hunter type). While this is based on the Swords and Wizardry engine there's something rather unique about the game, it has a more grounded pulpy swords and sorcery style in the tradition of Robert Howard's Solomon Kane. The fighter is based around the usual professional soldier of the 1600's to early 1800's. The magus is the wizard of supernatural horror and witchcraft history with appropriate spell modifications and twists. The woodsmen is a ranger type but with overtones of the OD&D optional hunter class seen in Dragon Magazine. And then finally there's the Hunter which is akin to a combination of a cleric and a witch finder general type. The game really revels in its source material with an Appendix N right at the very beginning of the book. There are rules that play fast and loose with the material as it should be. Spells have been modified to fit the pulpy supernatural horror setting of the game. Magic is ancient and dangerous here with prices to be paid in blood and more then a hint of corruption. The monsters are reworked from the usual Swords and Wizardry denizens into creatures that are dark and dangerous yet at once very strange. Horrors that have crawled out of myth and legend, these misbegotten horrors from beyond are really the center of the game. There is a good use of public domain artwork which is also at once familiar and yet never overdone. The layout is easy on the eyes and the material both familiar and yet different enough to keep my interest.



There are two mini adventures to round out the horror game and the first is based on Robert Howard's "Rattle of Bones", found in The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane and it well lives up to its horror roots. The mini adventure contains the barest outline of an adventure but it's waiting for the DM to inject life into it. Korred Table is next up and is based on events in history with a good smattering of horror mythology thrown into the mix. 
There is plenty of material here to basically run these adventures with a little DYI preparation work on the DM's part and really make them memorable as well as direly dangerous. So is the game worth the download? Well yes on a number of levels. First off this is a free game but its a well done free retroclone system and its based off of Swords and Wizardry which has a proven track record. This game is also a retro clone variation of OD&D meaning that it will work very with other games out there in the market place. As a stand lone product it can really be made to shine. As an addition to other games on the market this retroclone system brings several things to the table additional PC classes, new takes on spells, brand new re imagining of the classic monsters of D&D.  The Sabres & Witchery game makes a excellent counter point to Lamentations of the Flame Princess an add on resource. With the additional PC classes and monsters this game could take campaigns to another level. In addition this game could be used as an additional counter piece to Dark Albion enabling a DM to add' time lost' PC's or other monstrous elements to that dark brooding horror laced game. All in all I really liked having another resource to pull from for OD&D style games and Swords and Wizardry. I give  Sabres & Witchery RPG a four out of five. 

If you really like the game there is a Lulu printing option of it available right over HERE