Commentary On The Pay What You Want Retro clone Rule book Blue Holme Prenctice Rules For Your Old School Campaign

This is no holds bar meat and potatoes Holmes Blue book Prencice  retroclone action that in sixty pages places everything you need to get started into one of the best of the best versions of basic OD&D that hit the market and its very well organized to boot. The folks over at Dreamscape have taken and updated their very own retroclone to reflect a few fiddly bits and changes. Very few but enough to make all of the difference with this version of the 'grand old game' or the world's most popular fantasy role playing game. All of the old favorites are here in this version of Holmes but there's one of the rubs. Its a bit more clear and concise on how it handles the game details and everything that your going to want is right under the blue and white rule book.

When I first looked at Blue Holme I really wasn't expecting much but really this is like coming home for me. Dreamscape did a faboulous job of bring back the magic of Holmes into a concise and well organized package with just the right amount of nostalgia and a better dose of old school gamesmanship that will take PC's from First level and beyond. And all of the old favorites from Wizard to Fighter along with Thief and Cleric are right here mixed in with Dwarf and Elf as well. 
There's something refreshing to me to look at the bang up job that Dreamscape did with this material. Although this rule book emulates the Holmes this re imagining of it brings with it certain amount of well thought out focus and design slight of hand.
This is a perfect game to let kids cut their teeth on or have your relatives who have never played OD&D get into. This version is one of the best emulators to come down the pike in a dogs age and the basic version of OD&D is one of a select retroclones that has a very strong core audience already for it.

With everything you need in one rulesbook and not anything to get in your way as a DM or player its easy to see why this edition and retroclone of Holmes matters. There's now a complete version of Blue Holmes coming out in the near future making these rules a nice quick set of pick up and go weekend play through rules. I know that new players are not the ones who are going to look at these rules but the more experienced DM's and players who want to have a bit of that old lighting in the memories and a D20 between their fingers. You could do a lot worse then to download and go with this great little re imaginational retroclone in you DM's arsenal. A very nice retroclone rules set and one of the best basic set ups to come down the pike in a while. I'm looking forward to Dreamscape's version of the Complet rules.All in all this was a really nice trip down memory lane updated for a more streamlined version of Holmes style play. 

Grab It Right
HERE

Commentary And Revisit To The Pay What You want OSR Adventure For BLUEHOLME The Maze of Nuromen From Dreamscape Design

        

Grab It Right
HERE

The Maze of Nuromen From Dreamscape Design does in sixteen pages what most modules seem to take forever to do. It takes a party of first level adventurers into the Underworld and gives them all of the old school action they can handle and then some. This is a down and dirty dungeon crawl that presents exactly what it says on the tin and then some. 

The ideas here are clearly marked out and the crawl has some interesting twists and turns. The other aspect of this crawl that also makes it of interest is the customization factor here. As it stands this is actually a family friendly little adventure but can easily be reworked as the DM sees fit and that is one of this retroclone systems's strengths. 

For a pay what you want adventure the DM gets two levels of play and a whole lot of challenging bits for the PC's. This one will take the characters into the heart of a minor bit of darkness & enable them to adventure with some solid OSR material behind them. I like that the wandering monster charts include creatures that have a maximum count - if the party has defeated the max number, they won't occur again. You just don't see this as often as you should.

My biggest complaint is the font style for this adventure which is a pain in the neck. That having been said its a very minor point. 

Small note is the 'I' in the monster entries is their Initiative. 

Over all the PC's are not going to find this adventure a push over and even a second level set of characters is going to find this one a challenge. The ideas and background are very well done. Its a very concise dungeon which is meant to be played with the Blue Holme retroclone. It will take a bit of down and dirty converting to use this one with your favorite retroclone system but I think its well worth it. 

All in all its a pretty solid adventure that should keep a group of players very busy for at least a couple of sessions. I really enjoyed the hell out of the adventure.  

Review And Commentary On The Pay What You Want Retro clone Rule book Blue Holme Prenctice Rules For Your Old School Campaign

This is no holds bar meat and potatoes Holmes Blue book Prencice  retroclone action that in sixty pages places everything you need to get started into one of the best of the best versions of basic OD&D that hit the market and its very well organized to boot. The folks over at Dreamscape have taken and updated their very own retroclone to reflect a few fiddly bits and changes. Very few but enough to make all of the difference with this version of the 'grand old game' or the world's most popular fantasy role playing game. All of the old favorites are here in this version of Holmes but there's one of the rubs. Its a bit more clear and concise on how it handles the game details and everything that your going to want is right under the blue and white rule book.



Grab It Right
HERE
 When I first looked at Blue Holme I really wasn't expecting much but really this is like coming home for me. Dreamscape did a faboulous job of bring back the magic of Holmes into a concise and well organized package with just the right amount of nostalgia and a better dose of old school gamesmanship that will take PC's from First level and beyond. And all of the old favorites from Wizard to Fighter along with Thief and Cleric are right here mixed in with Dwarf and Elf as well. 
There's something refreshing to me to look at the bang up job that Dreamscape did with this material. Although this rule book emulates the Holmes this re imagining of it brings with it certain amount of well thought out focus and design slight of hand.
This is a perfect game to let kids cut their teeth on or have your relatives who have never played OD&D get into. This version is one of the best emulators to come down the pike in a dogs age and the basic version of OD&D is one of a select retroclones that has a very strong core audience already for it. This update cements the deal and enables the retroclone to be both a Saturday night quick pickup set of rules or as another reference piece for rule booking.. 
I can understand if you think that this is simply another retro clone or why in the heck should the reviewer be excited. Well this edition incorporates all of the errata and changes from Dreamscape. They've got a blog for support of the game as well right HERE
According to the blog here what's going on in this latest incarnation : 

Yes, the long-awaited update to the Prentice Rules has finally arrived on your virtual bookshelf! As well as incorporating all the errata that has surfaced in the 18 months or so since the 1st printing, this edition has been reformatted for a cleaner typeface and to make it fully compatible with the upcoming Compleat Rules.

With everything you need in one rulesbook and not anything to get in your way as a DM or player its easy to see why this edition and retroclone of Holmes matters. There's now a complete version of Blue Holmes coming out in the near future making these rules a nice quick set of pick up and go weekend play through rules. I know that new players are not the ones who are going to look at these rules but the more experienced DM's and players who want to have a bit of that old lighting in the memories and a D20 between their fingers. You could do a lot worse then to download and go with this great little re imaginational retroclone in you DM's arsenal. A very nice retroclone rules set and one of the best basic set ups to come down the pike in a while. I'm looking forward to Dreamscape's version of the Complet rules.All in all this was a really nice trip down memory lane updated for a more streamlined version of Holmes style play.