OSR Commentary On Troll Lord Games A Druid's Lament By Kim Hartsfield

 So for the past twenty four hours my brains have been going through a bit of  a meat grinder. And it's because of the fact that there are several Castles & Crusades players in our group who don't want to change out their C&C PC's for Victorious rpg PC's. 
And while this shouldn't be a problem at all. We're playing currently in a New York City based Victorious rpg campaign. So along with our other DM's we've put our heads together & came up with the following the events of Troll Lord Games A Druid's Lament By Kim Hartsfield lead from Central Park into The Wilderlands of High Fantasy. 

The reason for this is the fact that ages ago we used the Codex Celtarum 2nd edition as the basis for some of the aspects of Faery in our Victorious rpg games. Faery acts as the planar cushion between Earth and The Wilderlands. 

Faery crosses into the realm of the Dreamlands and this is where some of the creatures from Ford's Faeries: A Bestiary Inspired by Henry Justice Ford comes into play. The cursed wood of A Druid's Lament crosses over into Central Park as Fey, Elves, and even human rangers cross over into the 'real world' of the Victorious rpg. 

A Druid's Lament is only the beginning of this sort of a cycle of the fantasy fish outta of water. And this adventure is only fourteen pages to get the ball rolling on this. 

Blast em with Hellfire! Settling into an OSR Hell - Cha'alt & My Version of the OSR Hells!

There are so many lovely little Frog God Games Swords & Wizardry Monsters that 

I'd love to use in my games. I decided to get my infernal campaign  notes out for some business in my version of Hells. This goes back to my 3.5 Dungeons & Dragons D20 days so a little OSR patience.

Recently we reviewed Troll Lord Games Castles & Crusades Tome of the Unclean  & that review generated a ton of controversy. That's good because it means that folks are reading the blog & thinking about OSR gaming. Let's kick the infernal into hi gear or at least my version of Hell.


Someone made a comment on Me We in one of the OSR groups I'm in about the free D20 Infernum book rpg system book -  'Infernum - Book of the Damned'

"You are in Hell.
For an eternity, there has been nothing in the Infernum except constant war and constant suffering. Those in power grind those beneath them into the burning dust, while those below plot and conspire to overthrow their masters and take their place and all bow before the might of the warring Houses. Now, there is dissent and opposition even against their might, as the Free Cities declare their independence and threaten the hegemony of the Houses.
War is coming to Hell. Anyone, even a mortal, could conquer the Pit and become a lord of the Infernum.
Infernum: Book of the Damned is the Player’s book for the Infernum Roleplaying Game. In it you will find everything you need to start your adventures in Hell and begin working your way up the demonic ladder towards total domination.
Play as Mortal, Demon or Fallen Angel. Equip yourself with the latest infernal weaponry such as the flayer or hellcannon and trap a demon within your chosen tool of warfare. Develop and nurture your mutations as they twist your flesh and increase your demonic power. Feed from damned souls and bind other demons in unbreakable Covenants. Do unto others before they do unto you and remember...
Conquer or suffer. These are the only choices in the Infernum."

Now here's the thing for three years when D20 Infernum book rpg system book  came out I ran the system as an addition to 3.5 Dungeons & Dragons. Shocking I know because the first book was followed up with the setting book Infernum: Book of the Tormentor. The final book in the series was Infernum: Book of the Conqueror  which gives the upper PC levels & to rule in Hell & more.
Now I had a far bit of experience with the Infernum Hell because I also own Mongoose's D20 Book of Hell. Here's the thing this book came out before  D20 Infernum book rpg system book & there are several monsters, classes, equipment, etc. That are  not in the D20 Infernum the Book of the Damned.  There's a very nice quick conversion for 3.5 D&D or  Pathfinder over to Swords & Wizardry on the Pickled Punks OSR blog here. 


Now given the circumstances that several of Frog God Games Swords & Wizardry products are on sale I thought I'd go into these Hellish circles.  Now I had to do a lot of house ruling when it came to running D20 Infernum book rpg system books. So much so that I whole cloth modified very nature of the setting Hell itself. The Seven Circles of Dante's Hell became the main stage of Hell with the Abyss & its demons being the back stage. The view point was reinforced with Green Ronin''s Book of Fiends another 3.5 Dungeons & Dragons  book which I own.  The thing is you as the dungeon master have to realize the amount of scaling that you have to do with the monsters for OSR games. But for converting 3.5 Dungeons & Dragons monsters over to Castles & Crusades? I've got that covered with this forum post over at Troll Lords. 

Now with my Cha'alt/Godbound campaign on hiatus for a bit I've taken some time to evaluate some of my old Hell campaign notes. You've got to understand that this was a balls to the walls Rifts/Gamma World style VHS grind house game. Towns being swallowed up by Hell, humans being mutated into demonic horrors then sent to ravage their own towns, etc. This was a campaign in need of  heroes & it got them! These were some very flawed heroes indeed but they were summoned to Earth to do a job! 


Now I've been thinking about using the Siege engine/Castles & Crusades to do a full balls to the walls Rifts Cha'alt game for weeks now. But what about the forces of Hell are they simply going to be on the side lines?! I've got a team of demonic mutant horrors just waiting to be unleashed on my table top as soon as this quarantine breaks!

Note that I really don't give two craps about the poisoned  politics of any the designers & writers of these games. I've put my time into this campaign & on the whole I've got to say that this part of the community aspect of the hobby sucks. Keep your politics off of my table folks. 

Review & Commentary Castles & Crusades -- Tome of the Unclean By Stephen Chenault, & Kim Hartsfield

  "Beyond the darkness and beyond all sense lies a gulf of empty fear where true evil lurks.

Born with twisted thought, tainted with stains of malice, they are creatures foul and bent. They dwell in the darkness of time's caverns, in the Abyss, in Hell, in those Wretched Planes of shadow and evil, loss and despair. The echo of the unknown drives them from darkness toward the light. Some few seek salvation, but others to drive the souls of mortals to ultimate darkness and corruption.

Tome of the Unclean unleashes all of the power and horror of these wretched planes upon your Castles & Crusades game! From the Lords of the Abyss, to the Legions of Hell, and through to the gray wastes of Gehenna, a host of devils, demons, and daemons await your table!

Tome of the Unclean includes all of the familiar denizens of the darker planes. Here you will find Demogorgon and Orcus; Asmodeus, Bael, and Mammon, plus legions of others. All of the major and minor demons, greater and lesser devils, and a veritable host of creatures from your players' worst nightmares await within these pages."

A week or so ago I ordered a copy of Castles & Crusades's Tome of the Unclean. Let me first point out that this supplement is meant for Castles & Crusades exclusively. While Castles & Crusades's Tome of the Unclean can be used with other OSR systems its meant exclusively for C&C or other Siege engine rpg systems. This book does exactly what I was looking for, it adds in a  plethora of Demons, Devils, & even appendixes on adding in undead, hellish fauna, & flora. But  Tome of the Unclean is geared for Aihrde, the default C&C campaign setting. I'm good with this.
This seems to bother a lot of members of the OSR & but not me in particular. I'm a completest & so  Tome of the Unclean has been on my Troll Lords radar for a long time. My feeling is that I'd love to put together an OSR game campaign centered around my version of the Hells as the major antagonistic force of darkness.  Since the C&C Player's Guide is being offered for free I figured it was a great time to get in on the action.


I gotta say that despite reviews like this from Tim O; "C&C is my go to game, but I must say I'm very disappointed in this one. I was really looking forward to the official versions, but the expected improvements to the "big baddies" did not happen. In my opinion all the major demons and devils are under powered as far as hit points and magical abilities go; even the "standard" abilities of both groups seem weak and incomplete." Sigh.. I didn't particularly find this at all. In point of fact I think that all of the infernal deviants of  Tome of the Unclean  work very well for me. I wasn't looking for a huge push in abilities,powers,etc. in the way of the 'munchkin factor'.
Instead I'm looking for an infernal book that lines up with other Siege Engine & OSR products. So if I want a demon, devil, etc. I can grab this book off of the shelf & pop one of these horrors into my games. Tome of the Unclean   is that book. It does it job & its up to the quality of  other Troll Lords products. I bought it with my own pocket money & paid well for   Tome of the Unclean. That should tell you everything right there.