OSR Review & Commentary On 'The Pay What You Want' Malcon's Tome of Artifacts By Joseph Mohr For OSRIC & Other OSR Systems

 "This is an OSRIC supplement."

"This volume brings you a selection of some of the most powerful, and most dangerous, artifacts and relics in Zanzia."

"These ancient treasures are priceless. They may also be quite lethal both to the owner and those around them. These rare objects are the subjects of legends sung by bards in taverns all over Zanzia and even beyond. Many of these objects have never been found. Their very existence may just be a legend. No one really knows for sure."

'The Pay What You Want' Malcon's Tome of Artifacts By Joseph Mohr is a thirty six pages of artifacts & magic items of legend & lore. This supplement is jam full of legendary artifacts perfect to inject as a rumors or legends told around a tavern fire. 
These items are also perfect to inject at the center of a campaign as goals of quests or as center pieces of adventures. What these do is to add colour and campaign value to an old school or OSR adventure. 
Does Malcon's Tome of Artifacts live up to it's time for you as a player or DM to download?! Yes, this tome works very well for an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edtion or OSRIC rpg style games. Malcon's Tome of Artifacts works very well for other games such as Castles & Crusades rpg. Because let's face it Castles & Crusades can always use a few more artifacts and powerful magic items to inspire OSR campaigns. 
The layout and design of Malcon's Tome of Artifacts is veru well done. The font is easy to read & easy on the eyes as well. The artifacts are not too overwhelming if the DM keeps an eye on them. And doesn't over do it adding in powerful and highly dangerous magic items. 

Seriously there's some campaign wreckers in this tome. And many of these items are connected to deeper artifact background that can easily be exploited by the dungeon master. 
The thing is that Malcon's Tome of Artifacts fits a niche within a campaign and the DM needs to respect that point of his or her campaign. 
As a pay what you want title Malcon's Tome of Artifacts By Joseph Mohr is a great little supplement for the DM who needs another supply for artifacts and powerful magic items for thier games! 

Review & Commentary On Warrens of the Great Goblin Chief (Revised and Expanded Edition) By Dominick Pelletier From Johnny Rook Games, LLC For Your Old School Campaigns

 "A wagon containing the estate of a recently deceased thief has gone missing on its way down The Great Copperdawn Road somewhere between Glen's End and the town of Westgate. The local tax assessor hires the PCs to seek it out and recover some its...more valuable cargo. The task seems easy enough! Still, rumors abound of bandits, goblins, and all other manner of strange creatures in the area as possible dangerous suspects to the disappearance." 

"As the search begins, the PCs discover that they are not the only ones looking for this wagon. Assassins, cultists, knights, and soldiers are also on the hunt. The PCs quickly find themselves entangled in a web of intrigues on all sides. A truth must be uncovered involving stolen magic, betrayl, foul humanoids, and ultimately a journey deep inside The Warrens of the Great Goblin Chief!"

 Warrens of the Great Goblin Chief (Revised and Expanded Edition) By Dominick Pelletier is a highly unusual animal in the world of OSR adventure modules. Why?! Because this is a 1st level mini adventure campaign and it clocks in at a hundred and thirty two pages. Warrens is actually very good even at an extensive one thirty two pages of adventures. What makes Warrens so good is the content and the encounters. This is a mini OSR module campaign that has everything a DM needs:

1 96-page Adventure module

1 36-page Game Master Companion

1 3'x2' double-sided poster map

And this also includes weather tables, a fleet of NPC's that are actually centered around the module, calender of weather events, notable encounters, and much more. 
Encounters are balanced but lean a bit on the deadly side as is the old school way. This Warrens can be dropped whole cloth into an existing campaign setting and then run from the ground up. The author is on point, the layout is well done, the fonts actually readable, and whole module is worth the material it's printed on. 
The focus here is on the adventure's plot and it ensnares the player's PC's quite early. And this means keeping the player's interest in spades. There is everything here from social encounters to full on dungeon crawling. And it's handled effectively. This makes  Warrens of the Great Goblin Chief excellent for OSRIC or even Castles & Crusades. And especially a Castles & Crusades game set in Greyhawk being run with the C&C  system. 

But what makes Warrens fun and unique is that all of this action is taking place at first level! That means that there's a Hell of a chance of the player's PC's getting themselves in over thier heads. 

Warrens of the Great Goblin Chief is an unusual beast of a module allowing it too straddle it's social encounters with dungeon crawling later on. And it's a great 1st level adventure that never assumes it's player's PC's for granted by having it's NPC's over shadowing the plaeyer's PC's at anytime. And make no mistake Warrens of the Great Goblin Chief  is a mini campaign and a very well done one at that. 

Review & Commentary On Severed Fate By John Keefe and Laurel Nicholson From Smoldering Dung Games For Your Old School Or OSR Campaigns

 "Barely 100 feet away, the repulsive and terrifying monster Furythorn steps into the compound littered with burning corpses. He hasn’t seen you yet, but he will soon. There's no escape. Your band of adventurers are the last ones to stop his destruction and killing.

You ready your weapon, watching bursts of flames erupt from his body. Hideous pus-oozing burns cover his face.

As night deepens, one of his hulking minions spots you and points, grunting. Seeing your group of warriors, Furythorn laughs a chilling cackle, spewing pus into the evening air. “There you are cowards. I’ve been waiting for you.” He holds out his arms. “Come to me and die!”



Kranna, the wizard’s apprentice feverishly clutches the spell components beneath her cloak. “He must die tonight. Otherwise he’ll destroy the whole northern half of the isle.” The only response is the sound of blades pulled from their sheathes. As you charge forward, embers from the monster’s burning flesh float above you in the wind." 

Severed Fate By John Keefe and Laurel Nicholson is a 1st level adventure for five to seven player's PC. Severed Fate is well done 1st or 2nd level adventure for beginning or  experienced players. Severed Fate can be dropped into any campaign & works very well with campaigns with wilderness focuses. And it has as it's central focus an impressive NPC and lots of twists and turns. 
Severed Fate is very much grounded in the old school tradition with some mature themes but it's also grounded into the OSR's more modern aspects. The good aspects of this module are that if run solidly with a good group of players this adventure will cement the touchstone for an exciting campaign. The layout is well done, the fonts easy to read, and the material well done OSR solidly adventure. 
Encounters in Severed Fate can be and are deadly for a group of players who are not used to the fact that death is always waiting around the corner. And in this OSR module  this is never more true. 
The writing is solid for it's seventy two pages and is easily fitted into your old school or OSR campaigns. And this makes this adventure ideal for OSRIC! Drop this adventure in right after B2 Keep on The Borderlands. 

Could Severed Fate be used easily with other OSR systems?! Short answer, yes. This module  could be combined with Castles & Crusades without much fuss. And infact if the DM wanted this module could easily be dropped into Greyhawk or similar campaigns running C&C as it's main system. 
The reasons for this are the focus on the wilderness, the NPC's, flexible locations, and more. Severed Fate is well thought out and needs more leads into it's own campaign setting though. This isn't a criticism however only a minor point of contension on my part as a DM. Over the team of  John Keefe and Laurel Nicholson who once worked for Mayfair Games as a part of the Role Aids adventure modules.The quality of Severed Fate continues this tradition in spades. 

Review & Commentary On Book of Lost Beasts By Joseph Bloch From BRW Games For Adventures Dark And Deep Rpg & Other OSR Games

 "Nearly 200 new monsters for your old-school campaign!" 

From the massive prehistoric ambelodon to the terrifying plague zombie, within these pages you'll find a bevy of new monsters to use in your campaign. There are angels, bladegrass, undead dragons, rakshasa nobles, and much more! Creatures found in dungeons, wilderness, the prehistoric past, the sea, and even alien planes of existance are within." 

Joseph Bloch's  Book of Lost Beasts was a present from my wife last year for our anniversary. It was on the review pile and then with Wizards of the Coast's OGL debacle 'The Book of Lost Beasts' got put on the back burner of the review pile. But I'm determined to get this review done! 'The Book of Lost Beasts' is a really nice addition to the grand edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition style games. 'The Book of Lost Beasts' follows the Monster Manual I & II school of layout and stat blocks but cleaner. She comes in at 132 pages of old school monster filled horror to inflict on your players.

Personally, my wife invested in "The Book of Lost Beasts" because it works with old school Advanced Dungeons & Dragons or with a little tweak Troll Lords Castles & Crusades with a collection of 205 monsters. Now what "The Book of Lost Beasts" does is to help fill in some of the gaps found within the Monster Manual I&II. And what makes it useful is the fact it helps to fill in some of the ranks of monsters from Jeff Grub's Manual of Planes. Because 'The Book of Lost Beasts' gives us something  new are the ranks of nobility of the Dao, Djinn, Effrti, Madrid, and Rakasha.

What makes "The Book of Lost Beasts" worth the price of admission is the fact that there are  205 or so monsters that  are  followed by appendices on Treasure Types and a random Creature for the Lower Planes generator. These remind me of  the ones found in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide again all in line with Jeff Grubb's Manual of the Planes. And many of the articles of the planes found in Dragon magazine. But is the "The Book of Lost Beasts" worth the price of admission?! In a word, yes the quality and care for the book is there. "The Book of Lost Beasts" is a perfect book to add into your archives for running OSR games. 

Free Download Review & Commentary - S9: Ransom of the Riverboat Queen By RC Pinnell For Advanced Dungeons & Dragons First Edition

 "With the slavers of the Pomarj defeated, the weary adventurers are left little time to rest when they receive a message from one of the nobles of the land begging them to come to her aid. This adventure is created to be a link between the TSR Slavers and Giants adventure-modules (A1-4 and G1-3), and is designed for characters of levels 5th through 9th, using either pre-existing characters or the pre-generated ones contained within. Part 2, S10: Rescue on the Jotens, is available for download here"


 S9: Ransom of the Riverboat Queen By RC Pinnell is a fifth level thru nineth level adventure. And S9 was written as a stop  gap adventure between the TSR Slavers and Giants adventure-modules (A1-4 and G1-3). And S9 takes the PC's deep into the world of the lesser criminal elements of these prior adventures;"Having defeated the slavers of the Pomarj, the armies of the ruling nobles swept across the land, chasing the lesser outlaws and their minions deep into the wilderness beyond the boundaries of civilization; capturing and executing those that could not get away. And now with the slavers more or less eradicated, the council of high lords can recall their troops, regroup, and turn their attention to the needs and peace of their citizenry But outside of the Slavers’ circle were others, less known and not entirely evil, that only interacted with the slavers for their own profits. Such persons were not part of the official organization. Those unknown to the council of nobles were able to cease their activities and lay-low, hiding in hope that the ire of the ruling authorities would eventually subside. Nalia DuBose, known locally in the criminal world as the Riverboat Queen, is one such person. Neither evil for evil’s sake or good for the sake of others, Nalia is the leader of a large band of river buccaneers that has remained unnoticed by the nobles of the land. As she and her crews rarely use physical force during their raids, and have never knowingly transported abducted persons or slaves, their operation has not attracted the interest of the authorities. Until now." 

What S9: Ransom of the Riverboat Queen By RC Pinnell does it is put the PCs right into the middle of the aftermath of the Slavers & Giants series with the river boat queen herself. In sixteen pages we get the PC's deeply involved in the adventure plot; "To avoid the authorities that might be investigating her little corner of the world, Nalia took half her crew and left the safety of her River Keep, sailing along the coast to her secondary domicile on a small isle; part of the bank islands south of Keoland. There she has remained for a year, waiting for word to be sent from her companion and second in command, informing her that it is safe to return. But being out of touch with her network of eyes and ears, she is unaware of the changes that have taken place in her organization. Nor that her most trusted companion is involved." S9 is excellent for getting the PC's into the underworld of the river piracy adventure background gig. This works well with thieves guilds tied PC's, criminal elements, and even clerics. 

S9 is a solid module to use with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition, or OSRIC or even perhaps Castles & Crusades for something different that can bridge the adventure gap. S9 also works as a module that takes advantage of vintage Greyhawk. This being said S9 also works as a possible adventure take up with the Hyperborea Rpg. This goes back to something we had talked about back in 2020 with the Giants series & the second edition AS&SH rpg here. 

S9: Ransom of the Riverboat Queen By RC Pinnell worth the free download?! In my  humble opinion yes it is because it provides a number of options for the players & the DM. One S9 is a great framework to use in the aftermath of the both the Giant Series & Slavers. Two it fills in some of the power gaps that both modules leave. And it gets the PC's deeply involved for the next adventure set up. We'll get into that installment next time. 

S9: Ransom of the Riverboat Queen By RC Pinnell For Advanced Dungeons & Dragons First Edition  Is Available Right Here. 

Review & Commentary on Advanced Dungeons & Dragons - 'The REF4 The Book of Lairs II (1e)' For Your Old School Campaigns

 "This is the second in a series of groundbreaking AD&D® accessories. Within these pages are nearly 70 fully developed adventures that can be inserted into any campaign. They are ready-to-play challenges for all levels of characters. DMs need not spend long hours creating diversions for their players—we've done it for you."

"If you have The Book of Lairs, you already know what you'll find herein. These mini-adventures are arranged by terrain type (city, desert, hills, mountains, forest, etc.), with monsters in alphabetical order for easy access. At the back of the book is a combined monsters statistics table, showing all the necessary figures at a glance."

"These are familiar monsters (like the gnome, brownie, and ettin) and not-so-familiar ones (like the bakemono and tengu), from both original AD&D sources and the Oriental Adventures book. Some of these mini-adventures are mere diversions; others can turn into minor campaigns! In any case, DMs and players alike are sure to be pleased with The Book of Lairs II."

So let's pick this up   'The REF4 The Book of Lairs II (1e)' after this blog entry here?!   'The REF4 The Book of Lairs II (1e)' was a second release at  in  (1986) & is the fourth AD&D REFerence and the secound of the Lairs books of short adventures. It was published in April 1987. And 'The REF4 The Book of Lairs II (1e)' is a very heavy adventure anthology with some incredibly iconic & mythological monsters of Advanced Dungeons & Dungeons first edition or Advanced Dungeons & Dragon 2nd edition. 

'The REF4 The Book of Lairs II (1e)'  takes the adventure anthology outlook & brings in one hit point monsters all of the way up too iron golem. Why because this book takes the adventure anthology of encounters formula and brings it into shape for both editions of the grand game. It does this by using displacer beasts, fungi, beholders, and mind flayers as the encounter fodder for adventure groups. 

This makes 'The REF4 The Book of Lairs II (1e)' a perfect fit for OSR retroclones such as OSRIC or for Gold & Glory. 

Each of the encounters within 'The REF4 The Book of Lairs II (1e)' can be tailored to your old school campaigns circumstances call for. And this makes 'The REF4 The Book of Lairs II (1e)' perfect for bringing into Greyhawk or other old school campaigns. 

'The REF4 The Book of Lairs II (1e)' adventure encounters can be tailored from gritty to full on high fantasy. And with a bit of effort could be brought into a Sword & Sorcery game such as Hyperborea rpg third edition as one off displaced entities or monsters. Not so with Greyhawk where each & everyone of these encounters feels at home. 

'The REF4 The Book of Lairs II (1e)' takes the adventure encounter anthology format and brings it up a notch because of its diverse cast of authors. Authors that were quartinated by one of classic TSR's best. According to the Drivethrurpg entry; "Project coordinators Bruce Heard and Karen S. Martin herded twenty different contributors, some TSR staff and some freelancers: Anne Brown, Scott Bennie, Deborah Christian, David Cook, Jane Cooper, Ed Greenwood, Jennell Jaquays, Robin Jenkins, David E. Martin, Karen S. Martin, Anne Gray McCready, Bruce Nesmith, Jeff O'Hare, Steve Perrin, Jon Pickens, Michael Price, Rick Swan, Gary Thomas, William Tracy, and Allen Varney." This showcases some incredible talent across such a sprawling & wide range of areas from classic TSR. So is  'The REF4 The Book of Lairs II (1e)' a part of the lists of underrated classics?! In my humble opinion?! Yes! 

Zothique, X2 Castle Amber, And Clark Ashton Smith's Necromancy From Naat By Way of OSRIC

 Today's blog post is going to pick up right from this blog post here.  When it comes to Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique exotic & completely alien are the two words that come to mind. This is borne out within the CAS story ' Necromancy In Naat'. Clark Ashton Smith cranks up the 'ick' factor by '11' and then goes in for the kill with his ending. Death, the grave, and even then the ending isn't the original one. According to the Deep Ones KentonSem;"A few details from the notes by Scott Connors and Ron Hilger in the NSB edition of The Last Hieroglyph:

"Necromancy in Naat" was completed on February 6, 1935. It appeared in the July 1936 issue of Weird Tales, where it was accompanied by another Virgil Finlay illustration, where it tied with Robert E. Howard's "Red Nails" as the most popular story in the issue. Smith was paid seventy-three dollars for the story.

Smith wrote to August Derleth that "'Necromancy in Naat' seems the best of my more recently published weirds; though Wright forced me to mutilate the ending."

Apparently Farnsworth Wright had an issue with the last paragraph and the "shadowy love" that is hinted at (although it's not exactly necrophilia if it's between two consenting dead folk, now is it? Let's just call it necromantic). The original version was eventually restored for the NSB volume and presumably the online version listed above." 

Rodney Matthews, Obsidian Castle used without permission. 

And so what does this prevading use & abuse of the undead in 'Necromancy of Naat' have anything to do with OSRIC or the D20 version Zothique? Quite simply the dead don't rest quiet on Zothique and I believe that THAMOGORGOS the lord  of The Abyss is partially  responsible for this state of affairs. Many of the events of 'Necromancy in Naat' remind me of the restless and dangerous undead of X2  Castle Amber by Tom Moldvay. How?! In both the story & the module the dead play dangerous parts with the living. And it's possible when weird old gods are at play the rules for reality slide out the window. 

Starcrossed lovers who are actually dead & then become the play things of the necromancers amid the dying Earth's lost wasteland seas?! The classic X2 has many of the trappings of the' Necromancy of Naat' without the implied undead umm ick . X2 is one part dungeon, one part wilderness, & partially a module with deep roots in Glantri. Zothique itself while not a magick heavy setting none the less is on par with many Sword & Sorcery settings. 

And this is where the connection comes in with Elric's Pan Tang wizards, soldiers, mercenaries, etc. comes into play. We know for a fact according to the Stormbringer books by Michael Moorcock that the Young Kingdom's Pan Tang were sending out expediationary forces, envoys, etc. to expand the scope of the horrid kingdom's reach. 

Pan Tang miniature forces by Games Workshop 

If we look at the idea that we've got Pan Tangian envoys & forces moving beyond the planes of the Young Kingdom through foul magics then.  Then the foul forces of Pan Tang  can show up any place and this includes Zothique! The party may come up against forces they may have to flee from. 

If the PC's go into the land of Ghouls in X2 Castle Amber then the party may eventually find themselves within the lands of Mordiggan on Zothique!  After naviagting & neogatating with the ghoul tribes  or their foul Lovecraftian god events may trip in the party's  favor if the ghost of Stephen Amber parleys with the ghouls on the players behalf. Stephen  De Ambers was a mage of iincredible skill and it's no surprise that other mages may be angling to take over his domain. 

Many of my contempary DM's have eluded to the fact that Castle Amber may be a domain of Ravenloft. And perhaps Zothique could be one as well?! 

OSR Review & Commentary On The Centaur Race By James Mishler, & Jodi Moran-Mishler From James Mishler Games For Your Old School Campaigns

 "This booklet contains all the information you need to create a centaur player character for Labyrinth Lord or Advanced Labyrinth Lord (and is easily adaptable to other OSR systems). Details include both a centaur race and a centaur racial class, as well as information on creating centaur bands and camps. 12 pages (6 pages of content)."

So lately over the last three weeks we've been looking into possibly going back to OSRIC as a possible alternative OSR retroclone rules set. And one of my players has expressed a more then a passing interest in using a Centaur PC. And that's when it struck me James Mishler Games sent me a copy of  the Centaur Race by James & Jodie Moran Mishler. Centaurs have  certain connotations within Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition games as Dragon magazine paints them in solid Sylvan & Fey terms. James Mishler keeps this set of expections; "Centaurs are a sylvan race of forest and meadow. They tend to be atavistic and live in primal harmony with nature, abiding with dryads, nymphs, satyrs, treants, and other woodland folk and creatures. They tend to eschew contact with non-sylvan, non-fairy races, preferring to live in woodland and meadows in the wilds. Generally, males are wandering warrior-hunters while females are gatherers and gardeners who tend to the young. Males are also known for being wild and violent, especially when confronted with anything from the outside world; they sometimes raid settlements, especially for wine, which they consume with much gusto"
The Centaur racial type or PC class or race could easily be adapted into OSRIC with little issue allowing the race to become a part of are campaigns. 

My beat up copy of OSRIC 

The Centaur Race By James Mishler, & Jodi Moran-Mishler puts down the details into twelve pages. No more & no less except for the fact that we also get details on  information on creating centaur bands and camps. These bands could be perfectly aligned for creating violent & far more dangerous NPC centaur raiders or brigands. These centaurs are often raiders who give into the more chaotic & violent tendencies of their Slyvan nature. 
The Centaur Race from James Mishler Games centers its subject matter and focuses itself on only on the PC  essentials & little else. And this appeals to the player from the ground up. 

OSR Review & Commentary On The Centaur Race By James Mishler, & Jodi Moran-Mishler From James Mishler Games For Your Old School Campaigns Is Available 

Review & Commentary The Beserker PC Class By James Mishler & Jodi Moran-Mishler From Mishler Games For Your OSR Campaigns

 Mishler Games keeps on cranking out the good OSR supplements and here's another one! James Mishler Games has some great titles and this includes the new Berserker Class for Labyrinth Lord 

"The new Berserker Class for Labyrinth Lord includes the following:

Class Details;

The following Berserker abilities and skills:
Berserker State;
   Grants bonuses to hit or additional attacks per round;
   Grants bonuses to unarmored armor class;
   Enables the berserker to fight beyond normal physical capacity or even death!
Fearlessness;
Magical Transformation;
   Human berserkers can transform into animals, including at higher levels man-beasts and giant-sized beasts"

 The Beserker Class  By James Mishler & Jodi Moran-Mishler is twelve pages of Beserker PC goodness with all of the OSR systems in mind. The Beserker class has all of the bonuses & additional hits. This is a part of the classic PC class and the  Beserker class is solid for a number of OSR rpg systems. And the Beserker is perfect for the Adventurer, Conqueror, King rpg for countering the problems of the humanoid Chaos wave. Is there an ACK's Beserker class?! Yes but the bonuses are not quite the same.  The Beserker Class  is also perfect for the Castles & Crusades's Haunted Highland. Because of the fact that the Beserker is great humanoid fighter & with the derth of giant kind in the setting its a natural. 

The Beserker class could also be used in an OSRIC game easily & especially a Sword & Sorcery campaign. The PC class is solid at higher levels to help even out a combat niche within a party. This is also true of a Labyrinth Lord & an Advanced Companion  game campaign as well. In short the Beserker PC class fits a number of roles very well and at higher levels this engine of destruction can be aimed for a number of enemies easily. And that's the strength of this engine of violence & fighting prowess! 

James Mishler & Jodi Moran-Mishler From Mishler Games For Your OSR Campaigns Is Available Here 

Michael Moorcock's Melnibonéans And Clark Aston Smith's Zothique By Way of OSRIC

 OSRIC came out in 2006, and it's use at the table top is a God's sent allowing the DM to create their own table top adventures & supplements. And OSRIC  also allows the DM to transcend the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Player's Guide, Dungeon Master's Guide, & Monster Manual all in one at the table top level. All of these references are there at the DM & player's finger tips. 


Michael Moorcock – The Stealer of Souls (1963) artwork by Rodney Mathews used without permission 

This thread picks up right from this blog post from the other day here. So let's talk about the  Melniboneans whose alien & very primal ways get a solid from the Knights & Knaves forums here.  And it was Geoffrey's canon that has me thinking over about the classic Michael Moorcock stories:  "My "Elric canon" is pretty short; 

"The Dreaming City" (Science Fantasy #47, June 1961)
"While the Gods Laugh" (Science Fantasy #49, October 1961)
"The Stealer of Souls" (Science Fantasy #51, February 1962)
"Kings in Darkness" (Science Fantasy #54, August 1962)
"The Flame Bringers" [later retitled "The Caravan of Forgotten Dreams"] (Science Fantasy #55, October 1962)" 

And its really Grodog here that I agree with; " grodog » Tue May 14, 2019 7:23 pm

I tend to think of Melnibonéans as earlier "generation" of AD&D elves---they're more atavistic/primal, closer to Faerie (in this case the Unseelie Court, of course!), and more tainted with Chaos in comparison to modern-day AD&D elves. Modern elves would likely be seen as some debased Morlock-like freak, if they were acknowledged as relations at all.

YMMV, of course " Of course this brings in the fact that the  Melnibonéan tribes may be far more common then at first it appears. There could be other  Melnibonéan sorcerers scattered along the planes that never got the message about their ancient homeland ending. 
And the odd Melnibonéan sorcerer will be right at home within Clark Aston Smith's Zothique. These thoughts go back to Guy Fullerton's threads on the Knights & Knaves forum. Fullerton's been playing with this idea for a long time as he's got a Moorcockian Sorcerer class here.  As was said this isn't anything new & goes back to 2015. And it's perfect for Clark Aston Smith's Zothique and Smith himself describes Zothique in a great letter breakdown according to the Zothique wiki entry; "Clark Ashton Smith himself described the Zothique cycle in a letter to L. Sprague de Camp, dated November 3, 1953:

Zothique, vaguely suggested by Theosophic theories about past and future continents, is the last inhabited continent of earth. The continents of our present cycle have sunken, perhaps several times. Some have remained submerged; others have re-risen, partially, and re-arranged themselves. Zothique, as I conceive it, comprises Asia Minor, Arabia, Persia, India, parts of northern and eastern Africa, and much of the Indonesian archipelago. A new Australia exists somewhere to the south. To the west, there are only a few known islands, such as Naat, in which the black cannibals survive. To the north, are immense unexplored deserts; to the east, an immense unvoyaged sea. The peoples are mainly of Aryan or Semitic descent; but there is a negro kingdom (Ilcar) in the north-west; and scattered blacks are found throughout the other countries, mainly in palace-harems. In the southern islands survive vestiges of Indonesian or Malayan races. The science and machinery of our present civilization have long been forgotten, together with our present religions. But many gods are worshipped; and sorcery and demonism prevail again as in ancient days. Oars and sails alone are used by mariners. There are no fire-arms—only the bows, arrows, swords, javelins, etc. of antiquity. The chief language spoken (of which I have provided examples in an unpublished drama) is based on Indo-European roots and is highly inflected, like Sanskrit, Greek and Latin." 

So using OSRIC to recreate a Zothique style campaign setting isn't only possible but it might be easy to drop in a whole tribe of Melnibonéans and no one is going to be the wiser. 

More artwork by Rodney Mathews used without permission that captures in my mind the weirdness of Zothique.

OSRIC is perfect for a Zothique one shot because of it's flexibility & it's easy of rules for players to grasp. it makes sense then that these rules could be twisted to Smith's world & yes I know about the Free D20 Zothique pdf here.  And we'll be diving into how this applies next time! 

Michael Moorcock's Young Kingdoms And Clark Aston Smith's Zothique By Way of OSRIC

Before this blog entry get's underway we already know about the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition Deities & Demigods By Robert Kuntz & James Ward's  Elric mythos. The material below compliments it. 

 Rodney Mathews Elric artwork used without permission. 

 Over the weekend after playing several games & DMing, it was time to return home to the family. My mind wasn't idle at all over the rest of the weekend. And it went back back in time to 2006  & the release of OSRIC or Old School Reference and Index Compilation. At the time OSRIC was particularly a God sent because it allowed me to have instant access to the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition Dungeon Master's Guide, the Players Handbook, and The Monster Manual all in essentially first edition goodness. And yes, the excitement is still there for OSRIC but the mind weights heavily with Pulp origins for a Elric style game using the OSRIC rules. And then Guy Fullerton's Stormbringer/AD&D first edition hack thread from 2015 jumped out at me here. Now Fullerton's been playing with this idea for a long time as he's got a Moorcockian Sorcerer class here.  As was said this isn't anything new & goes back to 2015. But seed is there for me as a dungeon master. 

Over the years the idea of using the Grey Elves inplace of the Melnibonéans for AD&D first edition & OSRIC. Reading through Guy Fullerton's PC entries that perhaps these rules could serve another Pulp world setting quite easily. I'm thinking about using these rules for Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique as a one shot or mini campaign. And yes this flies in the face of convention or does it. Zothique itself has bold sorcerers who make bargains with otheworldly powers of Chaos & Hell. So it makes sense that these rules could be twisted to Smith's world & yes I know about the Free D20 Zothique pdf here. 

But how does one incorporate the OSRIC races or classes within such a Zothique game?! The answer is fairly simple really, the OSRIC characters are visitors from another realm and the Young Kingdoms or Zothique are another stop on a whirl wind tour. 

This all was a thought excercise over the weekend but OSRIC looms large in my DM brains headlights at the moment. So this might be a mini campaign coming up or simply two stops that are a part of the next mini campaign at the moment. 
Somet thoghts on OSRIC as well, the retroclone isn't fully AD&D first edition but it does emulate a good chunk of it. OSRIC is excellent for Sword & Sorcery adventures and does a nice job at what the Rpg sets out to do. The old school mechanics of OSRIC are very flexible & could be applied to any number of OSR adventure styles. 

Updated Dragon's Foot OSR Free Adventure - LG1: Terror in the Forest of Gizzick By Claude M. LeBrun For Your Old School Campaigns

 

GRAB IT RIGHT HERE

Good evening kids, your uncle Eric is back with another bit of commentary this time we go back to Dragon's foot for a free adventure download with lots of potential. I'm speaking of LG1: Terror in the Forest of Gizzick By Claude M. LeBrun. This is a free fifteen page AD&D 1st edition style adventure that takes full advantage of its PC levels right out of the gate. There is an element of danger and the adventure involves some humanoid races that don't get much air play these days and this is an adventure that takes the old school investigative style and pumps it up by an order of magnitude;"Many years ago Ronan Haverstack was an apprentice to the count’s personal wizard Jax Narhl. Ronan was an excellent student, working as hard as he could to learn all the tricks of spell casting. Ronan with a large thirst for knowledge would spend hours reading and studying all the tomes and spell books in Jax’s library. Jax kept one tome magically locked in a strongbox and would not allow Ronan to look at it. “I keep that tome locked away to prevent its evil from ever seeing the light of day”, Jax would say. Ronan coveted that book, and eventually figured out how to break the magical seal. Jax caught Ronan removing the book from the strongbox and tried to take it away. A fight ensued which ended in Ronan killing Jax. It wasn’t long before Jax’s murder was discovered and Ronan had to flee the kingdom. To avoid discovery Ronan Haverstack changed his name to Gandilor. Gandilor wandered for several months and eventually found refuge in a fishing village on the southern coast."  Things only get worse from this point and that's where your PC's get involved.The adventure picks up right from here and pulls your party of adventurers into the deep wasters of the plot of LG1: Terror in the Forest .The module places the PC's right into the middle of the action right out of the gate and keeps them there with a series of demanding and solid encounters. Its also an adventure that can be customized as you need to and its perfect for a DYI side quest or campaign opener;"Locate the hobgoblin’s lair in any forest in a non-populated area near a rural community, farmland, or village. Place in this area a few farms and settlements that have been raided by the hobgoblins." Believe it or not for a fifteen page adventure there actually is a subplot to this adventure and it has a ton to do with the background and history of the  Forest of Gizzick. Because of the nature of this adventure I was wishing there was more to it.


There are enough twists and turns to take this adventure in many different directions depending upon the retroclone system that your using at your table. The idea here is that LG1: Terror in the Forest of Gizzick could be used in a Dark Albion setting especially on the outer fringes of the empire of Albion and the like. Or it could be used in the mythic and twisted lonely places of the Lamentations of the Flame Princess retro clone system. There is enough meat on the bones of this adventure to adapt it into the back end of an old school campaign so that it can be used as a jump off point or as a side quest for the PC's. There is enough here to take the adventure down a dark and dangerous path. But is it worth the download?
The short answer is yes but the longer one is where do you as the dungeon master want to place this adventure. There are several dangerous and strong NPC's in this adventure and that could work to a DM's advantage if they wish to write a bit more to suit their own campaign. There are several opportunities for a dungeon master with a bit of a DYI D&D streak to take full advantage of these horrors, opportunities, and NPC's and make them their own.
While it is a fun adventure many of the more understated sword and sorcery elements in LG1: Terror in the Forest of Gizzick  might need to be brought forward for front and center to really move the plot along and get the DM's own campaign elements to take center stage.
All in all this is a great free module with lots of potential for a fully created and staged side quest or this adventure could be used to launch a great side campaign of the DM's own design. For a free module its pretty damn sweet and well constructed.