Free OSR PC Resources With First Edition Character Classes By Leonaru For First Edition AD&D, OSRIC Or Your Favorite Retroclone

 A couple of years ago I needed a first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Samurai character class for a remake of Akira Kurosawa's 1954 Japanese-language film Seven Samurai as an OSRIC one shot adventure. Now I've been a fan of the class since the original NPC class appeared in the pages of  Dragon magazine as a sub-class of the fighter in Dragon #3 (October 1976). Fortunately I was able to not only find that the class had been done for me for zero edition, AD&D 1st edition but second edition as well. It was also done very well and for free. The pdf comes with everything including the samurai's weapons, armor, and equipment.

You Can Grab All of PC Classes of Leonaru
right over here!


Leonaru also did a reworked Monk class, scout, barbarian, knight
& even alchemist for second edition  & even a duelist class for those Romance era types who want a sword swinger from Old Europe.  The classes are well balanced & can be used creatively to fill in a number of holes in a campaign for even NPC classes where necessary. Finally there's the Samaurai's old friend the ninja in zero edition flavor warning the Ninja class is over powered compared to some of the other styles of classes available & the class is done in a very cinematic style. The pdf of the ninja contains everything from equipment, tools, weapons, tactics, and more.

Finally Leonaru did the Full Metal Plate retroclone which has a few twists & turns on the world's most popular fantasy role playing game. You can check it out for free here  or you can buy a copy right over here.
Now these character classes can be added quite easily into the wastelands of your favorite post apocalyptic old school campaign for some extra cheesy weirdness or these classes could be used to represent some twisted version of Old Earth culture. These classes can easily be added into your favorite old school campaign for a twist on the usual PC classes that one finds in the various editions of  Dungeons & Dragons. Many of these classes are perfect for representing memorable NPC's. Anyway you slice it these are another welcome addition in the old school DM's arsenal of tricks to present to players. 
He even did a decent Lovecrafian monster book
with some of the usual Lovecraft alien races.

Four Free OSR Monster Books For Your Old School Campaigns

Old School dungeon masters can't have enough monsters & sometimes you've got to dust off some old favorites to throw a scare or two into the players.  Last night I was pursuing through the Planet Algol blog & dusting off some old ideas for my inner Earth campaign. Keeping to the gonzo pulp aesthetic of the campaign has taken me down a short path of memory lane to a few years ago. The first thing I noticed were two monster books that had escaped my notice for a long while. The first one was Varlet's & Vermin from the Roles,Rules, and Rolls blog;"It's a collection of monsters and related ideas for challenge levels 1 and 2, written for Swords & Wizardry but easily adaptable to other systems." I had forgotten how good some of these fiends were. I also really like the Man of Wounds, and the rat variants are very nicely done.

GRAB IT RIGHT OVER HERE 


The second monster book is Telecanter's Deadly Distractions from Telecanter's Receding Rules blog and these are perfect beasties to challenge as well as dismay your party of adventurers. These are low level creatures with a twist or two. They're very well done and quite weird fitting in a number of criteria that I've had.
Download Telecanter's Deadly Distractions

Finally there's The Basic Fantasy Field Guide of Creatures Malevolent and Benign which has a ton of monsters that are usable with a number of retroclones with minor adjustments. Did I mention that their free and you should also check out some of the other free downloads while your there on the Basic Fantasy website as well.

 Grab The Basic Fantasy Field Guide of Creatures Malevolent and Benign Here

 There are two free nearly forgotten tomes of monsters from Dragon's foot. org Monstrous Tome - Volume One which contains new dragons , demons, monsters and all original content for AD&D first edition.  Be careful with these monsters some of these creatures have the potential for an old school party wipe of adventurers. GRAB Monstrous Tome -
Volume One RIGHT HERE 



Then there's the second volume of The Monstrous Tome which adds a whole other layer of weirdness & nastiness to the monsters in your dungeon. The second volume of the Monstrous Tome seems to focus on monsters of the planes, some deadly dungeon deviants, and more horrors to throw into old school campaigns.

GRAB THE 
Monstrous Tome 2 - Book of Beings HERE

There's a good mix of old school style original creatures to populate your dungeons, megadungeons, and campaigns. Then of course there are the various creations of Ancient Vaults whose Senufio: Lords of Misrule  are going to get a workout as the heads of some of the heads of cults of Chaos that the party will be encountering. 

Sword, Sorcery, and Super Science Without Tears Or Defining Your Old School Campaign on Your Terms

I had an interesting discussion last night with some friends around the table about sword & sorcery old school rpg's like Original Dungeons  & Dragons as well as retroclones such as Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperboria, Labyrinth Lord, Basic Fantasy, Dark Albion, Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Adventurer, Conqueror, King,  Fantastic Heroes & Witchery and lots of others. The conversation got bogged down into the definitions of the genre of sword & sorcery  is & how I was doing it wrong. Let me go on record as saying that you as the dungeon master define the world; the players fill it with exploits of their PC's. Here's why.


Sword & Sorcery is defined as follows;"
Sword and sorcery (S&S) is a subgenre of fantasy generally characterized by sword-wielding heroes engaged in exciting and violent conflicts. An element of romance is often present, as is an element of magic and the supernatural. Unlike works of high fantasy, the tales, though dramatic, focus mainly on personal battles rather than world-endangering matters.^[1] Sword and sorcery commonly overlaps with heroic fantasy.^[2]

A film genre tangentially related to sword and sorcery, at least in name, is sword-and-sandal, though its subjects are generally oriented to biblical times and early history, instead of fantasy. Not to be confused with cloak and dagger or cloak and sword, which are alternate genres."



Another reason why I draw from the swords & sorcery genre is because of the femenist perspective of it;"Despite the importance of C. L. Moore, Leigh Brackett, Andre Norton, and other female authors, as well as Moore's early heroine, sword and sorcery has been characterized^{[by whom?]} as having a strongly masculine bias. Female characters were generally distressed damsels to be rescued or protected, or otherwise served as an inducement or reward for a male hero's adventures. Women who had adventures of their own often did so to counter the threat of rape, or to gain revenge for same.^[24][27] Marion Zimmer Bradley's Sword and Sorceress anthology series (1984 onwards) attempted the reverse. Bradley encouraged female writers and protagonists: the stories feature skillful swordswomen and powerful sorceresses, working from a variety of motives.^[28][29] The series was immensely popular and Bradley was editing her final volume at the time of her death (the series continued under other editors). Jessica Amanda Salmonson similarly sought to broaden the range of roles for female characters in S&S through both her own stories and in editing the World Fantasy Award-winning^[30] Amazons (1979) and Amazons II (1982) anthologies; both drew on real and folkloric women warriors, often from areas outside of Europe.^[31][32] Today, active female characters who participate equally with the male heroes in the stories are a regular feature in modern sword and sorcery stories."



For me I draw from both sword & sorcery and the sword & planet genre freely;"Other pulp fantasy fiction — such as Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom series and Leigh Brackett's Sea Kings of Mars — have a similar feel to sword and sorcery, but, because alien science replaces the supernatural, it is usually described as planetary romance or sword and planet, and considered to fall more in the area of science fiction.^[22] Despite this, planetary romance is closely aligned with sword and sorcery, and the work of Burroughs, Brackett, and others in the former field have been significant in creating and spreading S&S proper.^[23] Sword and sorcery itself has often blurred the lines between fantasy and science fiction, drawing elements from both like the "weird fiction" it sprang from.<sup>"

So how is Accursed Atlantis different from the run of the mill material out in the wilds? Well as a setting it draws deeply from pop culture whist still using tradition material. Accursed Atlantis has a number of alien races, near humans, mutants, and others all vying in an entropic wasteland after it all went to hell. The technological level is someplace between a pulpy late 1800's all the way through 1960'sscience fantasy levels on the high end. And unlike other settings the relics are quite literally all over the place and that's the problem. High amounts of magickal pollution, Lovecraftian horrors, dimensional instability, space gates, mutation, magick, and worse are stalking the world unchecked. Accursed Atlantis is a world where warfare is common & survival is a matter of sword or sorcery.  Humans are on the menu and anything can happen.



Basically Accursed Atlantis started out as my OSR sand box & its grown into a fully fledged campaign setting where I drop anything into without 'breaking' it. Here there are strong ties with ancient mythology and weird twists on some of the usual themes. There is black powder weaponry, lots of fighting women & men, gods walk among men, etc. In other words many of the themes of traditional sword & sorcery are there but with my own twists.


So what's with all of this explaination and exposition about Accursed Atlantis? Because as a dungeon master I'm defining the OSR at my table on my terms not on an authors terms, not on a designer's terms, or a publisher's terms. Its my world there will be lots more to come as the days roll on.</sup>

Free OSR PC Resources With First Edition Character Classes By Leonaru For First Edition AD&D, OSRIC Or Your Favorite Retroclone

A couple of years ago I needed a first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Samurai character class for a remake of Akira Kurosawa's 1954 Japanese-language film Seven Samurai as an OSRIC one shot adventure. Now I've been a fan of the class since the original NPC class appeared in the pages of  Dragon magazine as a sub-class of the fighter in Dragon #3 (October 1976). Fortunately I was able to not only find that the class had been done for me for zero edition, AD&D 1st edition but second edition as well. It was also done very well and for free. The pdf comes with everything including the samurai's weapons, armor, and equipment.

You Can Grab All of PC Classes of Leonaru
right over here!


Leonaru also did a reworked Monk class, scout, barbarian, knight
& even alchemist for second edition  & even a duelist class for those Romance era types who want a sword swinger from Old Europe.  The classes are well balanced & can be used creatively to fill in a number of holes in a campaign for even NPC classes where necessary. Finally there's the Samaurai's old friend the ninja in zero edition flavor warning the Ninja class is over powered compared to some of the other styles of classes available & the class is done in a very cinematic style. The pdf of the ninja contains everything from equipment, tools, weapons, tactics, and more.

Finally Leonaru did the Full Metal Plate retroclone which has a few twists & turns on the world's most popular fantasy role playing game. You can check it out for free here  or you can buy a copy right over here.
Now these character classes can be added quite easily into the wastelands of your favorite post apocalyptic old school campaign for some extra cheesy weirdness or these classes could be used to represent some twisted version of Old Earth culture. These classes can easily be added into your favorite old school campaign for a twist on the usual PC classes that one finds in the various editions of  Dungeons & Dragons. Many of these classes are perfect for representing memorable NPC's. Anyway you slice it these are another welcome addition in the old school DM's arsenal of tricks to present to players. 
He even did a decent Lovecrafian monster book
with some of the usual Lovecraft alien races.

Free OSR Monster Resource - Monsters of Myth By The First Edition Society For OSRIC & Your Old School Campaigns

Sometimes a dungeon master needs something a bit weirder or stranger then the standard dungeon horrors and of course it all goes back to basics for me. Monsters of Myth by 'The First Edition Society'  was either the first or second monster book that I downloaded and had printed up.According to the official blurb on Rpgnet;"Monsters of Myth is an old-school bestiary inspired in both style and content by the original Monster Manual, Monster Manual II, and Field Folio for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, and serves as both a sequel and a tribute to those books. The almost 150 monsters are entirely new, but compatible with AD&D (via OSRIC)."

GRAB Monsters of Myth
By The First Edition Society HERE

  So way back in 2006 the First edition society got together & made a solid monster book in the tradition of the Monster Manual & Fiend Folio for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. So why I'm I dragging this pdf from another age into the light of day? Well because it's got a ton of monsters that can be used at your table to scare the crap out of players. These are not your standard horrors of the dungeon instead you get a whole package of weirdness with new giants, dragons, demons, and more.
These horrors can also be used in the wastelands of your favorite post apocalyptic wasteland or far flung asteriod or sword & planet adventure with a bit of old school math magic. The majority of these creatures are very dangerous to the life and limb of adventurers. This is a monster book that I've used over the years to build adventures around and to stick monsters into the dark background of certain styles of AD&D  campaigns.
 Why should you care besides its free & mostly forgotten by the majority of the  OSR crowd? Besides the fact that the vast majority of these critters has a pulptastic sword & sorcery feel?
As one reviewer notes "The book is very much a tribute to the style and feel of classic AD&D, with art and text that old fans of the hobby will find fitting for the era of the late 70's to early 80's. The book would also prove useful to newer gamers who enjoy systems such as Castles & Crusades and other more recent "reductionist" style versions of the D20 system such as Basic Fantasy or Swords & Wizardry'

These monsters are very well done and easily usable in a Halloween sword and sorcery fest which is exactly what I'm going to do. If you want a physical copy Black Blade sells this bad boy for about thirty bucks and its well worth the price of admission.

Four Free OSR Monster Books For Your Old School Campaigns

Old School dungeon masters can't have enough monsters & sometimes you've got to dust off some old favorites to throw a scare or two into the players.  Last night I was pursuing through the Planet Algol blog & dusting off some old ideas for my inner Earth campaign. Keeping to the gonzo pulp aesthetic of the campaign has taken me down a short path of memory lane to a few years ago. The first thing I noticed were two monster books that had escaped my notice for a long while. The first one was Varlet's & Vermin from the Roles,Rules, and Rolls blog;"It's a collection of monsters and related ideas for challenge levels 1 and 2, written for Swords & Wizardry but easily adaptable to other systems." I had forgotten how good some of these fiends were. I also really like the Man of Wounds, and the rat variants are very nicely done.

GRAB IT RIGHT OVER HERE


The second monster book is Telecanter's Deadly Distractions from Telecanter's Receding Rules blog and these are perfect beasties to challenge as well as dismay your party of adventurers. These are low level creatures with a twist or two. They're very well done and quite weird fitting in a number of criteria that I've had.
Download Telecanter's Deadly Distractions

Finally there's The Basic Fantasy Field Guide of Creatures Malevolent and Benign which has a ton of monsters that are usable with a number of retroclones with minor adjustments. Did I mention that their free and you should also check out some of the other free downloads while your there on the Basic Fantasy website as well.

 Grab The Basic Fantasy Field Guide of Creatures Malevolent and Benign Here

 There are two free nearly forgotten tomes of monsters from Dragon's foot. org Monstrous Tome - Volume One which contains new dragons , demons, monsters and all original content for AD&D first edition.  Be careful with these monsters some of these creatures have the potential for an old school party wipe of adventurers. GRAB Monstrous Tome -
Volume One RIGHT HERE



Then there's the second volume of The Monstrous Tome which adds a whole other layer of weirdness & nastiness to the monsters in your dungeon. The second volume of the Monstrous Tome seems to focus on monsters of the planes, some deadly dungeon deviants, and more horrors to throw into old school campaigns.

GRAB THE
Monstrous Tome 2 - Book of Beings HERE

There's a good mix of old school style original creatures to populate your dungeons, megadungeons, and campaigns. Then of course there are the various creations of Ancient Vaults whose Senufio: Lords of Misrule  are going to get a workout as the heads of some of the heads of cults of Chaos that the party will be encountering.

Private Cons, The Antiquarian Gamer, The OSR, Wargaming Societies, & More

Over the years I've become somewhat disenchanted with certain aspects of the OSR, mostly the constant marketing of new titles, the retreading, and near constant politic of controversy that seems to dog certain avenues of the hobby.



There are other avenues that hardly anyone hears about on social media or even on the internet all I'm talking about the private war gaming and role playing clubs. These are men and women who for years have been using and enjoying the hobby of war games for years. Societies like these have for years kept the hobby of wargaming alive. This is where I cut my teeth and learned how to play games, we didn't need safe spaces or anything of the sort because there were rules and everyone respected everyone. We were there to play games, socialize, and talk about history. BTW when I was a kid this was where I was exposed to numerous LGBT players and DM's. I hate to tell folks but there are still numerous private clubs and sandbox groups out there that don't want a damn thing to do with the constant back biting and fighting that goes on in the hobby. If there isn't a private war gaming and role playing club in your area then start one! Growing the hobby is a face to face affair for many folks.



The concept of the private con is one that grew up in my area after many gamers couldn't afford to go to GenCon or even Gary Con. Sadly my dad took ill & despite numerous attempts I never have made it to Gary Con. Fortunately, I've had really wonderful friends who threw me a Private Con, a private Con is part party and mostly rpg events where different DM's & players ran stuff for a weekend. This was over several friends houses and the events were scheduled around people's work as well as family time. These worked out rather well and everyone pitched in for clean up. There are three things about private Cons; they take lots of preparations, even delegation for events, and everyone on the same page. These events also provide a solid and controlled environment for games. Everything went off without a hitch and everyone was there to run and play games.



I'm a gamer whose not really been that engaged in the 'must buy more' aspect of the role playing hobby. For me its always been the creation, the play, and the social aspect but there is also the thrill of the hunt for books. I'm what a friend has classified an 'Antiquarian Gamer', that is a person whose not interesting in collecting role playing systems but whose interested in playing with dead systems. For me its the chase of looking for a book either, science fiction or fantasy. But with the advent of the internet well that's become a bit easier which is fine. But I'm far more comfortable among the stacks of a private book shop, library, or barn then I'm dealing with the latest 'crisis' of the OSR's numerous factions. But the engine of creativity of the OSR is what keeps me coming back to the table so to speak. But let me say that at our table everyone is welcome to play as long as you use common sense, manners, and have a good time. Everyone is welcome to play and it seems as though everyone comes back to play again.



Between Connecticut and Massachusetts there are numerous games that have happened over the weekend that folks run. We seem to forget that just because a hobby is declared dead or dying according to others that it is. The hobby of war gaming continues on despite the naysayers and haters. This is going to happen to rpg's across the board. Regardless of there being an OSR I know of campaigns of OD&D that have gone on for over thirty years even spawning their own vanity press fanzines for players. We are a part of a dynamic hobby that continues despite itself as long as there is one person who is interested. Bring players into the hobby by playing. You have to be your own OSR and keep those fires burning as well as  those dice rolling.