Review & Commentary Shadowmercs -- A Shadowdark 1980's Action-Adventure Supplement For The Shadowdark rpg

 "You were in The War. Things went wrong.

You and your comrades were charged with a crime you didn’t commit.
Now, you and your Team are back in The World and on the run.
You and your Team make your way in life the only way you know how… you are Shadowmercs."

"You served in The War at home, in the Concrete Jungle, protecting those who could not protect themselves.
But there is a Bigger World out there. The junk that is ruining lives comes from Out There.
If you want to stop it, and make Your World a better place, you need to take the fight to Them.
You and your Team have only your guts, your guns, and your mighty martial arts¦ you are Shadowmercs."

Shadowmercs -- A Shadowdark 1980's Action-Adventure Supplement For The Shadowdark rpg is the latest offering from James Mishler, &  Jodi Moran-Mishler. Shadowmerc presents an alternative set of 1980's action & television rules. Yes these are cinematic Shadowdark rpg rules for running 80's action adventures for your players. 
The PC's in Shadowmercs are taken outta of these TV show inspired influences: 

 Shadowmercs uses modified rules for Armor Class, Hit Points, Unconsciousness, Dying, and Healing, appropriate for the Action-Hero genre;

Modern backgrounds for modern Action Heroes, with an expanded cinematic Luck Token system;

Six new classes:
The Armsman, master of gun-fu and blazing bullets;
The Brawler, master of martial arts and weapon-katas;
The Driver, master of any vehicle that moves on land, sea, or air;
The Faceman, master of manipulating people to get what they want;
The Operator, master of plans and leadership who makes a team's luck;
The Scout, master of bushcraft and survival and lots and lots of weapons!

So Shadowmercs provides about fifty seven pages of Shadowdark rpg action rules style rules & this includes a ton of modern fire arms, equipment, adventure tables, and more. All centered around a cinematic take on the Shadowdark simplified engine. 

The Shadowdark rpg of Shadowmercs looks like a great supplement. But it's not for me as a DM. 
This isn't a slight on the Shadowdark role playing game. Let me explain. I'm a Castles & Crusades rpg fanatic and enjoy that system and Shadowmercs could easily be grafted into C&C but it's already got a cinematic system in Amazing Adventures reforged. 
However, Shadowmercs fits a far more specialized niche with the A Team, James Bond, Superspy genre of Shadowdark rpg adventures. 

Shadowmercs plugs into the 99% of the Shadowdark Rpg to turn it on it's ear and get deeply into the superspy and Pulpy genre of the fiction and television to present an alternative set of rules that works. 

OSR Review & Commentary On Hawkmoor Geographica -- A Shadowdark Campaign Setting By James Mishler, & Jodi Moran-Mishler For Castles & Crusades, Labyrinth Lord, & Shadowdark RPG

 "Hawkmoor Geographica describes the geography of the Great Enchanted Vale, a campaign setting designed for use with the Shadowdark RPG."

"It is the second installment in the Hawkmoor Campaign Setting and includes:

• Descriptions and encounter tables for 70 geographical regions of the Great Enchanted Vale, including Accursed River, Aerie Stream, Alicorn River, Alicorn Vale, Black River, Boneholt, Cliffs of Insanity, Doomfells, Dreadwood, Druasweald, Druidholt, Dwarrowbergen, Edhelwen, Enchanted River, Fireswamp, Frogmarsh, Frostfields, Gigabolt Stream, Giggleflow, Glitterstream, Goblinskull Meadow, Goblintops, Goldflow, Grayflow, Great Alfweald, Green Vales, Hawkmoor, Hellflow, Horrible Highlands, Howlingwood, Mt. Icingdoom, Indigo Plain, Ironflow River, Jundian Meadows, Madmarsh, Obsidian Peaks, Ogrish Uplands, Old Dwarf Road, Orcian Wastes, Orcrise, Pagena Plains, Plateau of Pagena, River Icingdeath, River Jorn, River Jund, River Kelume, River of Doom, River of Flowers, River of Lost Souls, River of Shadows, Scarlet Stream, Screaming Stream, Silverstream, The Sink, Skullmire, Star Ruby River, Stardust Ridge, Stonethorn Plain, Sweetwater, Talath Meril, Thunder Peaks, Toadsquat Fields, Vile Stream, Violet River, Viridian Doom, Weeping River, Windrush, Witchyflow, Wizard Vale, and Woodflow.
• D100 Random Encounter Tables, each including 100 lines of encounters with guidance, for Farmland Encounters, Fey & Sylvan Encounters, and Highway Encounters.

"This booklet provides you with everything you need to get started adventuring in the Great Enchanted Vale. Of course, at this broad and shallow level of detail, the Game Master still needs to do some work to make the setting their own. More details on the City and realm of Hawkmoor will be made available as they are revealed."

 Hawkmoor Geographica -- A Shadowdark Campaign Setting By James Mishler, & Jodi Moran-Mishler is a sweet forty eight page campaign world that we saw with the with the release of  The Map of the Great Enchanted Vale is available separately, at the Pay What You Want rate. 
With the poliferation of Shadowdark titles on Drivethrurpg the Hawkmoor Geographica campaign setting belongs in classic Castles & Crusades or classic Labyrinth Lord rpg. Hawkmoor presents a world in conflict and ripe with adventure locations. And this makes it rife for use with classic Castles & Crusades. 

The Hawkmoor Geographica campaign setting has everything a party of adventurers need to begin thier quests and adventures in the wilds and urban locations of a world. There are vast tracks of wilderness, vales and garden locations and more. 
Enchanted highlands, low lands of mystery, and more. The Hawkmoor Geographica campaign setting does this within forty eight pages allowing the action to press on with little to impede it. And it continues with just enough to get things started. But not enough to trip up the DM who wants to make Hawkmoor thier own. 
And because Hawkmoor is easy to port over to C&C, it's the perfect location to start adventuring in today. 
The fonts are easy to read, the text and font are easy on the eyes. Layout is standard and well put together. 
Hawkmoor has some history behind it but not enough to trip up the DM or players. And unlike other titles this one has just enough campaign setting to make things well worth your time with adventure hooks and dungeon plots in the wings. All this within forty eight pages makes the Hawkmoor Geographica campaign setting well worth your time. 

OSR Review & Commentary - Puppeteer Class -- A Shadowdark Supplement From James Mishler Games

"The Puppeteer Class is a new class designed for use with the Shadowdark RPG. While it can be used as a player class, it has excellent potential to provide non-player character villains – and their minions – the player characters can encounter and oppose during their adventures."

The puppeteer class has a 4-sided hit die and includes the following abilities:

Magic Item Use: A puppeteer may use magic items as per a wizard.
Puppeteering: A puppeteer uses arcane alchemical methods to animate puppets using the souls of willing and unwilling subjects, or even elemental or diabolical spirits. The greater the puppeteer’s talents, more puppets can be animated, the more powerful are the abilities of the puppets, and the more special abilities they may possess. A system for crafting and animating puppets is included.
Puppet Special Abilities: Puppets may include various special abilities. 32 special abilities are described." 

Puppeteer Class -- A Shadowdark Supplement From James Mishler Games  is a nice Shadowdark Supplement clocks in at about  nine pages of weird and wonderful vile NPC villainy. This is a solid supplemen from James Mishler Games. Now I don't play Shadowdark but where I would use the Puppeteer Class is with Castles & Crusades. Puppeteers would make extremely creepy & formable foes for C&C!  

The puppeteer class has a bit of everything that a vile villain needs. Creepy powers check, ability to create scades of minions at higher levels check, abiliy to create minions and monsters with some lethality too them?! 
Yup they have all of this and more. Could the Puppeteer be used with say Lamentations of the Flame Princess? Absolutely it could and very easily. 
The Pupeteer class hits all of the high notes as an NPC villain. Its a creepy, ookie, and very spooky class with all of th bells and whistles one expects from a James Mishler games product! 

The puppets left behind by a puppeteer make for some different and excellent NPC monsters in their own right and Mishler provides all of the special abilities and weirdness to make them a real threat for the dungeons or ruins of your choice. 
- Puppeteer Class -- A Shadowdark Supplement From James Mishler Games Is Available Right Over Here 

OSR Review & Commentary On Expanded Monsters: Eldritch Eyes for the Shadowdark RPG By James Mishler, & Jodi Moran-Mishler From Mishler Games

 "Expanded Monsters: Eldritch Eyes provides Shadowdark RPG game masters with a new order of monstrous creature with which to bedevil their players. The Eldritch Eyes are strange and powerful creatures with a terrifying origin. The booklet provides several ranks of Eldritch Eyes that can challenge characters and players of all levels!"

Expanded Monsters: Eldritch Eyes by  Mishler Games  showcases one of the strengths of  James Mishler, & Jodi Moran-Mishler's writing as well as the design work. That is adapting existing iconic monsters of the world's most successful fantasy role playing games into  a usable format for OSR games today. This includes some of the most iconic members of a certain armored floating sphere like monster family; 

"This booklet includes:
General Description
Eldritch Eye Eyestalk Powers
Eldritch Gas Spore
Least Eldritch Eye
Minor Eldritch Eye
Lesser Eldritch Eye
Greater Eldritch Eye
Major Eldritch Eye
Eldritch Eye Lord
Petty Eldritch Eye
Magic Item: Arcane Orb
Magic Item: Eldritch Eyestalk Wand
Equivalent Hit Die System
Minimum Experience Point Award System"

Expanded Monsters: Eldritch Eyes  goes the extra mile to present a totally usable set of eye themed horrors for your old school campaigns. The Shadowdark RPG is a solid set of old school style OSR rules. The Mishlers do an excellent job of bringing down high end eye themed horrors for your old school games! And these include treasures & magic items with the greater eye monsters to guard them. These eye horrors are perfect for porting over into your old school or OSR rpg campaign dungeons. 
The lesser eyes are some of the more devestating horrors that you can throw into a dungeon or set of ruins. 

Expanded Monsters: Eldritch Eyes has everything the DM needs to get an eye themed set of horrors into their campaigns. On a side note cults of eye themed horror cults have been a staple of my old school campaigns for years & Expanded Monsters: Eldritch Eyes is just the thing to add eye themed horrors into your games. Expanded Monsters: Eldritch Eyes at a dollar this eight page supplement is great little investiment for the DM's tool box! 

Expanded Monsters: Eldritch Eyes for the Shadowdark RPG By James Mishler, & Jodi Moran-Mishler From Mishler Games Is Available Right Here