Unpacking The Complete Vivimancer From Necrotic Gnome Productions For Your Old School Campaigns

When it comes to body horror the book that comes to mind is  The Complete Vivimancer From Necrotic Gnome Productions, about two weeks ago I opted for the print copy from Drivethrurpg. Who doesn't love body horror, well after receiving the pdf from the author/designer, I decided to get a physical copy.
I was also interested in Drivethrurpg's quality of  printing.

 Apparently their using outside printers for their material and that's fine the quality is similar to a high grade graphic novel from the 80's. The box packing leaves something to be desired but my copy arrived safe & sound. From Necrotic Gnome Productions after tearing into the free monster & adventure book Out of the Vats .
This was a perfect cross game project that brings together a complete crowd cultured adventure. The book is a glorious bio horror extravaganza that brings together all of the elements of the class with new monsters, items, and tons of adventure encounters that show case the horror and weirdness of the Vivimancer. The Complete Vivimancer brings the mad scientist and body horror specialist.  It brings magical madness pages of sheer  wizard master goodness of  gene splicing, cross breeding,and the Vivimancer as a  corrupter of nature itself. In the first two pages of the book we get a complete overview of this class and then the book jumps into the deep end of the darkness . For the advanced edition version of this class we get Elves  and half Elves as the preferred racial foundations for the Vivimancer.

 The books are standard old school booklet size and fit right next to my Lamentations of the Flame Princess material which would be my preferred game to run this material with. Necrotic Gnome Productions didn't scrimp on any of their artwork in this either. There's an honesty about the line black and white artwork here and the font is easy on the eyes.

 You've really got to read through this material to get a sense of the John Carpenter level of horror that's going on below the subsurface of the systems and a real sense of the campaign and character wrecking stuff that's here. Seriously some of this stuff could work in a post apocalyptic wasteland, a science fiction setting, the backdrop of Mutant Future's Mutant's and Mazes option and even in Star Ships and Spacemen second edition, with a bit of work there's a ton of room within the White Star rpg for much of this material as well. The systems here are simple, easily adapted to your favorite retroclone system. I can especially see using this book with the free science fantasy Hulks and Horrors

 The contents of The Complete Vivimancer  are completely off the chart messed up to the tune of eleven but the book's organization is top notch. Everything is easily laded out here and the columns flow easily on the eyes. The fact that this whole book is black and white is a nice touch and makes things easy to read.

 From the organization to the preparation that goes into this sort of book I know what I'm in for, this book is set up for and dwells within a fine place within the Labyrinth Lord andLabyrinth Lord Advanced canon of retroclone books but the forbidden magick aspect of it puts this book squarely within the Realms of Crawling Chaos Goblinoid Games campaign style of world. I'm not displeased at all with that vibe for it fits other books like Carcosa as well making these books a sound economic investment for the DM trying to stretch every last dime like me.
 Everything for the PC class is written solidly into the book and there's more then enough material here to stretch your PC's and their higher level villainous masters for years to come. Seriously its all right there in the book, there's also lots of cross pollination with OSR alchemists classes which can easily fit the bill for expansion of the Vivimancer if necessary.

 This isn't a book for the kiddies in my estimation the body horror factor is up around eleven and junior might be up on the ins and outs of  this sort of thing. Hell I don't that there's some adults who can handle the sort of vibe that this book is echoing which is too bad because this is a fun read and a solidly done book with a definitive niche to fill in old school gaming.

 The Complete Vivimancer From Necrotic Gnome Productions brings home in spades the alien and weird aspects of the class. There is something very pulpy thumbing through this book and laughing like a loon at all of  the mayhem that a DM can wreck upon his players lives. I can see adding this book to a game such as Dungeon Crawl Classes and having a ball with it.

If your interested in more of my opinions and slicing in deeper into The Complete Vivimancer From Necrotic Gnome Productions you can read that right over HERE

I'll be covering more of Out of the Vats in the future. I plan on running the adventure and contents this coming Winter. If you want my honest opinion, grab these books when the next sale on Drivethrurpg comes up.

Review and Commentary On The Complete Vivimancer From Necrotic Gnome Productions For Your Old School Campaigns

           

There are important books that come out and then there are books for OSR games that you wonder how you ever did without them at the gaming table. Years ago, I downloaded Theorems & Thaumaturgy, which is available as a free download now: it  contains (among many other things) a basic version of the vivimancer class. The Complete Vivimancer  is essentially not only as a follow up book but an expansion of this class that does some awesome things with biosorcery, magic items, spells,etc.  This is because I've been reading and following through The Complete Vivimancer From Necrotic Gnome Productions after tearing into the free monster & adventure book Out of the Vats .
The Complete Vivimancer does exactly what it says on the tin. It brings eighty eight pages of sheer  wizard master goodness of  gene splicing, cross breeding,and the Vivimancer as a  corruptor of nature itself. In the first two pages of the book we get a complete overview of this class and then the book jumps into the deep end of the darkness . For the advanced edition version of this class we get Elves  and half Elves as the preferred racial foundations for the Vivimancer.  This enables them to advance up to 10th and 11the levels respectively. This reenforces the alien aspect of the Elven race and this is part of an under current theme  in the OSR that Elves really are far more alien to the humanity.  A fact that came in loud and clear in games such as LoFP. This supplement takes full advantage of this fact and even through it claims to be for Labyrinth Lord. There are ton of options for adding this book to both OD&D and its retroclone systems all the way through the various Advanced editions.                                                                      

Grab It Right
HERE


   Another added bonus is the amount of time it takes the vivimancer down in the lab to master the craft of  flesh warping, genetic meddling, neural manipulation, and vat growth to become a  master of mind slaves, mutants, symbionts, parasites, and viruses.The guidelines for this book's chapter are very nice and helps to flesh out the laboratory details and adds a certain Lovecraftian something to the class. The book details a ton of spells for levels between one all of the way to nine. And here's where the book really starts to take off for me. The spells have flavor and add a ton of resonance  for me for the backbone of the Vivimancer as a whole. These twisted freaks are putting together the horrors and weirdness that adventurers loath to encounter. Remember those random monster tables that created horrors with the claws of a lobster, the head of a giant monkey, and demons blood that the DMG guide had in it. These are the wizardly guys putting those together. The magic item section proves that in spades. We get an overview of items for these twisted practitioners of the bio sorcery arts over and over again. Here's why you want one of these guys in your party, not only are they going to know the ins and outs of the biology and applications of this stuff they're going to want some of this of stuff as their  own which means favors and big ones at that. The last sections are appendixes on mutations and psionic powers, these are really needed because of the bio science fantasy and fictional nature of this class. There's lots of icky stuff in this book, slime laden weirdness that brings to mind all of the really cool VHS nastiness of the Eighties horror movies, science fiction 'B' films, and lots of other wonderfulness but it also clocks in with  all of the pulpy bits from the science fiction, fantasy,etc. of the 1930's thru 1950's. As far as I'm concerned this is win/win.
     So let's get right down to brass tacks, is this a good book and even a necessary one? Yes not only is this a good book but it has a huge range of possibilities at the gaming table. You really do want a mad scientist type in your party, you want them as vile villains as well. This brings the dual nature of the class as a whole. This book gives you every last tool to pop these guys into the post apocalyptic wasteland, the science fantasy deserts of your choice, as dimensional travelers and invaders, as motivators for adventures, adventurer patrons, twisted healers, & the list goes on and on.
  In my own Warlords of the Outer Worlds setting, I'm using these guys sparingly and lovingly as a twisted faction. Applying what I've learned about them after reading about them over the last week or so, I've come to the conclusion that one can take the frame work and backdrop of the  Vivimancer and apply their own creations to the class without losing the vitality and freshness of these twisted practitioners of the dark arts of bio sorcery and mad biological magicks. So five out of five for one of the more original and flat out weird books and PC classes to come down the pike in a very long while.

Review & Commentary OnThe Free OSR resource ' From the Vats' From Necrotic Gnome Productions For Your Old School Campaigns

There are books that players are going to hate to see the DM having and know that the PC's are going to be in for a hell of a weirdly strange trip and well get ready for that with this free rpg resource!
 From The Vats was just birthed! The vivimancer.was first introduced in 'Pay What You Want' title

Theorems & Thaumaturgy which your going to need in order to properly use 'From The Vats'. I consider it one of the essential books for Labyrinth Lord or any retroclone game. 

Grab It Right Over HERE

Each year free RPG day gives birth to some wonderfully twisted strange creation that sort of defies convention. There are really wonderfully strange OSR books that come out from time to time and then there are books that you have to have if your a certain kind of DM. Those books that leap right into your lap. Deformed, mewing and sort of like the baby thing from Eraser Head. Wailing this thing wants, no needs you to use it. Well, 'From The Vats' is that thing with genetically engineered bells on.  I have over the years spent way,way too much time with Necotic Gnome Production's creations over the years and this one is no exception.  This book is an eighty four page tour de force about the abominations, creations, and high weirdness of the vivimancer class, a magic-user sub-class specializing in flesh-warping, genetic meddling, neural manipulation, and vat growth. These guys give mad scientists nightmares or genetic drift envy. There are two adventures here. The Submerged Spire of Sarpedon the Shaper, by Ben Laurence is a look into stomach churning journey into the world of a particularly nasty vivimancer. The maps are very nice, the ideas, setting material, monsters, and goals are very nicely laid out. The two one-page adventures by Alex Schröder and Anders Hedenbjörk Lager take the themes of the book and expand them further and twist the material into other directions. The three adventures within the book are  plug and play allowing them to be dropped anywhere into the background of your campaign. In point of fact these creations have a strange sort of universal appeal about them many of the things in From the Vats would fit a wide variety of campaigns from pulp, science fiction,sword and sorcery, fantasy, science fantasy, and even post apocalyptic material. In point of fact this whole book could be dropped right into your favorite Advanced Mutants & Mazes campaign for Mutant Future and not one person would be the wiser.

Holy crap the monsters are meant for Labyrinth Lord but with a little tweaking would give an OSRIC or AD&D party a hard time and these things are straight up adventurer nightmare fuel. Seriously these things are horrors from beyond the vats of nightmare. These things could be used in a science fantasy game and not one person would bat an eye at their use. This is one of the strengths of these creatures. They would also fit right into the background of a sword and sorcery campaign or a pulp campaign this is again one of the basis of evil that is From The Vats.
Look if you already haven't stopped reading and grabbed this book let me go on. The seven magic items are perfectly suited for this book and these things are perfect for wrecking the lives of PC's and making the vivimancer spasm with glee. A bit of warning, use these things sparingly as many of the magic items are life altering things that one might find within the lab of some of the most dangerous members of this class.
The six new magic spells are especially tasty and give the DM even more sauce to get the maxium flavor for the meal of From The Vat. These are very well done and can be vary dangerous to the well being of PC's and are of great use to the vivimancer. The magic here is bold, dangerous, and borders on things man wasn't meant to know.
Many of the things within the 'From the Vat' dove tale into the vivimancer PC  book The Complete Vivimancer 

Much of that material supports and expands many of the elements, themes, setting material presented in 'From The Vats'. The Complete Vivimancer goes into far greater detail into the back setting of the PC class. Filling in many of the gaps and what have you presented in Theorems & Thaumaturgy.

All in all this is one of the best books that I've seen released for the Free RPG day weekend. And its amazing that this book has been released into the wild for free. This is easily a five out of five book for From The Vats. Grab this one right now and don't wait.