100 Oddities for a Wizard's Library From Skirmisher Publishing For Your Old School Campaigns

100 Oddities for a Wizard's Library,is the third in the 100 Oddities series from Skirmisher Publishing and the timing of this product couldn't be better for me. When your party finally reaches the top of the wizard's tower or the laboratory strong hold what are they going to find? The 1st edition DMG has a boat load of reference material but many players know that stuff like the back of their hand. Here's a resource that can be used for any edition or any game for that matter. All material here is straight up brand new and there are over a hundred random entries.


Grab It Right Over
HERE

This is a well done resource and clocking in at twelve pages is wall to wall weirdness perfect not only for a D&D style game or any old school campaign.  But  for a game where you've got an occultist pluming the depths of the supernatural and you need some bit of set dressing or plot hook for your PC's to stumble upon.
This book can also be used as a perfect supplement for your wasteland warriors to stumble upon the lair of a sorcerer or wizard whose left behind a bolt hole or hide away in the middle of some god forsaken wilderness.
The book is also perfect for those weird ruins of universities and libraries where wizards have come to make a lair in within them. Think about Sokurah the magician from the Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, he moves into the dungeon works of island of Colossa. This book is perfect fodder for what a party might find left behind after such a vile villain departs. 
There are certain entries with a vague and sinister air of the Cthulhu Mythos about them. These can easily lead adventurers into the machinations of a local cult or cast of vile villains who have traded with or done business with the wizard in question or is the wizard who owned the items actually the leader of such a cult? Which brings us to to another possible use for 100 Oddities for a wizard's library.
This book can be used for Call of Cthulhu,Runequest, or any supernatural or occult hideout as well. Reading thought it I'm reminded of the abode of Zenobia from the classic 'Sinbad and The Eye of The Tiger'. In that film we get a glimspse inside her lair. And I always wondered what else was there. Well wonder no more. With a few toss of he dice you've got a lair of supernatural wonder fit for a wizard of sixth level or better.
This book could easily fit the bill for investigating the ruins of a certain classic wizard school as well out in the world of the supernatural.
The end of uses for this product is pretty much limited only by your imagination. The entries are well thought out by the Skirmisher crew and reflect a really well done twist on the usual style of these supplements.
Clint Staples, William T. Thrasher . Thrasher, and the Skirmisher Game Development Group do a great job with the layout and artwork as well. I can see myself using this for some lost world wizard or even in a campaign world like my recent Thundarr games where the uneasy mix of relic technology  & magic has made things very interesting for adventurers.
All in all this is one of my favorite recent entries by the Skirmisher crew and its easy to see myself using this material in a wide variety of campaigns. Anyplace where a wizard has his lair is the perfect place to use 100 Oddities for a Wizard's Library. 

"La Baionnette #32" & Old School Warped WWI For Your Old School Campaigns

There are times in history when the echoes of history trail through time. The trenches, battle fields, and nightmares of WWI were rife with the horrors of war depravity in spades. This was a war the likes of which the world as a whole had never seen.
Skirmisher publishing has released "La Baionnette #32," and its like a window into the French collective mind during WWI.

I've gamed in this war a couple of times and its never a pleasant war ever but then no war is. 

To understand why this issue is important you have to understand who Louis Raemaekers is and why the world is different because of him and his artwork. 

But first what is "La Baionnette"?

According to wiki: 

The bayonet is a French satirical weekly which appeared in 1915-1920

Its headquarters was 30, rue de Provence in Paris.

It was originally created as the bayonet At the January 23, 1915 by cartoonist Henriot says Henriot , a contributor toThe Illustration and father of Émile Henriot . It changed its name in July 1915. At first, Henriot provides most of the drawings.

It takes its name from the bayonet and the term "charge with the bayonet," the charge was also her favorite activity by making fun of the "stupidity" of the Germans and ridicule by his caricatures the Kaiser Wilhelm II or Crown PrinceWilliam of Prussia and thus supporting the morale of the French during the First World War . Main illustrators: Iribe, Fabiano, Gus Bofa, Leander, Willette, Poulbot, Métivet, Wegener, Cappiello, Capy and many others.

Wars such as WWI take center stage as the set pieces and background as historic settings for your adventurers whose presence and actions might in some small way alter the flow and ebb of time. But in all of the 'one shots of history' and alternative historical adventures I've run its always the small victories and little events that make the difference to players. World shaping events such as WWI offer some pretty impressive pieces of history to draw PC's into pivot moments of history.
Collections like this offer a snap shot of time and historic events enabling the reality of war to be used as the backdrop for horror, adventure, and weird fiction because the fog of war shakes the monsters from out of the pages of history like no other. This is where these collections come into perfect focus for a DM running anything like an old school time travel adventure or something like Call of Cthlhu where the horrors of the Mythos are perfectly time and fitted into the battles and struggles that the war will obliterate with a hand gesture of war itself. 

Grab It Right
HERE

This issue features the artistry of Louis Raemaekers who is not well known today among Americans, created some of the most vivid and horrifying artwork as well as illustrations of WWI. 
His country of Belguim was right in the center of WWI German occupation.
Again Wiki: 

Immediately after the Germans invaded Belgium, Louis Raemaekers became one of their fiercest critics. His message was clear: the Netherlands had to take sides for the Allies and abandon its neutral stance. His graphic cartoons depicted the rule of the German military in Belgium, portrayed the Germans as barbarians and Kaiser Wilhelm II as an ally of Satan. His work was confiscated on several occasions by the Dutch government and he was criticized by many for endangering the Dutch neutrality. The minister of Foreign Affairs John Loudon invited Raemaekers, the owner of De Telegraaf H.M.C. Holdert and the editor-in-chief Kick Schröder under pressure from the German government to a meeting, at which he requested them to avoid ‘anything that tends towards insulting the German Kaiser and the German army’.^[3] It was not possible to prosecute Raemaekers for as long as the country was not under martial law. But the pressure on him continued, also from Germany: in September 1915 the rumor even started circulating that the German government had offered a reward of 12,000 guilders for Raemaekers, dead or alive, but proof of an official statement has never been found.^[4]

Louis Raemaekers achieved his greatest successes outside his native country. He left for London in November 1915, where his work was exhibited in the Fine Art Society on Bond Street. It was received with much acclaim. Raemaekers became an instant celebrity and his drawings were the talk of the town: ‘they formed the subject of pulpit addresses, and during two months, the galleries where they have been exhibited have been thronged to excess. Practically every cartoon has been purchased at considerable prices.’^[5] He decided to settle in England and his family followed in early 1916. His leaving the Netherlands for London was a godsend for all concerned. Henceforth, the Dutch government could distance itself from the cartoonist and his work in its diplomatic relations, thus stabilising its position vis-à-vis Germany, while Raemaekers himself could cease his hopeless campaign to get the Netherlands to abandon its neutral stance. He may also have realised for himself that his aim of persuading his country to take up arms and thus avoid the fate of Belgium was not very realistic.^[6] From early 1915 Raemaekers' cartoons had already appeared in British newspapers and magazines. In early 1916 he signed a contract with the Daily Mail and they appeared in this newspaper on a regular basis for the next two years.
Read more about this hero of WWI & WWII right over HERE

Using Warped WWI As Adventure Setting Backdrop 

There are three old school gaming systems and their relatives  that I've used WWI as the backdrop for.They include  OD&D and its retroclone systems, Call of Cthulhu and Stormbringer, and White Wolf's Wraith the Great War. The trick with using any gaming material is to pick the historic events and dates that you wish to insert your PC's into. Or to use an alternative historical approach to the material. Most of the time to avoid certain sensitive pieces of history, I've gone in the direction of alternative history. By doing this it enables the DM room to create his own path of 'what if' and this is where resources like "La Baionnette #32" are very important. 

These resources enable you to create the divergent points or fork's in the road of time without cheapening the historical events themselves or the bloodshed and horrors that went along with them. 

Now I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm obsessed with WW I , I've been to Europe and France seen the battle fields, walked through the museums, watched countless historical documentaries & specials, and ran a Wraith The Great War campaign from White Wolf. This is very grim stuff and its not easy to deal with at all. In no way shape or form I'm I or this collection trying to cheapen the memory of the blood shed, suffering,and agony of WWI. In point of fact its only through understanding the history of the events of the war that we really get a clear picture of how close to the edge the world came from WWI and how the events of the first war led to the center stage of the second.
Do I think that this collection is well worth your money and time? Yes its a true snap shot into a very blood thirsty time, the inclusion of  Louis Raemaekers's artwork is a grim reminder of the horrors of our world's past. 

A nice little resource also from Skirmisher's William Thresher is his Great Old Ones and the Great War: Mythos Adventure Hooks from his blog post right over 

HERE 

While specifically made for the Call of Cthulhu game, these adventure hooks could easily be applied to a wide variety of old school horror games quite easily. 

Bottom line if your setting a game near any of the French territories and countryside during WWI. Then grab this issue. 

Quick And Quiet Alchemy Along The Western Front An AD&D 1st and Call of Cthulhu Adventure Encounter During WWI

During the heaviest of the fighting of WWI along the Western Front in France, your party of investigators is part of a group that finds a random former occupied German trench. Within the trench are 1d30 dead German soldiers seemingly mummified and drained of all life. All equipment, stores, food, etc. is a mess scattered around the trench and the small alcove office of the officer in charge. 

Within the center of the make shift barracks is a four foot across hole in the ground, there are bits of pottery and odd bits of a glass like material scattered around the hole. There is slimy oily reside coating the material found and the corpses of the German soldiers.
Personal effects are untouched and photos of family and friends are clenched in some of the corpse's hands as if they were in the midst of a meal and suddenly taken by surprise.

Suddenly a strange slime like beast erupts from the ground, the horror will attack the investigators with fury born out of some ancient nameless hell trying to absorb any chemicals from their bodies and person. The thing will with draw after 1d6 rounds and flow back into the hole in the ground.
A careful examination of the German officer's table and effects will reveal an odd and very old metal box. Inside the box is a glass sealed tube in decaying fabric lining. The package is accompanied with an oil soaked note in old Latin.
It outlines the efforts of the French alchemist Leroy Bernard  whose former lands and alchemy workshop the Germans uncovered. And the horror he accidentally created experimenting with an ancient Greek scroll he brought back with him in the 1400's from the Middle East.
Bernard could not destroy it at the time and only contain the horror after it killed his neighbors and their cow. The nameless horror he writes consumed all of his chemicals, compounds, and reagents. And only by baiting the thing was he able to finally trap it within a specially constructed glass and pottery holding chamber. This 'chamber' was etched with special symbols divined from ancient writings old when Atlantis was young.
It wasn't until ten years after trapping and burying the horror that he was able to create a means to destroy the thing. The very potion you now hold in your hands was created at great expense and with knowledge wrought from alchemist brother from the far East. But he had lost the nerve and bravery to destroy the thing. He writes that he prayers to God above that the thing never escapes it glass prison for it's vengeance will be an unholy thing to witness. Its appetites are are dangerous in the extreme.
The potion must coat the horrid monstrous slime for it to be effective. The potion will instantly react to the thing when it hits causing it to have a violent chemical reaction as the molecular bonds of the thing explode and break down. It causes an unholy sound to echo through the chamber and beyond. 

Bernard's Quick Silver Ooze
Frequency : Unique 

Number Appearing: one 

Armor Class: 8

Hit Dice: 15 

% in Lair: 90%

Treasure Type: Nil

Number of Attacks : 1 

Damage 2-16 

Special Attacks: As Gray Ooze but absorbs chemicals with a round

Special Defense: As Gray Ooze 

Magic Resistance : 40% with a 10% chance of the spell being reflected back on the caster  

Intelligence: Low but cunning 

Alignment: Chaotic Evil 

Size: L 

Psionic Abilities: Nil 

Attack/Defense Mode: Nil
Inspired by William Thresher's Quick Silver Ooze HERE
Note Bernard's Quick Silver Ooze  is weak and does not have the random abilities of  producing mist, quickly splitting, or the other random table effects of its Path finder name sake. It has only recently escaped and its molecular/chemical abilities are not stable.. yet.

Bernard's Quick Silver Ooze
For Call of Cthulhu

Str 30 

Con 42
Siz: 30 

Int : 5

Pow: 10 

Dex: 4 

Move :10 

HP 30
Weapons : Bite 55% 2d6 +2, Crush 

Av Dam Bonus: +4d6

Armor: None immune to fire & cold, physical weapons do one point of damage 

Regenerates two hit points per round 

Spells none 

Sanity Loss 0/1d6 sanity points 

Notes:
The germ for this adventure encounter was a conversation between myself and Michael O Varhola concerning La Baionnette No. 34: Le Systeme D (The Bayonet No. 34: System D) available right over HERE and the horrors of WWI. If you haven't checked out  La Baionnette No. 34: Le Systeme D (The Bayonet No. 34: System D) you can grab it HERE. I've got more of this material coming up soon.
 Special thanks to William Thresher for the Quick Silver Ooze and Skirmisher publishing for the great ideas.