OSR News From The Underdark Gazette – Saturday, April 10, 2010

New Releases

Maybe the most awesome news of the week, Dragons at Dawn by D. H. Boggs has been released! Available in Print for $15.75 and in PDF for $7.75. The Print version runs to 62 pages.

“Welcome to Dave Arnesons Basement! It’s 1971 and you’ve been invited to play this cool new game… Experience the thrill of the very first RPG adventures with Dragons at Dawn, the rule set that hearkens back to the early days of adventure gaming when everything was new and the possibilities endless. Dragons at Dawn is a retro tribute to the very first fantasy gaming system pioneered by Dave Arneson, the man who later went on to co-author the worlds most popular roleplaying game. The result of years of careful historical research, Dragons at Dawn is entirely consistent with Arneson’s original, largely forgotten methods of play developed roughly in the period 1970-1973. Dragons at Dawn approaches gaming with none of the assumptions and habits developed from later rules, allowing a return to a kind of free form and open style of interaction between players and referees to develop and play whatever aspects of adventure gaming the group likes best.”

Now, this is definitely something I want to read! Thanks and congratulations to Mr. Boggs, for a most welcome Retro-clone.

Free Downloads

Norman at Troll and Flame turned me on to the  release of Star Frontiersman #14! Available as a free pdf download. If you dig Star Frontiers and haven't discovered this yet, then be sure to check out the Remastered Star Frontiers rules and modules hosted on the site.

I love maps! If you head to the gallery at the Blackmoor Archives, there's some new Blackmoor maps by Dave L. Thanks Dave and thanks to Havard, for the heads up and for hosting these!

The Traveller Starter Set, is now  available as a free download on RPGNOW! When you download this, you'll get the first book, then you'll need to go to your downloads page on your account, where books two and three will be found. Thirteen supplements are also available for cheap, and Randall has the skinny on these.

Stephen Sechi has released Talislanta under the Creative Commons license and has most of the material online as free pdf downloads, with more material coming! Occasionally, back in the day, my group would try out a different game. We really liked Talislanta, but, as always, ended our dalliance and went back to our true love, AD&D.

Brutorz Bill of Green Skeleton Gaming Guild, has turned me on to One Monk Miniatures, where all the paper miniatures are now Free!

In Other News

Scottsz posted part three of his Cold Text File – WG4 series. We should possibly be concerned, here. As I posted in the article comments:

“It has occurred to me, that Scottsz may actually be a Secret Cultist of Tharizdun! If this series inspires enough OSR DM's to run Greyhawk and introduce these dark mysteries into their campaigns, then surely, sooner or later, some foolish adventuring party will royally screw up and free that heinous entity!”

I am still toying with the idea of running Greyhawk…

You say you're looking for some Swords & Wizardry Miniatures? Look no further! Center Stage Miniatures, has you covered!

The Dave Arneson Memorial Maritime Mayhem event is happening today!

“The second annual David L. Arneson Memorial Maritime Mayhem Miniatures event will be held at The Source Comics and Games on Saturday, April 10th, 2010 at noon.
Dave's infamous Tekumel character, the rascally Captain Harchar, will feature in two epic sea fights: "Captain Harchar versus the Hlyss nestship", in which the captain tries to keep his crew and passengers from becoming living incubators for the larvae of these insectoid non-humans; and "Captain Harchar versus the Customs Officials", in which the captain tries to get his cargo of unlicensed, untaxed, and undeclared luxury good past an armada of enraged customs and excise officials while dealing with his piratical associates in the Clan of the Blazoned Sail.
No experience needed; rules and miniatures will be provided. No fixed
times for players to participate; drop in and out as you want. For more information, please feel free to e-mail me: chirine@aethervox.net”

Sounds like a blast! I posted on this a few weeks ago, but thanks to Havard for reminding me about the event!

In case you’ve forgotten, episode 4 of I Hit It With My Axe, may be found here.

Blog Spotlight!

Time to shine a spotlight on another of my favorite blogs! At Green Skeleton Gaming Guild, Brutorz Bill serves up all kinds of gaming goodness. Like War Chimps for Planet Algol, featured last week on Simian Saturday.  Sweet Lego stuff! Resources for Mutant Future and Labyrinth Lord. How about a new race for Encounter Critical? Talk on general gaming and related subjects is featured, as the author shares his latest gaming discoveries and acquisitions. Green Skeleton Gaming Guild is Fun and the author’s enthusiasm is downright contagious! If you haven’t checked it out, I heartily encourage you to do so!

What I’m Pimping This Week

City Encounters by Matthew Finch. Available as a 42 page pdf for $3.00.

“City Encounters contains a 600-entry table of daytime encounters for a swords & sorcery city, with additional tables for generating night time encounters, classed NPCs, and male and female names suitable for use in a swords & sorcery-based campaign.. Compatible with Swords & Wizardry, OSRIC, and Labyrinth Lord as well as 0e and 1e.”

I purchased this recently and I’m quite pleased! You can check out the Grognardia Review, here.