OSR News from the Underdark Gazette - Sunday, December 5, 2010

And Speaking of d100 Games...

OpenQuest by Newt Newport. D101 Games.

A complete and easy to play Fantasy Roleplaying game, with monsters, magic and exotic locales. OpenQuest uses the classic D100 rules mechanic, which uses percentages to express the chance of success or failure.

Open Quest is based on the Mongoose RuneQuest SRD (MRQ SRD), with ideas from previous editions of Chaosium’s RuneQuest and Stormbringer 5th, mixed in with some common sense house rulings from the author’s twenty years of experience with the D100 system.

You can find the D101 Lulu Store, here. The author's blog, Sorcerer Under Mountain, may also be of interest.

This has been out for a while, but I've had my hands so full with everything else, that I've neglected to keep up with OpenQuest. The Developers Kit is available as a free text download, if you want to check out the rule-set and/or use it to make your own game, or house-ruled version. Life & Death, a setting and sourcebook for the game, has recently been released and there's more coming.

You might be interested in The Age of Shadow, a game utilizing the above-mentioned Developers Kit and available as a free download.

A big thanks to Akrasia of Akratic Wizardry, for turning me on to OpenQuest and keeping us all up-to-date on what's happening with the game!

New Releases!

A1 Lair of the Goblin King by Roderic Waibel. Sacrosanct Games. Available in PDF for $3.00. 35 pages.

Lair of the Goblin King is the first in a series of adventures that takes the characters from the beginings of their career to eventual heroes. It is also the first in the unique series of products that includes both an OSRIC compatible version and a version for the Altus Adventum 2nd edition game.

This Adventure is designed for 4-6 1st level characters who find themselves broke and stranded in the city of Piarth. Just about out of food and ready to give up on an adventuring career, they hear word of a reward for anyone who can find out what is attacking caravans to the border towns.

Free Stuff!

Stars Without Number by Kevin Crawford, an old school Science Fiction Role-playing Game from [S.]ine [N.]omine publishing is available for free!

Stars Without Number is a retro-inspired science fiction role playing game influenced by the Old School Renaissance. The contents are compatible with most old school clones and are designed to be easily imported to your own favorite gaming system. In addition to a complete pre-made stellar sector, Stars Without Number offers GMs and players the tools to create their own sandbox-style adventures in the far future.

Jimm Johnson of The Contemptible Cube of Quazar has his D&D for Kids rules available for download.

Joe Bloch of Greyhawk Grognard has another Adventures Dark & Deep preview up - The Bard.

Podcasts & Videos!

The Save or Die Podcast: Interview with Mike Carr.

The Save or Die Podcast: Side Adventure #4.

Review Round-up!

ckutalik of Hill Cantons has a review of Stonehell Dungeon Supplement Two: Buried Secrets.

Geordie Racer of Geordie Goes Gaming has a review of Life & Death.

My review of The Pod-Caverns of the Sinister Shroom is here. 

What I'm Pimping This Week!

Original Edition Characters by Daniel Proctor. Goblinoid Games. Available in Print for $8.45. In PDF for $3.95 and as a free text-file. 

Original Edition Characters is a player’s supplement for Labyrinth Lord. An alternate method of creating characters is introduced, with character classes more similar to the way they were presented in the original 1974 rules. Welcome back to playing fighting men, clerics, magic-users, halflings, dwarves, and elves that can be fighting men in one game session and magic-users in the next. This book is a self contained guide to making characters in this style, and will require the Labyrinth Lord core rules.

About the News

"Unless otherwise noted, all links to products and files are to the individual authors sites, pertinent posts, or sales pages. I don’t link directly to files, unless that is the only link available. The OSR News is produced as a service to the community and is entirely a non-commercial endeavor on my part. I have received no remuneration for advertising, reviewing or reporting on any of the items appearing herein. Please feel free to send me information on any new releases, events, or other items of interest, which you would like to see mentioned.

"As always, the What I’m Pimping This Week section of the OSR News and its accompanying blog widget, feature products which I have purchased (or items which are available for free download) and wish to support. No one has asked me to spotlight their material in this section and I have received no payment of any kind for doing so."