OSR News from the Underdark Gazette - Sunday, December 12, 2010

Assault on the Temple of the Frog

Chaos erupted in the OSR yesterday, as the purchase buttons went live on the Frog God site, enabling ravenous consumers to buy the newly released Swords & Wizardry Complete Rulebook. 

Here's what Matt Finch had to say, on the OD&D Discussion forums:

Today has been quite a day. The Swords & Wizardry Complete Rulebooks went on sale today this morning.

About 30 minutes into selling, the sales volume crashed something on the shopping cart where shipping cost is calculated, so everyone who bought copies after that point will get separately invoiced for the shipping. Hundreds of books (not just rulebooks) got sold in this 30 minute period.

About 45 minutes into selling the sales and download volume started overloading the site itself, and the "buy" button stopped working. There was a work-around for this, fortunately, but only the higher-tech buyers could make it work.

Sometime around then the purchase button for the pdf also went down. We started directing pdf-only purchasers to Paizo.

Finally, we just told people to paypal Bill with their orders rather than use the work-around.

As the dust cleared, we have sold out of the hardcovers, although the exact estimate is between 90 and 110 sold before we pulled the trigger and stopped sales on the hardcover. We had a 10-hour sellout of the whole print run.

Some softcovers are still left for sale, although more than half were sold.

And we have no idea yet how many pdfs were sold. Lots.

What. A. Day.

Congratulations to Mythmere Games and Frog God Games, on their successful release of the Swords & Wizardry Complete Rulebook!  If necessary, you can purchase the PDF from Paizo, here.

New Releases

A3 Hunt for the Ogre Lord by Roderic Waibel. Sacrosanct Games. A 64 page PDF available for $5.00.

Barely able to enjoy the spoils from your last adventure, you are soon called upon by the mysterious Inquisitors to investigate rumors of an ogre lord rallying a humaiond army on the western border of the kingdom. Promises of sacks of gold are followed by veiled threats; it seems you have little choice...

A3, Hunt for the Ogre Lord is an adventure that contains versions for both OSRIC (or other old school versions of your favorite game) as well as Altus Adventum 2nd edition. It is the third in the A series of adventures, taking the characters on an epic adventure to save the kingdom from the horde forces that threaten. This adventure is designed for 5-6 characters of level 4-6 or of Veteran status, depending on which system you are using.

Hard Light by Kevin Crawford.  [S.]ine [N.]omine Publishing. The 36 page PDF is available for $4.99 and is an adventure for Stars Without Number, an old school Science Fiction Role-playing Game available for free. 

Hard Light takes a band of young adventurers to a system blazing with the murderous light of a red giant star. The hard-bitten novium miners of the Brightside mining station maintain the only outpost of civilization in a system filled with lethal light and stellar outlaws on the run. Will the players find the riches of the ancient asteroid sky tombs and their alien makers, or will they fall prey to the seething rebellion that boils beneath Brightside Station's steel skin? Find out in this adventure for the Stars Without Numberroleplaying game.

• Includes maps and personnel writeups for Brightside Station, a novium mining outpost hovering on the dark side of a molten planetoid.
• Maps and contents for three fully-developed sky tombs and their enigmatic occupants.
• Outlines the sinister machinations occurring on the station, and opportunities for PCs to entangle themselves in the mining outpost's ultimate fate.
• Gives details on the long-forgotten alien creators of the sky tombs and the doom that befell their civilization.
• Provides details on a selection of exotic alien technology for plunder or disastrous misuse.
• Includes a page of mini-geomorphs and a random generation process for creating as many sky tombs as your players dare explore.
• Hard Light is intended for 4-6 PCs of levels 1-3, and is mechanically compatible with most classic retroclones.

Free Stuff!

Joe Bloch of Greyhawk Grognard has released a 221 page PDF of the Player's Guide, for Adventures Dark & Deep! Download it and if you're interested in joining in the playtesting fun, Joe could use your help!

The Delve has posted a new version of his Holmes Treasury. The link is at the top of the post, dated November 30.

Jeff Rients of Jeff's Gameblog has a link to a PDF on Ornamental Stones, which was made from one of Jeff's previous posts.

Fitz of Shouting Into The Void has a revised version of his Swords & Wizardry house-rules available.

JDJarvis of Aeons & Augauries has added some more Geomorph posts. And a cool Post-Apocalypse map. 

Evan of In Places Deep has some more Maps, you might can use.

ze bulette of Dungeons & Digressions has another B2 inspired mini PDF notecard map.

Podcasts & Videos

How about some videos of Michael Curtis running Stonehell?

Samwise7 has added some new video content, including some 2e reviews.

Save or Die Podcast Adventure #15: Bugbear!

Review Round-up

Johnathan Bingham of Ostensible Cat has a review of Stefan Poag's Exquisite Corpses.

Tenkar of Tenkar's Tavern has a review of Stars Without Number. 

Events & Happenings

ChicagoWiz wrapped up his Toys for Tots donation drive collecting $145 from all of you awesome grognards, to help Santa out! Congratulations and you can check out the Raffle results, if you missed them.

Today is the last day of the LotFP PDF sale! Everything's $1.34!

Norman Harman of Troll and Flame has some news on OwlCon XXX, which is coming up in January. Norman will be running B2 and it will no doubt be a blast!

What I'm Pimping This Week

Hammers of the God by James Edward Raggi IV. Lamentations of the Flame Princess. Available in PDF for $6.00 ($1.34 if you get it TODAY) and in Print for 11,00€ including shipping, outside Europe. The PDF is 86 pages. 

By the Sign of the Hammer!

A mysterious map and a promise treasure to be won are all that are required to set any adventurer worth the name into the wilderness. But sometimes what is found is far more than treasure.

Many that are good and noble will kill to make sure the secrets to be found under the old mountain stay buried. Many that enter the darkness will become beguiled by the splendor of the halls in which they walk, mesmerized by the riches to be found there, never realizing that death follows their every move.

Dwarves never forget a grudge. But what if they hold that grudge against themselves?

Beware the god who has been discarded.

An Adventure For Character Levels 3 – 5

This PDF is A5 size, with the dungeon map being A4 size.

Compatible with Labyrinth Lord, LotFP Weird Fantasy Role-Playing, OSRIC, and Swords & Wizardry Core Rules

I promised myself I would wait and order a Print copy of this, but then Mr. Raggi had to go and put it on sale for $1.34. That's almost Free!!! So I got it and read it immediately. Good stuff!! I still want a print copy, though.

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."