OSR News from the Underdark Gazette - Sunday, January 16, 2011

"What daring! What outrageousness! What insolence! What arrogance!... I salute you."

OSRIC V2.2 has been released!

Available in print from Lulu and as a 56.5 MB free PDF at the OSRIC site. PapersAndPaychecks posted this list of changes at the Knights & Knaves Alehouse:

Changelog

Rules change

The Weed Eel now has a Number Encountered stat. (It was previously blank, now changed to 1d4.)

Table changes

The dagger now appears on the missile weapons table as well as the melee weapons table.

The missing table in the random treasure determination section has been reinserted. (It was the random table for Rods, Staves and Wands.) Also on the subject of treasure tables, two other tables have been added, so you can randomly determine the "specials" among swords or miscellaneous weapons, if you so wish.

House style fixes

The house style fixes are things like altering "d100" to "d%" or "86-100: No effect" to "86-00: No effect". There are several of these, which I won't bother to enumerate.

I was just about to buy a print copy of OSRIC when I heard this update was coming out. So, if you've been thinking about buying a copy, now's a good time. Or, you can update your PDF to the latest version. While I'm at it, I recently discovered the OSRIC Wiki and also, if you haven't checked out Monsters of Myth, it's also available as a free download and did I mention that it rocks?

Thanks a whole hell of a bunch to Stuart Marshall, Matthew Finch, the gang at the Knights & Knaves Alehouse and everyone else who made OSRIC possible!

The Hardest Working Man in the OSR Does It Again!

I've referred to John Stater as the James Brown of the OSR on a few occasions and he continues to live up to that designation with the 41 page Beta release of Mystery Men!, available as a free download. I'm excited by this! I need a Supers RPG. I didn't have one. This one looks like it will suit me just fine! Thanks John and thanks to the Mystery Men! patrons who helped John make this game a reality!

Be sure to check out the Mystery Men! related posts on John's blog, The Land of Nod.

Which Brings Me to Zak S and Playing D&D With Pornstars

If you're not following Zak's blog, here's a fine example of what you're missing out on:

THE RANDOM SUPERHERO GENERATION SYSTEM THAT'S COMPATIBLE WITH ALL SUPERHERO SYSTEMS and that is fun.

And while you're there, if you're so inclined, you can help Zak and his readers design an RPG.

Are You Ready for Adventures Dark and Deep?

Joe Bloch's brings His Gygaxian 2nd Edition another step closer to completion with the release of the Game Master's Toolkit! The 120 page PDF is available for free download and from my quick skim-through, looks bloody awesome! If the idea of Joe's project to bring us a new AD&D edition based upon Gary Gygax's known plans, piques your interest, head over to the Adventures Dark and Deep forums and check it out!

 Oh, and if you missed it, you can go here to access the download for the Player's Guide. 

Representing the OSR at Gen Con!

One of the big news items of the week, was that there will be an OSR Booth at Gen Con 2011! For more details, especially if you're interested in having some of your products on display, check out Joseph Browning's post at Sorcery  & Super Science!

Clones? I Say, Keep em Coming!

Randall of RetroRoleplaying: The Blog has released Microlite75 V1.00. Available for free download. From the author's blog:

What is Microlite75?

Microlite75, like its parent game, Microlite20, is a trimmed down, sub-miniature version of the Primary Fantasy SRD rules (see license for more info) that has been designed to be quick and easy to play. The goal of Microlite75, however, is to recreate the style and feel of the early editions of the world’s most popular fantasy roleplaying game published in the 1970s and early 1980s – but with a few modern ideas and additions that fit the early edition spirit.

The rules are based on the 1974 0e edition with its supplements and material from 0e magazine articles, some 0e third party material, some of the house rules the author used in the 1970s, and selected ideas from other roleplaying games. The rules are not intended to be a clone of the 0e rules, but rather a conversion of them to a rules-lite D20-based system that encourages old-school play without strictly old-school rules.

Maze Masters Rejoice! You May Now Don Your Viking Hat!

Vikings & Valkyries, a supplement for Mazes & Monsters has been released. The 50 page PDF is available for free download, along with all the Grecian flavored M&M stuff!

This 50-page, fully illustrated and bookmarked PDF book includes:

- Rules for creating Norse adventurers, including the new Viking class and rules for playing Elves, Dwarves and (yes!) Half-Giants – as well as simple conversions of existing M&M classes into Valkyries, Berserkers, Princes and other archetypes of Norse legends

- New combat options – including rules for going berserk, breaking shields and maiming opponents! 

- Rules for drinking contests and other manly Viking games!

- Rules for Ice Elementalism!

- An overview of the new world of Midgard (including an original map) and its otherworldly surrounding realms, from Asgard to Jotunheim! 

- Many new creatures – including several types of Giants and Trolls!

- A collection of typical Norse mythic items - including Mjolnir!

- The usual M&M mix of faux retro pastiche, kitsch homage and old school goodness!

Thanks to the venomous pao of Strange Stones for cluing us in on this!

Who Said That EPT was Inaccessible?

Mike D. at Sword +1 has a first draft of his Empire of the Petal Throne clone minus the setting material, up for free download.

More Cloneage

You can dowload the free open beta of Lost Empires: Swords & Wizardry Variant Rules, here. From the Publisher's Site:

“We’re big fans of the so-called Old School Renaissance (OSR) in roleplaying games,” said Stan Shinn, Lost Empires’ game designer. “Simple, fast-play rule games like Microlite20 inspired us to do something new with the retro-clone games now gaining popularity. The rules for Lost Empires fit on one double-sided page so it’s really easy to pass out a sheet to your friends, do a quick review of the simple rules and start playing in minutes.

"The game mechanics of Lost Empires, while familiar to many, introduces several changes to broaden the appeal of fantasy roleplaying to new audiences."

I'd Buy That for a Dollar

A4 Rise of the Bloodwolf by  Roderic Waibel. Sacrosanct Games. Available  as a 48 page PDF for $1.00.

A4, Rise of the Bloodwolf is the finale module in the A series of $1 adventures. Treachery is revealed, and the party has the opportunity for revenge. And oh, how sweet it will be.

So bring back that old school atmosphere and prepare to "kill them and take their stuff!" This adventure includes versions for both OSRIC and for the Altus Adventum 2nd edition role-playing games. It is designed for characters level 6-8 for OSRIC, or for HEROES in the Altus Adventum system.

News on the Convention Front 

Alex Riedel will be running an AD&D/Osric session at Winter War 38 in Champaign, IL. Alex's event will be on Saturday, January 29 @ 3 PM and he'll be running The Conqueror Worm from Expeditious Retreat Press.

Mike B. posted some info on North Texas RPG Con 2011. Here's a brief, informative excerpt, for those not familiar with the con:

NTRPG Con 2011:

Less than 5 months away, the 3rd annual NTRPG Con will take place June 2-5 in Irving, TX (same location as last time, the Staybridge Suites). NTRPG Con is the south's premier old school con, focusing on pre-2000 RPGs of all types, particularly D&D in it's many forms. No card games, no board games, no 4e, etc. Only OOP or old school oriented games need apply!

One Grognard's Opinion: Reviews From Around the Blogoverse

Johnathan Bingham of Ostensible Cat has a review of Savage Swords of Athanor. And another one of Skull Mountain. 

Kiltedyaksman of Discourse & Dragons has some Praise for Stonehell.

Pookie of Reviews from R'lyeh has reviews of The Wilderness Alphabet and Shadow, Sword & Spell. 

Some More Free Stuff to Download

Tenkar of Tenkar's Tavern turned us on to some Tunnels & Trolls.

John Laviolette of The Nine and Thirty Kingdoms has some geomorphs for you.

David at Tower of the Archmage has a Traveller Subsector and Spreadsheet. 

James Raggi posted the Character Sheet for his Grindhouse Edition at Lamentations of the Flame Princess. 

the venomous pao of Strange Stones has his Strange Stones 5 Room Dungeon Compilation PDF ready. 

Dyson Logos of A character for every game has some Geomorph Endcaps.

Eli Arndt of I See Lead People posted some Quick and Dirty City Gazetteer Maps. 

Roger the GS of Roles, Rules and Rolls has some Carousing Tables. 

If you head over to Archive Of The Rotted Moon, Michael Curtis has A Partial Map of the Kinan-M'Nath posted. He also has some meta-gaming cards up at The Society of Torch, Pole and Rope. 

Evan of In Places Deep has an update of his Region 1 Map posted. 

John Williams of Rule of the Dice has posted a most Awesome Map. 

What Will 2011 Bring for Swords & Wizardry Whitebox?

John fills us in, here. 

What I'm Pimping this Week

Letting it Ride, because I'm running late for a family thing and my wife is going to strangle me if I don't get ready to go.

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.

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