OSR News from the Underdark Gazette - Sunday, February 6, 2011

Sine Nomine Publishing Continues It's Bid For Galactic Domination!

Skyward Steel: Naval Campaigns for Stars Without Number by Kevin Crawford. Art by Innovari. Sine Nomine Publishing. Available in PDF for $4.99. 59 pages.

Worlds Burn Beneath Your Guns.The captain standing on the bridge, wreathed in smoke and the cries of the dying. The chief engineer, struggling to force that last precious burst of power from the fusion plant. The Marine sergeant holding fast in the hatchway, death to the alien boarders. The cold-eyed admiral, choosing the slain by the turn of a word and her orders to her bait.
Join the Thousand Lights of the Stellar Navy in this supplement to the FREE Stars Without Number roleplaying game. Take on the roles of the men and women of the Fleet, the sky-bourne protectors of the homeworld and its shield against the outer night. Whether a grizzled rating, dauntless officer, or elite Deep Black espionage operative, Skyward Steel offers both GMs and players the tools to embrace both the duties and the terrible freedom of these guardians among the stars.
Skyward Steel includes a host of useful tools and information for both GMs and players:

• The history and roles of stellar navies in the Stars Without Number universe, including details on planetary invasions and military space stations.

• Details on the ranks, pay, and organization of stellar navies.

• Guidelines on running sandbox naval campaigns, and how to give the players freedom without compromising the military theme of the campaign.

• Rules for recreating the climactic naval battles beloved of military sci-fi, with every PC involved in the desperate struggle to overcome the overwhelming foe.

• Sixty adventure seeds, two for every world tag in the Stars Without Number core book.

• Details on the workings of the Deep Black interstellar operations teams and their perilous covert ops missions.

• New Background Packages for naval characters, and a selection of Training Packages available to every class.

• New ship hulls, weapons, fittings, and personal equipment for naval and covert ops characters.

• Details on building planetary navies for a world and determining naval budgets and operations costs.

Because Sooner or Later, Someone's Gonna Want to Play a Ninja

Classes of the Far East by Roderic Waibel. Sacrosanct Games. Available in PDF for $2.50.

Love the Labyrinth Lord, B/X, BECMI, or similar game system but always had the itch to play your favorite ninja class and couldn't find one anywhere? Well, itch no further. Sacrosanct Games is proud to present you will full color illustrated write-ups for Labyrinth Lord compatible samurai, ninja, mahoutsukai, monk, and demi-human yokai classes.

The Latest From Johnny Rook 

Ghosts from the Dark Wood by Dominick Pelletier. Art by The Endless Slug, Nick Dante Rockers. Johnny Rook Games. 32 pages. Available in Print for $24.00. In PDF from Lulu for $10.00. The RPGNOW PDF is $12.00.

[Color Edition] Wesselrum is a small hamlet of free farmers located deep in the northern pine forests. The secretive hamlet folk fear and repel outsiders but now seek out a band of heroes to help them end the suffering of their children who are succumbing to a terrible wasting sickness caused by a frightening forest ghost. The heroes will find themselves wrapped within a web of misinformation, half-truths, and outright lies as they attempt to save the children of Wesselrum from an unexpected foe. The module is suited for 4-8 characters of levels 3-6.

They Say You Should Always Consult a Sage Before Hunting Down a Dragon

Hunters of Dragons – The Original Dungeons & Dragons Collecting Guide by Ciro Alessandro Sacco. Art by  Danilo Moretti. Inspired Device. Available in PDF for $9.95. 222 pages (Per RPGNOW, this item is Copy/Paste Disabled.)

Hunters of Dragons illustrates the full history of the original version of D&D, as published by TSR from 1974 to 1993; a complete catalogue (with hundred of images) of the products connected with the game (including the licensed ones), including products originally published in languages
different from English; a catalogue dedicated to unpublished works, another to the legendary Judges Guild and, last but not least, three interviews: to Gary Gygax (the “father” of D&D), to David Arrneson (who helped creating the game) and to Larry Elmore, the American illustrator that with his style left indelible memories in millions of fans.
The author, Ciro Alessandro Sacco, is a collector himself, and a games expert of renown; he’s been assisted by Mark R. Shipley that wrote the chapter about the Judges Guild.
Dungeons & Dragons (D&D for short) was the first role playing gamem (first edition: 1974). It still is the most sold, most played and most collected. All around the globe the people that played D&D at least once in their life is in the millions, and today hundreds of thousands of fans still play using all its different editions.
Such a popular game also generated an interest in collectors, giving birth to websites and internet communities of fans committed to the collecting phenomena, part of the vintage game collecting trend.
Furthermore, many publishers launched books and whole games clearly inspired at the original D&D. What was missing though was a complete, professional level guide able to be both a vademecum for the occasional curious and a guide for the enthusiasts and collectors.

More Gaming Goodness for the Star Frontiersman!

Dramun Run by Douglas Niles. Remastered by C. J. Williams. DwD Studios. Available as a Free Download. 50 page PDF.

Garlus Tylappar has a problem. He’s number one on a mobster’s hit list. This crusty old skipper has lost his crew, his freighter has a hole in it, and he’s dying of cancer. But his troubles have only begun. On his sleek freighter, the Gullwind, Garlus carries a peculiar cargo: two furry animals called chukkahs. Chukkahs are the official symbol of a planet in the Dramune System. On that planet, they’re protected, honored, and loved. But in the hands of a mobster called the Malthar, they’re hamburger—because chukkah brains are the very secret ingredient in the Malthar’s popular and illegal new drug.

Garlus doesn’t know what the Malthar does to chukkahs. But he knows they’re being smuggled off their home planet and taken to the Malthar’s space station. And that’s a crime so serious that it could mean war in the Dramune System, perhaps ending the Malthar’s regime. Obviously, the Malthar cannot allow Garlus to expose him.

So the chase is on! Garlus has fled to the other side of the Frontier. Now he must return to Dramune to expose this horrible crime. But first, he must find a new crew (the Malthar murdered the last one). And he must find a good crew, even if he must lie to persuade them to join him.

The new crew has much to look forward to. They’ll have the chance to inherit the Gullwind, if they help crush a detestable thug king. And they’ll have the chance to die at the hands of the Malthar when they make the Dramune Run!

More Microlite

Microlite74 Supplement 2: Wary's Grimoire by Randall S. Stukey. Available as a Free Download. 12 pages.

Wary's Grimoire takes some of Microlite75 and "backports" it to Microlite74 by stripping it of the house rules and extras that make Microlite75 what it is. In other words, Wary's Grimoire contains the new classes, new spells, minor rules changes (like variable damage) from the 0e supplements and adds them to Microlite74 in much more "pure" 0e form than in Microlite75. If you want to play a relatively "pure" Microlite20 version of 0e and its supplements, you want Microlite74 and Wary's Grimoire, not Microlite75.

Video Blog & Podcast Updates

Echoes from the Geek Cave Episode 15: Design-A-Crawl.

Save or Die Podcast Adventure #23: Something and Witches.

Save or Die Podcast: Interview with Bill Owen.

Samwise7 has updated his YouTube Channel with a Review of Three RPG Modules From Small Niche Games.

Planet Algol Approved

Dreaded Isle - A Fantasy Role-Playing Game Wilderness Adventures Module by J.D. Neal. Available as a Free Download. 69 pages. This is a work in progress, but check out what Mr. Neal has accomplished so far!

Visit a lost island of titanic monsters and ancient ruins in search of treasures and mystery. Seeking further adventures to task their skills, the player characters hear of a lost island far out of the shipping lanes. Now is the moment to separate the heroes from the cowards.

Swords & Wizardry Whitebox News

The Swords & Wizardry Whitebox Rules final version PDF is available for Free Download. The Print version, sporting the original Peter Mullen Cover, is listed on Lulu but Matt has request that no one order it until he has gotten his test copy.

An Urutsk Cycle Micro-game

Tech Scavengers of Urutsk By Kyrinn S. Eis. Art by Peter Mullen. Available as a 2 page PDF Free Download. 

Because Referee Screens are Cool!

Labyrinth Lord referee screen by Paul Gorman. Available as a 3 page PDF Free Download.

The Latest Version of Swords of Abandon

Swords of Abandon by Mike Davison. Available as an 18 page PDF Free Download. This is Mike's EPT clone, without the setting material. A work in progress.

Cyclopeatron's Monthly Blog Rankings

Cyclopeatron continues to keep up with blogger's X.P. and posted his 255 Old School RPG Blogs Ranked by Follower - January Edition and List of The Fastest Growing Old School RPG Blogs. A big, big thanks to all my followers and readers! The Underdark Gazette came in at #11 in the first list and # 7 in the list of Fastest Growing blogs, with 33 new subscribers joining us last month!

While Grognardia is still at the top of the listings, Playing D&D With Porn Stars topped the list of hottest blogs. Cyclopeatron has conveniently linked all the blogs listed, so you can quickly check out all this Old School gaming goodness!

What's Dyson Logos Been Up To?

Here's his run-down from goblinoidgames.com: 

Work is killing me this week, but another week of updates occurred anyways - not all are old-school relevant of course, but here's the ones that were:

This is Dice Country - another blog making awesome geomorphs.

CyberCrabZilla! - a Mutant Future monster

I'm a Man-Eating Carp! - a cartoon scanned in the early 80's from Heavy Metal magazine about Dungeons & Dragons.

Random Thursday: Potion Containers - give potions some pizazz with random potion containing things.

Friday Map: The Lizard Cairn - a small dungeon that I used as a sidequest.

I also made some new geomorphs for Dave's Awesome Geomorphic Mapping Machine.

Bling!

Jim Pacek of Carjacked Seraphim has posted some Old School Gamer Bling. 

This is the Kind of Thing That Makes Me Feel All Warm and Gushy Inside!

arcadian of No Signal! has posted Exit 42A, an Encounter Critical Sandbox, complete with Hex-Map and Key!

Grendelwulf Rocks!

Greyhawk aficionados might wish to check out his post Still Doing Time on Planet Oerth: A Calendar.

More Updates From My Favorite Halfling

Delving Deeper RPG Development Blog #2. Here's an excerpt, containing the most talked about development, this week:

And finally, with the blessing of Dan Proctor, Delving Deeper RPG will be extremely compatible with Labyrinth Lord. Apart from obviously emulating the rules of the same games-of-origin, we are intentionally using Labyrinth Lord mechanics and terminology so that Delving Deeper will be part of the Labyrinth Lord extended family. This means that modules and supplements produced for Delving Deeper will be easily compatible with Labyrinth Lord and vice versa.

And Dan Proctor weighs in:

Sometime back a number of people voiced frustration with all the new games coming out, all just slightly incompatible in ways that might make using modules between games a little tricky. John and I realized we had a chance to collectively create the Rosetta Cloneeveryone has been looking for. Between Delving Deeper and the Labyrinth Lord core rules and Advanced Edition Companion, for the first time the full range of old-school fantasy will be available in a way that makes any modules or other supplemental material easily ported between games.

Sounds Groovy! And doesn't Mark Allen's art just freakin Rock?!

Old News

Just stumbled across this post from -C of Hack & Slash. Here's Treasure by Courtney Campbell. A 12 page PDF available as a Free Download. This looks Cool!

It's Gamer Porn Time

Thanks to the RPGpundit for pointing us to this ginormous (100 MB PDF and 16000 pixels squ.) map of Warhammer's Old World. You'll also find a much smaller B&W version and a 283 MB RAR file filled with other Warhammer maps.

Trey has given us a preview of the Union from his upcoming Weird Adventures. 

Geordie Racer gives us a Toilet Break Dungeon. 

Brutus Motor of This is Dice Country has been making Geomorphs.

So has Paul Gorman of Quickly, Quietly, Carefully.

Yesmar of Sickly Purple Death Ray has been making awesome maps, for a while.

Convention News

Sniderman of The Savage Afterworld will be running some Mutant Future at Gen Con. 

One Grognard's Opinion: Review Links

Carter Soles of The Lands of Ara reviews No Dignity in Death from LotFP.

Doc Grognard of Crawdads and Dragons reviews Splinters of Faith: Part 1.

Tenkar of Tenkar's Tavern has a Mini Review of Classes of the Far East. 

Big Bad of There's a Bugbear in my Kitchen plays some Sorcery & Super Science!

kiltedyaksman of Discourse & Dragons has a review up of Tomb of the Iron God. 

What I'm Pimping This Week

OpenQuest by Newt Newport. Available in Print for $22.66, in PDF for $9.06 and in a text only Word version for free.

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. Note this is the Final Edition (Corrected),or version 5.1, published in Sept 2010.

My favorite version of the d100 system! I'll be running OQ for my d100 "away" game, which I'll be starting as soon as Brad is ready to take a GMing break. :) I'm expecting a glorious, bloody chaos, as I'll have 9 players, the setting will be rather violent and I've never ran d100. Can you say TPK?

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.