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

Oubliette #5 For Free!!! :) :) :)

Oubliette #5 edited by Peter Regan. Art by The Marg. Gold Piece Publications. Available as a Free Download. until the end of March. 48 pages.

OUBLIETTE - A magazine for old school fantasy roleplayers.

48 jam-packed pages including: 36 Page Magazine, 8 Pages of Cleric Spell Cards for Labyrinth Lord, and more...

Written for Labyrinth Lord, but also ideal for use with any Basic/Expert/Advanced original or clone, with little or no adjustment required.

Full Contents:
• Tales from Hell - Words of Wisdom from the Soothsayer
• Monster Club #8 - The Monstermark System for Labyrinth Lord
• The Vampire - 12 Pages of Alternative Rules for Creating Labyrinth Lord Vampires
• Good Shop/Bad Shop - Mad Varto's
• What's on the Battlemat? - Dungeon in a Box
• PC for PCs - A Very un-PC Approach to Dealing with Paladins
• What's in the Oubliette? - A Selection of Gaming and Other Reviews
• Mouse Watch - Our Heroes Enter a Storytelling Contest
• The Song of Sithakk - Part 5 of our Serialized Story
• Plus Bonus Material comprising: Cleric Spell Cards for Labyrinth Lord, Blank Vampire Record Sheet, and a blank template for Dungeon in a Box 

Note: In the small preview below, some tables and artwork don't display at the reduced size. In the full-size PDF they are all displayed correctly.
Warning! Oubliette may contain content that is suitable for adult audiences only. Persons 18+ only.

Peter! Your Evil Marketing Scheme is Working! I had no idea that Oubliette was so freakin' cool! Once I recover from my recent Lulu order, I'm gonna get the issue 1-4 compilation! And I really dig The Marg's art! :)

Guys, head over to RPGNOW and download this! Then, if you want to pick up earlier issues in PDF at a mere $2.00 each, here's a handy link. Individual back issues are available in Print for $4.52 each.

On Someone Doing Something That Needed to be Done!

austrodavicus of There's Dungeons Down Under  recently started a series of posts, in answer to some of the mis-information concerning and vitriol criticism leveled against the OSR. The Old School Renaissance is Dead Parts 1, Part 2 and Part 3. The author's well-informed, well-reasoned and level-headed approach to this matter is exactly what the situation called for!

Mythmere Jumps Into The Blogosphere

Matt Finch of Mythmere Games, Master of the Random Table and Wizard of High-weirdness has started a blog! It's Called Mythmere's Blog and Matt's hit the ground running! In particular, check out the Commercialization of the Old School series.

Because Polearms are Cool!

Dungeon Delver's Handbook: Weapons by Tom Tullis. Fat Dragon Games. Available in PDF for $6.99, Softcover for $9.99 and the combo for $16.98 (get 25% off, while RPGNOW's GM's Day Sale is going on.) 20 pages.

The Dungeon Delver’s Handbooks are designed to collect the information used most by players of the world's most popular fantasy role-playing game's early editions into a single concise source. Starting off with weapons, our goal was to combine common and exotic weaponry used in your games into one illustrated tome for easy reference. Future volumes will include armor, equipment, magical items and more.

For a limited time get a bonus set of 2D dungeon tiles with a purchase of the PDF or PRINT+PDF options!

No, it's not Rules-lite! But it's Old School as All Hell and Recently Added to RPGNOW's Menu.

Rolemaster Classic: Character Law by Coleman Charlton and Pete Fenlon. Guild Companion Publications. Available in PDF for $16.00. 170 pages.

A Classic Returns.

Rolemaster, the greatest RPG system of all time is back.

Rolemaster Classic: Character Law marks the return of the original revered Rolemaster system. This volume encompasses the Character Law section of the hallowed "red border edition" Character & Campaign Law and has been completely updated and expanded.
The original Character Law pioneered many of today's gaming concepts and still sets the platinum standard for fantasy RPG character creation. Within these pages you'll find the power to create the character of your dreams, from the toughest fighter to the most powerful spell caster. Say goodbye to level, racial, and alignment restrictions.Rolemaster Classic: Character Law lets you do it all.

Rolemaster Classic: Character Law includes:

• 20 Professions and over 5 dozen skills to choose from
• A flexible skill system that lets players increase their characters' skills without absolute restriction
• A stat system that enables your stats to increase over time
• Optional rules that add depth and detail to character development
• A complete set of guidelines for running Rolemaster

Rolemaster Classic: Arms Law by  Coleman Charlton, Kurt H. Fischer, Pete C. Fenlon Jr., Terry K. Amthor, Bruce R. Neidlinger, Bruce C. Shelley and Leonard Cook. Guild Companion Publications. Available in PDF for $12.00. 120 pages.

Get Critical

Arms Law is about FRPG combat - the kind that leaves you shaking and bragging to your friends about your character's exploits. If you prefer safe, ho hum, by-the-numbers RPG combat then Arms Law is not for you. If you are looking for FRP combat that leaves you breathless your quest ends here.

Arms Law is a fantasy combat system designed to be used with ICE's Rolemaster Classic rules or the rpg system of your choice.

What makes Arms Law special? Criticals and Fumbles.

From the "E" Puncture Critical Table:
"Strike through foe's kidneys. Foe dies after 6 rnds of very intense agony."
Two-Handed Arms Fumble:
"Stumble over an imaginary dead turtle. You lose two rounds of attack, but can still parry."
Arms Law includes 30 individual weapon attack tables, 13 special attack tables, and dozens of critical strikes and fumbles.
Remember ... it's not the bruises that kill!

Critical damage is what wastes your enemies.

Rollmaster Classic: Spell Law by S. Coleman Charlton, Peter C. Fenlon Jr. and Terry K. Amthor. Guild Companion Publications. Available in PDF for $20.00. 283 pages.

The magic has returned! Spell Law, the heart of the Rolemaster magic system is back with more power. Re-edited, reorganised, this new edition of Spell Law gives your favourite spellcaster the punch they need to take on the villains or extra punch if they are the bad guys. Explore new realms of power and plumb the depths of magic without sacrificing playability. Why settle for less when your spellcaster can have it all?

Spell Law contains:

• Over 2000 spell descriptions on 162 unique spell lists that are based on 3 realms of power.
• 15 spellcasting professions, from the classical magician and cleric to the unusually powerful sorcerer and mystic.
• Individual spell attack tables and spell critical strike tables for Heat, Cold, Impact, Electricity, Large Creatures and Super Large Creatures.
• A Spell Failure table for when good magic goes horribly wrong.
• A detailed set of Alchemy rules for making magic items.
• Guidelines for researching new spells so spellcasters can fill in any missing spells.
• Optional rules that can add depth & detail to any campaign. Including rules for varying spell effects based upon expertise, level, range and armor.

I did a quick search and it doesn't look like these are currently available in print. If that's important to you though, I'd advise researching further, as my examination was cursory. I did run across copies on the secondary market. At any rate, if you've been itching to try out Rolemaster, here's your chance! Let us know how you liked it!

If you go to the publishers RPGNOW page, you'll see where they've also added some other old I.C.E. items to their menu.

Encounter Critical, Baby!

Phasic - Issue 3, Winter 2011. Edited by Chris Creel. Available as a Free Download. 16 pages.
From the author's blog, The Polyhedral Dicebag:

phasic is a little fanzine for Encounter Critical created by Jeff of Jeffs Gameblog fame. I have followed his example and taken up the banner he began with the production of the initial issue of phasic a few years back and have produced two issue of phasic in the past six months.

Issue number three is now available for download from scirbd. This new issue is dedicated to the members of the E.C. yahoo group and the E.C. Blog Ring with thanks to the members of the yahoo group to their contributions to the 'zine.

 Some Coolness From Rended Press!

Nashka's Lair by Erin Bisson. Edited by Matthew W. Schmeer. Available as a Free PDF Download. 10 pages. From the Rended Press blog:

I'm happy to release Nashka's Lair, a mini-dungeon for a first-level party using the BECMI/RC rules written by Erin Bisson, who blogs astaichara at A Hamsterish Hoard of Dungeons and Dragons.

I've long been a quiet fan of taichara's monster creations andencounter ideas and magic items. I liked this first level mini-dungeon she posted back in 2009, as it was one of the first things I stumbled across when I returned to the first edition/classic edition RPG scene. I asked if I could compile this encounter as a PDF, and after many starts and stops on my end, here it is.

The Monastery of the Order of Crimson Monks - Building the Sample Dungeon v05 by Members of the Dragonsfoot.org Forums. Available as a Free PDF Download. 31 pages.

A Brief Word of Explanation:

It began as a challenge on the Dragonsfoot forums, posted by Distored Humor on November 7, 2008:
“As a fun entertainment, let’s fill out ‘A Sample Dungeon’ from the 1st edition of the DMG.”
After many stops and starts, two years later it was completed. In February, 2010, I offered to compile
all the posts into one document, edit it for consistency and clarity, and PDFerize it. Please enjoy the fruits of our labor.
—Vlark

Community Project: Paranoid Fantasy. Available as a Free PDF Download. 4 pages. More from Matthew:

Greg over at Gorgonmilk proposed a community project to fill out a d20 Paranoia Table. People answered the call. I turned the results into a handy PDF. Here you go.

Lastly, Matthew has added a page to his blog, providing a list and links to Old School Zines. Thanks for sharing all of this Matthew!

Dragonsfoot Keeps It Coming!

Dungeon Module S7 - The Howling Hills by Charley Phipps. Available as a Free PDF Download.

Far to the North, in the upper reaches of the land of dread Iuz, lies one of the possible resting places of the ancient evil sorcerer, Acererak. Rumored to lie inside are deadly traps and terrific treasures, but all pales in comparison to the awesome power of the Demi-Lich.

This module is one of a series of adventures created in homage to the deadliest adventure ever created, The Tomb of Horrors! An Adventure of characters of level 10-14.

House Rules & Clarifications for First Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons by Ken Marin. Available as a Free PDF Download. 54 pages. 

A plethora of useful rules and clarifications for First Edition AD&D.

Abbernoth Campaign Setting by Ian R. Craig. Available as a Free PDF Download. 110 pages.

Welcome to the campaign setting of Abbernoth. A world of high-fantasy for C&C 4th edition.

A Big Thank You to Tim of Absolutely Mental!

Tim of Absolutely Mental is hosting the Blue Book for Swords & Wizardry by Todd Roe. Here's what Tim had to say:

Once I decided that I didn’t have the time or energy to pursue authoring a Holmes-compatible SRD for Swords & Wizardry, a regular on the S&W forums who goes by the name of foxroe decided to pick it up and run with it. The draft is completed and I volunteered to host it here on my website.

So if you’re an S&W fan clamoring for some Holmes, you should check out the BlueBook for S&W PDF.

Tim also, hipped me to the bit of Sweetness, below! 

Pelinore!

Phil Gyford has taken all of the Pelinore Campaign Setting Articles he had available from TSR's old Imagine Magazine and turned them into a PDF! 69 pages of AD&D Gaming Goodness! I had never heard of Pelinore and from a quick scan of the PDF it looks Awesome as all Hell! Available as a Free Download!

But, there's more: check out the Pelinore Revived website, for more Pelinore material!

The Latest From Pacesetter

Q3 Death on Signal Island by Bill Barsh. Art by Al Cook and Walt Robillard. Pacesetter Games & Simulations. Available in Print for $8.00.

A First Edition Advanced Game Module

Introducing our newest Quick Play adventure for the First Edition Advanced Game System. Death on Signal Island is designed for 4-6 characters of 2nd to 4th level.

Quick Play adventures are designed for ease of use and one or two nights of gaming fun. They can be fit into almost any campaign setting and expandable. Shipping for this module is a flat $3.00 for U.S. Media Mail on a multiple copy purchase or single module purhcase for First Class Postage.

OSRIC News!

And now, a word from Usherwood Publishing:

USHERWOOD PUBLISHING TO CO-PUBLISH OSRIC
WITH BLACK BLADE PUBLISHING

I am pleased to annouce that Usherwood Publishing and Black Blade Publishing have teamed up to put the OSRIC Manual into a commercially printed volume. The book will retail for $26 through both Usherwood Publishing and Black Blade Publishing, and will make its debut at GaryCon '11. This print run is limited, so make sure to order yours while supplies last. This print includes all errata through January 2011, a recompiled index, new index of tables, and several pieces of fantastic new art by leading OSR illustrators.

The following Knights & Knaves thread provides some more info on this development.

Will 2011 be the Year of Science Fantasy?

Humanspace Empires - Playtest Draft by Drune. Available as a Free PDF Download. 56 pages.
Here's a few words from the author's blog, IX:

The draft playtest rules for Humanspace Empires, science fantasy adventures in the star-faring ancient past of Professor M.A.R. Barker's Tékumel, are linked above as a free pdf download.

These rules include character generation, PSY and Super-Scientific powers, and sufficient combat and adventuring rules to get a party through a space dungeon. The system is essentially an iteration of mySynthetic 75 Science Fantasy Retro Roleplaying concept, a mash up of (what I consider) the best from the hottest RPGs of 1975, Dungeons & Dragons and Prof. M.A.R. Barker's Tekumel: Empire of the Petal Throne.

Rules for robot and android characters have not been included in this draft. I'm still not quite sure how to implement this class but I will post rules for the class on this blog or in a revised version of the playtest draft in the near future. Also, rules for starships, starship combat, wilderness or planetary adventures, and additional setting material will be gradually posted here and included in future publications.

Let's Check in with Dyson Logos

Reposted From goblinoidgames.com:

This week was spent more in reflection than in my usual house rules, maps and monsters.

Random Curses - Four d12 tables of curse effects from the most trivial to the true brutality of failing all future saves.
MAP - The Grand Ruins - Interior Structures - our last adventure into the Grand Ruins

One Page Dungeon Contest - 2011

Alex Schroder, One-Page Dungeon Master, fills us in on this years contest: 

Dates: Submission deadline is April 1, 0:00 GMT. Based on last year’s experience, judges will have one month to read all the submissions and another two weeks to discuss the result. Winners will be announced May 16, 0:00 GMT.

Judges:

• Adrian Shieh of Occam’s Samurai Sword
• Shane Mangus of Swords Against the Outer Dark
• Clay Wendt aka Sean FitzSimon on deviantART
• Ken Carcas aka Lawnikky
• Angie Littmann from the Cartographers’ Guild
• Jeffrey Runokivi of There's a Bugbear in My Kitchen!
• Alex Schroeder, organizer and blogger

Prizes & Sponsors: Do you have prizes to donate? Let me know → kensanata@gmail.com!
Current sponsors, in alphabetical order:

a copy of Martial Power donated by Adrian Shieh

• $200 donated by an anonymous sponsor (sent via Paypal)
• a digital copy of Kingdom Builder Generator Pack by Chaotic Shiny Productions for each of the winners
• a digital copy of Kingdom Builder Generator Pack II by Chaotic Shiny Productions
• a printed copy of Psionics Unleashed for the Pathfinder RPG by Dreamscarred Press donated by an anonymous sponsor
• a PDF copy of the Big Labyrinth Lord Bundle by Brave Halfling Publishing
• various copies of Fight On! PDF issues
• a hard copy 6 month Endless Terrain Map Tile subscription by Free RPG Maps
• a printed copy of Labyrinth Lord by Goblinoid Games
• a printed copy of Advanced Edition Companion by Goblinoid Games
• a printed copy of Mutant Future by Goblinoid Games
• a printed copy of Realms of Crawling Chaos by Goblinoid Games
• a one year PDF subscription to Kobold Quarterly
• a Midgard standard patronage by Kobold Quarterly and the opportunity to pitch a Midgard adventure
• a printed copy of Vornheim: The Complete City Kit by Lamentations of the Flame Princess
• another printed copy of Vornheim: The Complete City Kit by Lamentations of the Flame Princess
• a $50 voucher for the winner by Otherworld Miniatures
• a $30 voucher for second place by Otherworld Miniatures
• a $20 voucher for third place by Otherworld Miniatures
• a $15 voucher for fourth place by Otherworld Miniatures
• a first print of C1 Circle of Fire (numbered and signed) by Pacesetter Games & Simulations
• a copy of T1 The Thing in the Valley by Pacesetter Games & Simulations
• a copy of Q1 The Screaming Temple by Pacesetter Games & Simulations
• a copy of Disposable Heroes Printed Paper Miniatures: 4E Core Figures by Precis Intermedia
• a copy of Fantasy Monsters by Precis Intermedia
• a free PDF of the winners choice by Rite Publishing
• a print copy of Roll the Bones
• a custom black and white character illustration by the RPG Character Illustrations artist of the winner’s choice
• a PDF copy of Knowledge Illuminates by Tim Shorts
• a second PDF copy of Knowledge Illuminates by Tim Shorts
• a third PDF copy of Knowledge Illuminates by Tim Shorts

Submissions: Here’s how to submit your entry.
Participants create a One Page Dungeon.
Submitting a dungeon to the contest releases it under the Creative Common Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license with credit to the contest participant.
The submission must have a name, an author, a map, a key, a link to the license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) and no game stats.
A link to your blog, wandering monsters, random events, adventure background or introduction, and descriptions of tricks or traps are all optional.
One entry per participant. Participants may revise/replace their entries up until the end of contest, with the last revision counting as their official entry.
Submission must be mailed in PDF, Open Office, or Microsoft Word format to Alex Schröder → kensanata@gmail.com.
If you have a blog article talking about your submission, I’d love to link to it from the One Page Dungeon Contest page.

Process: Here’s how we’ll determine the winners.

Every judge nominates their favorite entries and proposes a category for each.
We try to make sure that every judge has at least three of their nominations in the final list. The idea is to not only reflect popular opinion but to also capture some of the more eclectic entries out there. We’ll make sure that every judge is well represented with three entries each.
Based on the categories proposed in the first step, we try to assign a category to each entry on the list.
The result is our release candidate 1. Judges gets to check whether their favorites are still on the list.
We fix omissions and rename categories until we’re happy. This is our release candidate 2.
We revise everything until we’re happy. We have our list of winners!
If we have prizes (we currently don’t) each judge gets to nominate their favorite entry for a prize.
We publish our list of winners!
Harald puts together a PDF of all the entries and a PDF of all the winners. We’ll make these PDFs available for download at no cost.

Here's another link to the Official 2011 One Page Dungeon Contest page. Good Luck everyone, now get to cranking out those Dungeons!

More LotFP Webstore News

From Mr. Raggi's Announcement: 

Now Added to the LotFP Webstore: Rogue Games Products!

The Cursed Chateau and Shadow Sword & Spell Basic Core Rulebook have been added to the LotFP Webstore.

In the weeks and months ahead, I hope to stock a wide variety of products from different publishers, mostly but not necessarily OSR related.

Through special arrangement with Rogue Games you also get a free PDF when you buy one of their print products through LotFP. I can't guarantee that arrangement with every publisher I carry, but I'll try to make it happen.

And as always, Pembrooktonshire Gardening Society members get 1€ off all print products! (early members still get their promised one-time discount; I'll be opening up membership again soon)

In the future, I won't make a blog announcement whenever a new product is stocked in the store. I'll update the little text box there to the left as new items come in.

Spread the word! Any questions?

Tales of High Adventure News

Paul Fini's Tales of High Adventure is now also available in PDF. You can also still pick it up in Print. Both versions are available for $4.00. From IndieOnly Comics. 52 pages.

Thrilling pulp adventure fantasy returns with Tales of High Adventure, a quarterly book of prose stories and illustrated tales as published in the pulp magazines of the 1930's and 1940's such as Weird Tales, Astounding Stories, Spicy Mystery Stories, Amazing Stories and Startling Stories! This issue features works such as: At The Earth's Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Homeworld by Paul J. Fini, Dagon by H. P. Lovecraft, The Lost Valley by Mike Moran, The Peruvian Report by Max Lieberman, Queen of the Black Coast by Robert E. Howard and Spirits of the Dead by Edgar Allen Poe. READ these pulp style fantasy adventures as they were meant to be read! HOLD in your hand and flip through the pages of thrilling adventure!!

Dragonfight!

J G Halmayr of Coasters Castles Combustion is running a Tournament of Dragons to determine the best Dragon Magazine cover of all time! Head on over and vote for your favorites!

What's Our Halfling Up To?

Delving Deeper Development Blog #6. Check out that Awesome Mark Allen pic!

Also, Delving Deeper pre-orders end March 20.

I will stop taking pre-orders for Delving Deeper Boxed Sets on March 20. After that date, you will have to wait until June to pick up a boxed set at your local game store or from an online retailer.

Tricks!

ROGER THE GS of Roles, Rules and Rolls has an Endless Bag of Tricks for you to download for free!

Hottest Blogs!

Cyclopeatron has his Fastest Growing OSR Blogs of February post up!

Hex!

Steamtunnel of The Hydra's Grotto has some Hexmap Templates for free download. 

Blog Spotlight!

Vault Keeper of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition blog asked me to pass along word that he's switching his blog from Italian to English. 

I've been following his blog for a while, as Google Chrome, or Blogger, or something on my damn computer has been translating foreign language blogs into English for me. I think it's been doing a decent enough job of translating (but how would I know for sure?) except for German. It's not translating German worth a damn! But it's been doing ok with Italian and I've been following and enjoying the Vault Keeper, which will now be easier, since he's decided to blog in English. 

This is really cool, because amongst other interesting topics, Vault Keeper digs up information and blogs about all these really obscure gaming supplements, which I've never seen and often have never heard of. Like The Complete Warlock, What Price Glory, The Abduction of Good King Despot and Bifrost. Thoughts on Clark Ashton Smith, Arduin and other topics may also be found. And if you look real hard, you'll find a link to a goodie or two. 

GM's Day Sales!

RPGNOW's GM's Day Sale ends March 7. Several Old School publishers are participating, so you might want to take advantage, if you haven't already!

Also, Expeditious Retreat Press is honoring the day until March 8, on Your Games Now, with a whopping 50% off Their Advanced Adventures Line, The OSRIC resource Malevolent & Benign and on their Sorcery & Super Science line of products!

One Grognard's Opinion: Links to Reviews by your Fellow Gamers

Thomas Denmark of Original Edition Fantasy has a review of Swords & Wizardry Complete.

Arcadian of No Signal! has a review of Lesserton & Mor. 

Aplus of People them with monsters... has a review of Swords & Deviltry by Fritz Leiber. 

Guy Fullerton has a review of Ursined, Sealed, & Delivered on the Swords & Wizardry forums.

James Maliszewski of Grognardia has a review of Skyward Steel.

Tenkar of Tenkar's Tavern has a review of Knockspell #5.

Joe Nelson of Rule of the Dice has a review of Mutant Future. 

A Paladin in Citadel has a review of the Red Planet RPG.

Lastly, I posted two reviews last week. Pyramid of the Dragon and Knowledge Illuminates. 

Allright! Map-time!!!

Omlet (I think) of Underworld Kingdom has an awesome Cross section map of Ortix. Also, his Cross Sectino Map of the Floating Island. 

Yesmar of Sickly Purple Death Ray has a Sinister Sub-Level.

John Laviolette of The Nine and Thirty Kingdoms continues his work on Geomorphs. 

As does Coopdevil of FIGHTINGFANTASIST.

Il Male of The Yaqqothl Grimoire made his Start Your Own Megadungeon: a DM's Day Gift post, complete with a 1st level map!

What I'm Pimping This Week!

Knowledge Illuminates by Tim Shorts. Edited by Ivy Shorts. Cartography by Robert S. Conley. GM Games. Available in PDF for $4.00 (On Sale until March 7 for $3.00.) 15 pages. Swords & Wizardry Compatible.

Grab your dice and hire some henchmen, you're going to need them. Knowledge Illuminates is a campaign starter adventure full of possibilities. Explore a dark fantasy world in search of an unending treasure. But within this adventure lurks a horror that will haunt the players for years. So buckle up that helmet, sharpen that sword, and bring an extra pair of iron spikes, this adventure is for the big boys.

My Review, here. 

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 or reporting on any of the items appearing herein. Occasionally, the News might feature a full review written by myself, of an RPG release and on such occasions, the author may have sent me a complimentary copy for purposes of reviewing the item. When that is the case, that fact will be fully disclosed in the text of the review. 

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. At times, the item I'm pimping may be one which I received a complimentary review copy of, from the author or publisher. No one has asked me to spotlight their material in this section and I have received no payment of any kind for doing so. 

Please feel free to send me information on any new releases, events, or other items of interest, which you would like to see mentioned.