OSR News from the Underdark Gazette - Sunday, March 13, 2011

Blessings From The Frog God

The Northlands Saga - 1- Vengeance of the Long Serpent by Ken Spencer. Frog God Games. Available in a Softcover/PDF combo for $8.99 and in PDF only for $4.99. Estimated Page Count - 24 pages. Available in versions for Swords & Wizardry Complete and Pathfinder.

The Northlands Saga

This series of adventures takes place in the frozen north, where men are men, beer is ale and monsters are, well, scary. Who has not loved the setting of the 13th Warrior or wished to relive the Frost Giant’s Daughter by R.E. Howard? Heroes will fight evil in the cold lands, sail the treacherous ice filled seas where sea monsters swallow ships and crews and feast in fire-lit halls with Vikings! Planned as a series of 10 modules, this series will begin in January (appropriately, due to the cold). More information will be added as it becomes available. Written by Ken Spencer, this series is sure to send shivers up even the bravest adventurer’s spin

Splinters of Faith 5: Eclipse of the Hearth by Gary Schotter and Jeff Harkness. Frog God Games. Available in a Softcover/PDF combo for $8.99 and in PDF only for $4.99. Available in versions for Swords & Wizardry Complete and Pathfinder. No page count given, but FGG gives an estimate of 20-40 pages for all the modules in the series and RPGNOW gives a page count of 24, to the earlier modules in the series.

Ancient Evil Awakens

In a long-buried tomb, a grave robber restores a death-cult leader to life, and his cloud of evil spreads across the land. Left behind are the broken Scepter of Faiths and a litany of shrines to restore the weapon. But the evil one and his minions wait to destroy any who try...

Temples of faith, bastions of evil

Splinters of Faith™ is a collection of 10 adventures for characters of levels 1 to 15 that can be played individually or as part of an epic campaign to restore the Scepter of Faiths. Adventure in 10 fully detailed temples such as the Shield Basilica of Muir or the dwarven city of Anvil Plunge, and conquer the nightmarish Nether Sepulcher to restore the balance of good.

Ten complete adventures for low- to high-level characters, usable separately or as a massive linked campaign.

Eighteen unique temples (10 fully detailed) ready to drop into any campaign world.
New monsters and magic items to discover, and ideas for further adventures.

The Jungle Ruins of Madaro-Shanti by Scott Casper and Matt Finch. Frog God Games. Available in a Softcover/PDF combo for $11.99 and in PDF only for $4.99. 36 pages.

Another of the One Night Stand Series, Jungle Ruins of Madaro-Shanti is an adventure for a party of 4-8 characters of fourth through seventh level. A century ago or more, when the town of Cholagadi was just a frontier fort on the coast, Madaro-Shanti was the most powerful city-state in the entire Ambicuaria Jungle. Its citizens were highly advanced in the arts of magic, and even retained some vestiges of magical quasi-technologies perhaps more ancient than humankind itself. Their prosperity made for jealous enemies, none more covetous than the powerful and sorcerous Kiengaa Tribe of the deep jungles. The Kiengaa plotted against Madaro-Shanti, making dark pacts with the monstrous ape-centaurs known as the Borsin, and with the monkey-faced, snake-like monsters known as the Hanu-Naga. Once this terrible, unnatural army was gathered, the Kiengaa and their allies laid siege to Madaro-Shanti itself.

As the walls of Madaro-Shanti fell, and the invaders swarmed into the city, the high priest of the city closed himself within the royal shrine, praying to all the gods for intervention. Yet none of the gods answered his prayers until the last – and that was Ojala, whom the people of Madaro-Shanti knew as a god of evil and treachery. A deadly bargain was struck that night, and true to his promise, Ojala caused a horrible wasting disease to strike the besieging army. But the full extent of the evil god’s treachery became clear when the surviving people of Madaro-Shanti themselves began to succumb to the same disease which had slain their enemies. Within a fortnight, all the people of Madaro-Shanti had either died of the plague or scattered into the depths of the predator-filled jungle.

In only a few years, the city was overgrown by the jungle and fell into ruin, but the magical disease was to have one final consequence. Not only did the contagion affect the Kiengaa and the Madaro-Shanti – it also infected the mind of a powerful nature-spirit that inhabited the surrounding jungles. The nature-spirit Cho-Odaa, driven mad by the disease and hungry for vengeance against all humankind, has discovered the means to exact a terrible reckoning.

You Say You Want Some More Swords & Wizardry? Mythmere Delivers!

The Nameless City by Alphonso Warden. Art by A Hot Elf Chick Johnathan Bingham. Mythmere Games. Available in Print for $9.95 and in PDF for $4.95. Available in Core/Complete and Whitebox Versions, 40 and 44 pages, respectively. The PDF is also available from RPGNOW here and here.

In the world there are ancient, degenerated remnants still living, survivals from unimaginable antiquity. What happens when the adventurers stumble across one of these deadly places? There must be treasure untold for those willing to brave the long-forgotten perils of ... The Nameless City. This module by Alphonso Warden is loosely based upon the eponymous short story by HP Lovecraft, and is designed for characters level 7-10. The module is available for both Swords & Wizardry WhiteBox and Swords & Wizardry Complete Rules and Freestyle (Core) Rules. If you're going to use it with another old-school system, it's obviously going to be compatible, but use the Complete/Freestyle version for this: the hit dice and other information will be closer to other systems than WhiteBox.

How About Some More Sorcery & Super Science!


Characters Below the Shattered Moon - Volume 2 by Joseph Browning. Art by David Esbri and Joan Guardiet. Expeditious Retreat Press. Available in PDF for $3.00. 7 pages.

After the cracking of the moon and before the rise of Atlantis the world was a place strange to the thoughts of honest men. The death throes of science amid the birth of magic sculpted new generations of conquerors who strode the lands forging civilizations of steel, sinew, and sorcery from the decrepit hulks of the ones that fell before. Tyrannical wizards, amoral super-scientists, charismatic catalysts, and multifarious mutants battled for wealth, power, and honor. It was ten thousand years of barbarity; ten thousand years spent in the shadowy shells of past glories, hiding from horrible creatures that scratched and skittered for blood; ten thousand years of tyranny and injustice, ten thousand years of Sorcery & Super Science!

This short PDF provides a harried GM with new highlights, 7 new whispers, and 18 new powers, mutations or spells. Any of these additions should find a quick home in any Sorcery & Super Science game!

Don't forget to pick up the Sorcery & Super Science! Core Rules as well as download The House of Blue Men, a free adventure featuring quickstart rules. Also don't forget about Creatures Below the Shattered Moon - Volume 1, 2, 3 and 4 and Objects Below the Shattered Moon - Volume 1 and Volume 2. Finally, drop by our Sorcery & Super Science Blog for additional Sorcery & Super Science goodness!

I Can Kill You With My Mind!

GA1 - Psionics by Courtney Campbell. Available as a Free PDF Download. 44 pages.

This is a tool you can use to implement psionics in any old school game! It is fully compatible with a variety of old school systems and clones, which I am not naming for copyright reasons. I personally play a version of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, so the class and schooling tables are geared towards that type of play, but the document is fullycompatible with all of the old school games and clones. This document can be printed out and dropped into any game, and works withpreexisting psionic text in current rule sets.

It is totally free and released under the OGL.

The free 44 page work contains:

• A description of psionic ability and how it is acquired
• A listing of psionic attacks and defenses and how to handle psionic combat
• A huge listing of powers, including devotions, sciences, and arts
• Psionic items, including rules for the creation of psionic ego items and artifacts
• A fully featured, 20 level, player character psionic class
• Psionic schooling tables
• Several packages and kits
• A psionic combat quick reference sheet
• Psionic encounters reference
• Two psionic power reference sheets (one for strict 1st edition play, and one for our slightly modified system)
• Art
• And more!

If you ever wanted psionics in your game and were frustrated by rules being spread out all over the place, or certain difficulties inherent in the system, trust that they've been addressed!

Material was also contributed by Jayson Elliot of Roll for Initiative, the first edition podcast, and Nathan Lord without whom the supplement would be a shadow of its current form. Thanks to both of them for their beautiful and hard work.

A few weeks ago, I found -C's blog, Hack & Slash and included a News entry about the author's impressive DM1: Interesting Treasure Generation PDF. Totally missing this! I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but a quick peak was more than enough to convince me to print it out, yesterday! It looks Awesome as all Hell, formatted in a style reminiscent of AD&D 1e material, with production values worthy of a for pay product. So go thou forth and download it, then tell everyone what you think!

So, You Say You Want a Psionic Mind-Flayer?


Carter Soles and Spawn of Endra of The Lands of Ara blog have added a Downloads page. All kinds of Free Stuff, here. A Mind Flayer, Encounter Tables and more!

The Chaotic Caves of Weirdness

Aplus of People them with monsters... has a 4 page Free PDF you might enjoy - The Chaotic Caves of Weirdness: Cave A - Kobold Lair.  He also has a play report from Chicagowiz's Classic D&D Marathon, you might enjoy. 

Some POD Goodness from Dan Buterbaugh and RPGNOW

Dan's Sword & Board: A Basic Fantasy Companion is now available in Print! You can still download the Free PDF, or order a print copy of the 84 page supplement for $3.17! Check out the Sword & Board blog, for more of the author's doings.


You Can Still Get The Free PDF Of Oubliette, Or Go Ahead And Spring For The Print!


Oubliette #5 edited by Peter Regan. Art by The Marg. Gold Piece Publications. Now Available in Print for $4.52. 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.

Peter posted Friday, that he has given away over 500 copies of issue #5 in PDF. If you haven't gotten yours yet, what are you waiting for? Go here and download it for FREE!!!

Time To Check In With Dyson Logos

Forwarded from goblinoidgames.com:

It's my birthday!

Well, it's my blog's birthday at least.

In addition to this week's post of two characters from the new edition of D&D Gamma World, and talking about how it's my blog birthday here (along with a random table of things to do to celebrate the blogiversary), and then having a two year retrospective here, I made a few old-school relevant posts:

The Granite Mount - a location that shows up pretty much at least once per campaign in my D&D games, it's my game world's equivalent of good old Weathertop.
Simple Carnage Upgrades - a pair of optional rules to make combat more dangerous in Star Frontiers. We used one in our last campaign and will be trying the second in our next one (starting soon).
Labyrinth Lord Monster Cards - a project to compile LL monsters on to business cards that I started and then lost two months ago, now restarted. This is just the first page - basically a proof-of-concept. More pages will come soon.
Stag Centaurs - a new monster for Labyrinth Lord, linked to the Wood Elementals that I posted back October-ish.
MAP - The Ancient Temple of Torrel - a three-level map of a ruined dungeon with a split second level.

It's Nice to see Sham Return to Blogging!

David Bowman of Sham's Grog & Blog has added some Free PDF's to his Sham's OD&D Stuff downloads section: 100 NPC Types, d00 Stairways and Dungeon Treasure Maps. Of course, while your there, go ahead and scarf up the Dismal Depths levels and other goodies!

A Complete Adventure in a Blog-post!

baronzemo of Forever Free Games has posted his FFG 5 Quick Adventure - The Battle to Protect - A Adventure for Characters of levels 6th-8th. Hex and Tower maps included.

Michael Curtis' Watchfires & Thrones Campaign

Michael Curtis of The Society of Torch, Pole and Rope posted his An Evaluation of Watchfires & Thrones: Year One, which many DM's may find of interest.

Warriors of the Red Planet

Al Krombach and Thomas Denmark have been posting some Design Notes and other items of interest on Warriors of the Red Planet, the blog for their upcoming Swords & Planet RPG.


More Analysis of the Old School Scene

Austrodavicus of There's Dungeons Down Under finished his The Old School Renaissance is Dead series, here. A friendly suggestion: Labeling your posts will allow easy linkage to series posts, and the like. :)

And Mythmere of Mythmere's Blog finished his series on Commercialization of the Old School.

Joseph Browning of Expeditious Retreat Press and the Sorcery & Super Science blog continued the discussion in his Two OSR Communities? post.

OSRAGD


J G Halmayr of Coasters Castles Combustion has written up an Old School Renaissance Acronym Glossary and Dictionary, added as a page to his blog.

Those Hot Elf Chicks Helped Me Find Several New Blogs, At Least... 


Like Digital Orc, where Dylan has his One Page Module: Brothers Keeper, Dark Crystal: A Labyrinth Lord Supplement, as well as other goodies in his What I've Created section on the right-hand column of his blog.

Things

Jim Pacek of Carjacked Seraphim has made a Deck of Normal Things, available in PDF for Free.

House Rulings

Gavin of The City of Iron has a 1 page PDF of his House Rules for Labyrinth Lord, available for Free download. 

Chainmail, Baby!

Ian of Magician's Manse has provided a Free PDF of his Reworked Chainmail Man-to-Man Table for OD&D: Draft 1.

Sweet Character Sheets!

Il Male of The Yaqqothl Grimoire has a groovy, Free Humanspace Empires Character Sheet in PDF. And another for B/X D&D!

OSR Logo

Thomas Denmark of Original Edition Fantasy has made a clean-up version of the OSR Logo, that's been floating around in various incarnations. 

A Website! What's That?

Labyrinth Lore, features adventures and supplements, available as Free PDF downloads. 

Phasic Archive!

Matthew Schmeer of Rended Press sent me this link to an archive, containing all three issues of Phasic - The Encounter Crititcal Fanzine!

And for those who aren't familiar with Encounter Critical, you may download the Free PDF here!

You Say You Want to Throw Your Hat Into the Publishing Ring?

Then Tim of Gothridge Manor and GM Games has some more insights to share!

Convention & Event News

Joe Bloch of Greyhawk Grognard will be running some events at Dexcon 14 in Morristown, NJ, July 6-10. 

Havard of Havard's Blackmoor has some news on the 3rd Annual David L. Arneson Maritime Miniatures Event.

ChicagoWiz posted his Classic D&D Marathon - Recap. Sounds like everyone had an awesome, awesome time! I also would like to point out this post made by ChicagoWiz this week: AD&D/OSRIC campaign - Requiem for a warrior/mage.

One Grognard's Opinion: Reviews from Around the Old School Blogoverse and Beyond

Mythmere has a Quick Review of SF3: Culvert Operations. 

Orion Cooper of The Moldy Vale has a review of Playing the Market, a system neutral supplement, for simulating market fluctuations in a fantasy campaign.

Tenkar of Tenkar's Tavern has a Mini Review of The Nameless City. 

Carter Soles of The Lands of Ara has a review of Knowledge Illuminates. 

James Maliszewski of Grognardia has reviews of OpenQuest and RuneQuest II. 

Beedo of Dreams in the Lich House has a review of The Nameless City. 

dpbrandt of Fire in the Jungle has a review of Jungle Ruins of Madaro-Shanti. Matt Finch has some comments, here. 

Brian of Playing D&D With Stuffed Animals has a play-report on Lesserton & Mor.

Beedo of Dreams in the Lich House has a play report on Hammers of the God. 

Nogal of Chronicles of Nogal has a play report on Hammers of the God. 

Pookie of Reviews from R'lyeh has a review of Ruins & Ronin. Also, some of my readers may be interested in his review of WotC's latest version of Gamma World. 

N. Wright of Lawful Indifferent has a review/play report of Dungeonslayers.

Lastly, here is a link to my review of Tales of High Adventure #1.

Ian of Magician's Manse has some Musings on Dragons at Dawn. 

Tim Brannon posted a review of The Nameless City on RPGNOW.

Time for Some Maps!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Greg Gorgonmilk of Gorgonmilk has posted his Eastern Boondocks map, along with a Gazetteer!

Matt Finch of Mythmere's Blog posted his Map of South Beyond. 

Greg Christopher of the Errant RPG blog posted this Free Map.

Alex Schroeder has a cool hexmap, on his GM Style Manual page.

Evan of In Places Deep posted A Map for a Swords & Sorcery Campaign. 

Iguana of Tales from the Tower has added a Game Art page, which features some maps work he did for I.C.E.'s MERP line. Nice stuff!

Trey of From the Sorcerer's Skull posted his Weird Adventures: The City Mapped.

Brutus Motor of This is Dice Country has updated his Geomorphs. 

Newt of Sorcerer Under Mountain posted Behold the Continent of Terror!

Zak of Playing D&D with Porn Stars is releasing a very large, free version of the Vornheim: The Complete City kit map. The preview he posted here is pretty large, itself! Not to mention, groovy as all hell!!!

What I'm Pimping This Week

Pyramid of the Dragon by Peter C. Spahn. Art by Miguel Santos. Published by Small Niche Games. Available in PDF for $4.95. 37 pages (this includes front and back cover, License page and two pages of adverts.)

Pyramid of the Dragon is a Labyrinth LordTM adventure for 4-6 characters of 5th-7th level. This adventure is a quick romp in and around a swamp known as the Blood Marsh that involves both wilderness and dungeon exploration. Challenges include a mixture of problem solving, combat, and roleplaying, including several potentially lethal encounters with a red dragon and various other denizens of the Blood Marsh, so characters who rely solely on the might of their sword arms may be in for a rude surprise.

Beginning the Adventure

The adventure begins with the characters traveling through the forested Border Hills along a well-beaten path or road. Why the characters are in the area is left for the Labyrinth Lord to decide. They may be on their way to or returning from an adventure, or they may be traveling to the frontier village of Holden that is located nearby.

Pyramid of the Dragon begins "in media res" with the characters witnessing an aerial battle between two dragons. When one of the dragons is mortally wounded and falls from the sky, the characters have the option to investigate the dragon's carcass or continue on their journey. Several chance encounters scattered throughout the adventure should eventually lead the characters to the fallen dragon's lair in the Blood Marsh where they can discover the ruins of an ancient city, save an unfortunate young man from a terrible curse, and thwart the plans of an evil red dragon.

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 an item, which the author has sent me a complimentary copy of, for purposes of writing a 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.