OSR News from the Underdark Gazette - Sunday, May 1, 2011

We have another slow newsweek, this go around. After the creative frenzy of the past 12 weeks or so, it's not surprising. The upside is, I can catch you guys up on a few items I haven't had time to report on previously.

Something Cool for Those who Read German

Drachen über Larm by Moritz Mehlem. Art by Dominik Krischer. 9,95 Euro. Per Moritz:

 32 pages - module for characters level 1 - experienced players and referees - it has DRAGONS (yes - it's for level 1 characters...)

Shipping is available to the US and GB for 4 Euro.

LotFP Unleashes the PDF's

Vornheim: The Complete City Kit by Zak S. Lamentations of the Flame Princess. PDF available for 5.00€. The Print/PDF combo is still available for 12.50€. 75 pages.

Vast is Vornheim, The Grey Maze…

…but I'm not here to bore you with that. This book is not about Vornheim, it’s about running Vornheim – or any other city – in a fantastic Medieval setting. And about running it with a minimum of hassle – so you and your players can get to the good stuff…That’s why we called it a ‘Kit’ – you can use it to build your own city, even in the middle of a game. Give somebody a floorplan and they’ll GM for a day – show them how to make 30 floorplans in 30 seconds and they’ll GM forever.

That said, anyone hoping they bought a book containing The Real Vornheim That The D&D With Pornstars Girls Play In has got it. These are our rules and tables and monsters and places. I wouldn't want to spend all this time writing a book I could't use...

– from the introduction

We asked Zak S., the game master of I Hit With My Axe, to make a little book full of the notes he had when running city adventures – and everything he wished he had. He gave us not only a sourcebook detailing key rules, tables, monsters and places in Vornheim – the city at the center of the Axe campaign – but also a treasure chest of resources for running adventures in any city.

Need to know how to get from here to there even if neither here nor there are listed on a map? Even if there is no map? Need a random encounter? Need instant stats for that random encounter? Need to know why there was a random encounter? This book was designed to help you make a city happen now.

In addition to details on Vornheim, adventure locations, and player commentary from the I Hit It With My Axe girls, every single surface below this jacket – including the back of the jacket, the book covers underneath, and the inside covers – has been crammed full of tools to help you build and run a city in a First, Second, Third, or Fourth Edition game.

Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Role Playing Grindhouse Edition by James Edward Raggi IV. Lamentations of the Flame Princess. Available in PDF for 10.00€. The Print/PDF combo is still available for 32.50€.

Mystery and Imagination, Adventure and Death

Beyond the borders of civilization, beyond the influence of manipulating politicians, greedy merchants, iron-handed clergy, and the broken masses that toil for their benefit, the ruins of ancient civilizations call to those bold enough, and desperate enough, to escape the oppression of mundane life. Treasure and glory await those courageous enough to wrest it from the darkness. But the danger is great, for lurking in the forgotten shadows are forces far more corrupt than even civilization. The price for freedom might be paid in souls.

LotFP: Weird Fantasy Role-Playing presents a sinister and horrific twist on traditional fantasy gaming and provides you with all the tools needed to create and run a long-lasting campaign tailored to your specific vision. Simple enough for a beginner – with material intended for those that have never before played a role-playing game – yet meaty enough for the veteran, this is a complete game in one box. Included in this box:

The Grindhouse Edition includes never-before-seen spells, magic items, and introductory adventure, as well as a revised layout and over 100 new pieces of fantastic art that will transport you into the nightmare world of LotFP: Weird Fantasy Role-Playing!

(order 5 or more copies, a group discount applies - each box will cost just 24,37€)

(Warning: Explicit Imagery! Recommended for ages 18+)

Contents:
• Tutorial Book (96 pages) Introducing the Basics of Role-Playing
• Rules and Magic Book (168 pages) A comprehensive reference for playing the game
• Referee Book (96 pages) Tools for campaigns and adventure
• 7-piece Dice Set
• Character Sheets

Artwork by:
Rowena Aitken
Aeron Alfrey
Tomas Arfert
Dan Berger
Johnathan Bingham
Nicole Cardiff
Christina Casperson
Ernie Chan
Dean Clayton
Ramsey Dow
Laura Jalo
Daniel Lapham
Vincent Locke
Eric Lofgren
Rich Longmore
Peter Mullen
Russ Nicholson
Jason Rainville
Cynthia Sheppard
Book Back Cover Background
Amos Orion Sterns
Filip Stojak

Is This the Future of Module Design?

Aqualii Temple by Greg Christopher. Dark Horse Game Design. Available in PDF for .99 cents. 48 pages.

Actually this is not really a book. It is the first production model of a new kind of PDF design called an Interactive Module. It is a new way of organizing module information and this PDF is a demonstration of its application.

This PDF is NON-LINEAR. It is designed to be used on a computer or tablet, right at the game table. Instead, you start the module looking at the dungeon map. The map itself is interactive and clicking on each element of the map will link you to a page that describes it. However, since the PDF is formatted to fit your screen and be easily read, this transition appears seamless. It looks like boxes of text are appearing on the map right before your eyes. You can then click on other dungeon elements to seamlessly transition to that information as well.

The end result is a unique method of data visualization, a dungeon map that appears to be pulling up information as you request it. No more fumbling through a book looking for the information you need, just click on the map and it will be recalled right before your eyes.

It must be seen to be believed!

All of the game-specific material in this module references the free Errant Roleplaying Game by Greg Christopher. If you do not have a copy of the game, it is available for download from errantgame.blogspot.com.

Sine Nomine Teams up with Mongoose

From the Mongoose Publishing website:

You have seen the PDF, now prepare for it to appear in your local stores.
In conjunction with Sine Nomine Publishing, Mongoose is bringing the Stars Without Number RPG to mainstream distribution and your local stores.

Stars Without Number is a science fiction RPG inspired by old-school gaming aesthetics. Quick and familiar game mechanics are supported by extensive tools, tables, and tips for creating unexplored stellar sectors, enigmatic aliens, ferocious xenomorphs, and scheming interstellar factions. Game masters can take advantage of one hundred sci-fi adventure seeds designed to interlock with a world generation system involving five dozen descriptive “world tags”, each fleshed out with examples of friends, enemies, places, things, and complications appropriate to the tag. Resource tables for random generation of names, NPCs, religions, political parties, architectural styles, and room furnishings excel in generating the kind of fast, smooth content that sandbox gaming demands.

You can find more information (as well as free PDFs!) at;

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=86467

Stars Without Number will be published in September (though copies will be available at Gen Con) with the first supplement, Skyward Steel, following in October.

 A Lejendary Adventures Clone

Perilous Journeys by Jamie Hardy. Available in Print for $8.50 and in PDF for free. 129 pages. Thanks to Josh Sherrer of Grimmhaus for turning me on to this. Josh has a review up, here. 

Perilous Journeys is a new skill-based role-playing game that allows for completely customizable players. The game provides 8 races to choose from, over 35 different abilities, and 7 different magic types. At the core of PJ is an intuitive percentile system that embraces the rule-light approach to gaming over more rule heavy systems that slows down gaming.

 More Cool Stuff from Sham

Visit Sham's Grog & Blog for The Art of Delving. Blogpost or PDF.

Scottsz Continues his Truly Impressive Work on C1

Cold Text File C1 - A Dungeon Skull Exercise.

Old School on Amazon!

Roll the Bones: Fantastic Tales from Fight On! Magazine is available in softcover on Amazon and now for $9.99. If you order a few more things from Amazon as well, it qualifies for Super Saver Shipping! Also available on Creatspace. 


Download some Mini's

ze bulette of Dungeons & Digressions has Rogues - Free Paper Miniatures.

GODS IN SPAAACE

GH Comic #305: Fellowship Broken.

More Greyhawk is Coming

The Oerth Journal is calling for submissions!

ChicagoWiz Smash!

The sandbox myths - they continue and I stomp 'em.

The sandbox problems and the DM skill level.

Gamma World at Grognardia

James Maliszewski has been posting a lot of GW stuff this week and just started a Cover to Cover series. 

More Groovy Stuff from Zak

Crawlier Carbuncle, Creepier Crypt Thing, and Everything In-Between. Love the Caryatid Column illo! The Caterwaul is kinda freaking me out.

And Now, Time to Check in With Dyson

Reposted from goblinoidgames.co:

New material of interest to the old school (excluding my rants and editorials)

• A Dyson Mapping "Tutorial" - a quick overview and step-by-step scans of how I draw my maps.
• Forgotten Geomorphs - Six new geomorphs that taste great together!
• [Random Thursday] A Xenomorph May Be Involved - random generation tables for "minor races" in Star Frontiers
• [Friday Map] Erdea Manor - the Depths - map of level 3 of Erdea Manor

Some Stuff from Tsojcanth

Transcription of the Lost Pages: Volume 1 – Supplemental Rules

Some Spells

Gavin at The City of Iron has An Arcane Alphabet for you.

Something Nice from Usherwood

PDF's of the Character Sheet from the new OSRIC printing. Fillable and regular. Courtesy of  Usherwood Publishing.

One of those things I've been meaning to Link

Djeryv's Graveyard. Generators, Character Sheets, Random Tables and all kinds of other goodies! Stuff for LL, OSRIC, Mutant Future, Star Wars and more. Ooh! A Bard Character Class for OSRIC. An Alchemical Ingredients Generator! That looks like fun! A 30 page Post-Apoc setting - Broken Urthe. And a short 3-page one - The Zendynn Expanse. That's not all, so if you haven't visited the site yet, go thou forth and have some fun! Damn! I haven't had a chance to more than glance at this stuff (I'm only really checking it out for the first time, as I type this) but it all looks to be cool as hell! Thanks Djeryv!

This Looks Pretty Cool

D.M. Muse - An Online Tool for Referees Powered by the OSR Community. RandomTables. Generators (Stronghold Generators, Weather, NPC's and more.) You can join the site and add Tables. All in all, this looks quite promising. I don't DM straight from the laptop, anymore, but I do keep it nearby, just because of stuff like this!

Building a Better Thief

The Jovial Priest plays Dr. Frankenstein with the Thief.

More info for the Publishing-curious

Tim of Gothridge Manor is keeping us updated on the sales figures for Knowledge Illuminates. 

Videos

More from Samwise7.

Basic Fantasy News

More Updates to Fortress, Tomb, and Tower, The Chaotic Caves and Monkey Isle.

One Grognard's Opinion: Reviews

Tenkar of Tenkar's Tavern continues his The Draconic Archaeologist series.  And reviews Woodland Warriors. 

Kelvin Green of Brighton Roleplayers has a review of Vornheim.

Paul runs Into the Forgotten Realms. And Delta plays.

Dangerous Brian reviews Cascade Failure. 

Simon of ...and the sky full of dust has a play report of The Grinding Gear. 

ChicagoWiz reviews Blackmarsh.

Aaron has a video review of Pars Fortuna.

Maptime 

Thomas Denmark of Original Edition Fantasy has some geomorphs for you.

Justin S. Davis of A Field Guide to Doomsday has his campaign map Wrexus. 

More geomorphs from Stonewerks. And more.

More geomorphs from John Laviolette of The Nine and Thirty Kingdoms. 

ChicagoWiz posted his map of the Lands of Men and another of The Land.

Simon of ...and the sky full of dust has his Jainesville Map.

Omlet of Underworld Kingdom posted his Cross section map of the Blackcrag Fortress.

In Honor of my Receiving A Package from Finland

I'm Going to Pimp Vornheim Again This Week!

VORNHEIM: THE COMPLETE CITY KIT (PRINT + PDF) (PRE-ORDER) by Zak S. Lamentations of the Flame Princess. 12.50€. Hardcover/PDF combo. PDF available for 5.00€. 64 pages. (75 page pdf.)

Vast is Vornheim, The Grey Maze…

…but I'm not here to bore you with that. This book is not about Vornheim, it’s about running Vornheim – or any other city – in a fantastic Medieval setting. And about running it with a minimum of hassle – so you and your players can get to the good stuff…That’s why we called it a ‘Kit’ – you can use it to build your own city, even in the middle of a game. Give somebody a floorplan and they’ll GM for a day – show them how to make 30 floorplans in 30 seconds and they’ll GM forever.

That said, anyone hoping they bought a book containing The Real Vornheim That The D&D With Pornstars Girls Play In has got it. These are our rules and tables and monsters and places. I wouldn't want to spend all this time writing a book I could't use...

– from the introduction

We asked Zak S., the game master of I Hit With My Axe, to make a little book full of the notes he had when running city adventures – and everything he wished he had. He gave us not only a sourcebook detailing key rules, tables, monsters and places in Vornheim – the city at the center of the Axe campaign – but also a treasure chest of resources for running adventures in any city.

Need to know how to get from here to there even if neither here nor there are listed on a map? Even if there is no map? Need a random encounter? Need instant stats for that random encounter? Need to know why there was a random encounter? This book was designed to help you make a city happen now.

In addition to details on Vornheim, adventure locations, and player commentary from the I Hit It With My Axe girls, every single surface below this jacket – including the back of the jacket, the book covers underneath, and the inside covers – has been crammed full of tools to help you build and run a city in a First, Second, Third, or Fourth Edition game.

I love getting cool stuff in the mail! Especially handsome, hardcover, awesome RPG books! Thanks guys, for bringing us Vornheim.

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.