OSR News from the Underdark Gazette - Sunday, November 28, 2010

It's Going to be a White Christmas!

The Third Printing of the Swords & Wizardry Whitebox Boxed Sets from Brave Halfling Publishing are in stock and will begin shipping on November 29, 2010. $25.00. Shipping to the US is $5.00 for any number of sets. (The post on the Brave Halfling site lists this as a 2010 Christmas Special. I'm not sure if the price will hold once January rolls around.)

Prepare to be introduced to the old style of free form gaming! Swords & Wizardry: WhiteBox is inspired by the original 1974 fantasy role-playing game created by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. These rules are flexible and open to interpretation – designed not to cover all conceivable situations, but to allow good Referees and Players the freedom to create and play games of their own design.

This Boxed Set Contains everything you need to play:

• 6″ x 9″ Game Box (This is an actual game box manufactured for just this purpose)
• Four Rule Booklets (Characters, Spells, Monsters, & Treasures)
• A digest-sized copy of Matt Finch’s, “Quick Primer for Old-School Gaming”
• Ten digest-sized Character Sheets
• Set of Polyhedral Dice
• Pencil

The First 50 orders will also receive two complementary modules – “The Vile Worm of the Eldritch Oak” & “The Ruins of Ramat!”

See the comments to John's original post, for a list of updates made to this printing.

New Releases

GT1 Path of the Delver by Jim Baney, John Feldman. Art by Katy "kovah" Grierson, Robert Flowers, Martin Siesto, Patrick Adams. Knightvision Games. Available in PDF format for $6.99. 48 pages.

Knightvision Games is proud to release our first adventure module called "GT1 Path of the Delver".

"Secrets to all things lie in the heart of Bitter Root Mountain...and the only thing between you and its secrets is an army of Orcs, a horde of undead creatures, and a secret cult that will turn your blood cold...Dare ye enter?" Path of the Delver is a Labyrinth Lord and AEC compatible adventure designed for 1st and 2nd level characters. Set in the upcoming Ebonyr campaign setting, it can also fit into any generic RPG world. The adventure combines urban, wilderness and a classic dungeon crawl. Inside the PDF you'll find:

• Over 9 new monsters including the Lessor Demenos and Mogren
• Over 9 new magic items including the Delver's Spectacles and Tears of Palandria

Written by Jim "knightvision" Baney and John "jcftao" Feldman

Oubliette Issues 1 - 4 Compilation by Peter Regan. Gold Piece Publications. Available in Paperback for $12.07. 148 pages. 

OUBLIETTE - A magazine for old school fantasy roleplayers. Written for Labyrinth Lord, but also ideal for use with any Basic/Expert/Advanced original or clone, with little or no adjustment required. This compilation brings together the first four issues of Oubliette in one volume. Each issue is also available individually from Lulu. The preview pages give the full contents of each issue. In PDF form every issue of Oubliette comes with a bundle of supplemental materials. Print customers can get hold of these by E-mailing oubliettemagazine@yahoo.co.uk with your LULU order number and I will send you a voucher for a free PDF download of all the supplemental material for the magazines.

Individual Print issues of Oubliette numbers 1 - 4 are now available for $4.52 each.  You can check out the Grognardia reviews of Oubliette, here. PDF issues are still available, here. 

A2 Lost Treasure of Actzimotal by Roderic Waibel. Sacrosanct Games. Available in PDF for $5.00.  Page-count not given.

You have stumbled upon an ancient map to a lost island. The script is like none you've ever seen, but hand written on the map is the word, "gold".

Lost Treasure of Actzimotal is an Adventure Module designed for 5-8 characters of level 3-5 or of Adventurer experience title level, depending on system used. What make this product unique is that there are two versions included in this PDF. One version is for OSRIC, AD&D, LL, etc, and the other version is designed for Altus Adventum 2nd edition. Essentially you get two versions for the price of one! So use your favorite system and enjoy the adventure.

Free Stuff!

A Paladin in Citadel turned us on to Imaginary Places, a site with a ton of Castle Maps.

Visit Greyhawk Grognard for the Ultimate City of Greyhawk Map!

Zachary of RPG Blog II turned us on to some Wilderness Maps.

Pat from Henchmen Abuse has been posting some dungeon level CC2  maps.

JDJarvis of Aeons & Augauries has been posting some dungeon geomorphs.

Geordie Racer of Geordie Goes Gaming!  has the Algolian Apocrypha, a work in progress, available.

Podcasts and Videos

Save or Die Podcast # 13: The Lost City of…Men?!

Save or Die Podcast # 14: Big Bad… Medusa!

Review Round-up


Visit the OD&D Discussion Boards, where Coffee has a play report of Tower of the Stargazer. 


Geordie Racer of Geordie Goes Gaming! has a review of Pars Fortuna. And a review of Splinters of Faith parts 1 and 2.

Tenkar of Tenkar's Tavern has a mini-review of Path of the Delver.

Andreas Davour of The Omnipotent Eye continues his reading of Dragons at Dawn: Part II, then Part III and then Part IV.

Rob Conley of Bat in the Attic runs the upcoming Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG. Part I here, then Part II and lastly, Part III.

In Other News

Zak has some new regarding I Hit With My Axe, which you'll want to check out if you're a fan of the show or Zak's blog, Playing D&D With Porn Stars.

bliss_infinte from The Warlock's Home Brew is accepting fiction submissions for Tales of High Adventure.

The Posters at the Goblinoid Games forums are working on some Deities for Labyrinth Lord.

What I'm Pimping This Week

The Phoenix Barony by David Bezio. Available in Print for $8.00 and in PDF for $2.50. 32 pages.

"The Phoenix Barony™ is a high fantasy adventure setting for the Labyrinth Lord™ RPG or any Basic/Expert Fantasy Role Playing Game. It is a concise lighthearted setting covering an area 100 x 100 miles. In this book you will find details on the world the Phoenix Barony is set in, descriptions of all the major locations in the Barony, history, Religion, organizations, and NPCs that make the setting unique. If that isn’t enough you will also find the details of a smaller adventure area within the Phoenix Barony, hints of further adventures that take place there, and a complete 1st level adventure to get you started.(OSRIC friendly)"

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."

The Latest “This Week in the OSR” Column, Is Up On The TARGA Blog

Check it out, Here.

My OSR News Column Is Up On The TARGA Blog

This Week In The OSR – Saturday, February 13, 2010.

New releases, events and more.

Labyrinth Lord – The Advanced Edition Companion Is Now Available!

For those of you who ignored my warnings and risked the wrath of Orcus, by NOT joining the Labyrinth Lord Society, you now have your chance to read the Advanced Edition Companion – A Player and Referee Guide of Advanced Edition Options for Labyrinth Lord!

The Hardcover is available from Lulu for $32.95. The perfect bound Softcover, also from Lulu, is $22.95. If you order today, you can use the coupon code SHADOW, for a 15% discount! Is that timing, or what?

The PDF is available from RPG Now for $5.95

Lastly, a free no-art version may also be downloaded from RPG Now.

Here’s a blurb from the back cover, just in case someone out there isn’t familiar with what this book is all about:

“The advanced first edition game as you remember it.
Labyrinth Lord gives you the play experience of the old editions of the world's most popular fantasy roleplaying game! The Advanced Edition Companion is a handbook of advanced player and referee options. Play the race and class possibilities from the "advanced" first edition 1978 rules. Introduce the essential first edition monsters, spells, and magic items to your Labyrinth Lord game. All of these options are fully compatible with the core Labyrinth Lord rules, so that you can continue to play race-classes right along with all of the advanced classes and races.”

I picked up the $5.95 PDF, earlier, this evening and IT IS SO DAMN COOL! With art by Steve Zeiser, Sean Aaberg and Jeremy Pea, combined with Dan’s Mad Design Skills, this thing is a visual feast! The content, of course, is superb! The PDF runs to 161 pages, packed full of OSR Goodness. Congratulations and Thank You, to Daniel Proctor and everyone who helped bring us this most Excellent Game!

Check Out Beyond The Black Gate For More New Release News!

L4 Devilspawn - the return of Len Lakofka.

Thanks Al, for the head’s up!

Two New Releases From Black Blade Publishing and One From Tricky Owlbear

The Images and text are from Black Blade’s site and RPG Now.

Mythmere's Adventure Design Deskbook Volume One: Principles and Starting Points

This isn't your granddaddy's book of random generation tables.  Oh no.  It's much, much more.

The thirty-seven tables in this book are designed to access the deep levels of your creativity, delving into the strange and often bizarre word of the subconscious where fantasy lies. As a tool for masterpiece adventure-design, these tables aren't about putting a few elements of fantasy adventuring into a chart for convenient dice-rolling. Instead, they focus on creating completely new roads and avenues into the dark forests and unknown reaches of the imagination. Of course, they can also be used to whip up adventure ideas on the fly, but when you sit down to create something truly unusual - this is the book with which to start.

This first volume of Mythmere's Adventure Design Deskbook focuses on the first step of the adventure-writing process - the initial creative spark.  Volume One contains tables for generating locations, missions, and villainous plots, the three most common starting points for writing an adventure. The fourth common starting point, an unusual monster, will be covered in the second volume of this series.

Written by Matt Finch

Cover art by Kenneth Seward

Illustrated by Jeff Preston and Matt Finch

44 pages, saddle-stitched.  $12.00 US

 

Ice Tower of the Salka

Sixty years ago, a mysterious flood of glacial ice utterly buried the tower stronghold of the Salka, a powerful and evil sorceress known throughout the land. Now, fissuring of the deep ice has revealed the rooftop of this lost tower. The secrets and treasurers of the Salka lie within, awaiting a band of powerful adventurers to explore the depths of her ice-entombed stronghold.

An all new Swords & Sorcery adventure for PCs Level 8-12.

by James C. Boney

20 pages, saddle stitched

 

Maxolt’s Magical Menagerie

Tricky Owlbear Publishing, Inc. presents this series of pdfs for use with the Swords & Wizardry Core Rules (and, by extension, any retro-clone game). The narrator here, Maxolt Alberiim, is the same personality featured in our “Behind the Spells” series of pdfs that focuses on the origins of the game’s classic spells. For this series, Maxolt (actually an ancient gold dragon who takes human form to better disseminate his wisdom) rummages through his hoard of magical paraphernalia and presents the most interesting items which many have thought long lost to the ages.

Includes 12 magic items!

 

The Print version of the Ice Tower of the Salka is $11.00, with a pdf version available, for $5.00. Maxolt’s Magical Menagerie is a pdf, available from RPG Now for the princely sum of $1.00 and runs to 6 pages. I’m quite pleased, to see more material, coming from Black Blade Publishing. Some unexpected expenditures, prevented me from ordering the S&W Whitebox box. Damnit! Which means, that when my quarterly work bonus arrives, next week, I’m gonna snag me a copy of Matt Finch’s new book. I’m on a roll, so, if anyone has run across something new and I haven’t pimped it, yet, please let me know.

It’s January, 2010! What Does The OSR Have In Store For Us, This Month?

From all of the recent announcements, it looks like we have several exciting  releases to look forward to, in the coming months. To kick things off, Brave Halfling Publishing is taking pre-orders for the Swords & Wizardry Whitebox Boxed Set. From their website:

This Boxed Set Contains everything you need to play:

• 6″ x 9″ Game Box (This is an actual game box manufactured for just this purpose)
• Four Rule Booklets (Characters, Spells, Monsters, & Treasures)
• A digest-sized copy of Matt Finch’s, “Quick Primer for Old-School Gaming”
• Ten of Marv Breig’s 3″ x 5″ Index Card Character Sheets
• Set of Polyhedral Dice
• Pad of digest-sized Graph Paper
• Pencil

A boxed set, with dice and everything! Now, is that cool or what? You get a break on the cost if you order soon. Check out the site for details.

Michael Curtis has written The Dungeon Alphabet, also available for pre-order. By  ordering early, you get a chance to win an autographed copy. The early reviews have been very favorable, indeed, which isn’t surprising, for those who follow Mr. Curtis’ work.

My dough is going to be tight as hell this month, so, I’ll probably have to wait until February to pick these up. That’s cool, though. I certainly can’t complain, as Santa was very good to me this year, stuffing my stocking with quite a bit of gaming goodness.

Happy New Year, everybody!

Until later…

A New OSR Release: The Savage Swords of Athanor by Doug Easterly is now available on Lulu!

In Print for $8.00. A PDF is available for $2.00. Here’s the blurb from the site:

“Savage Swords of Athanor is a science fantasy campaign setting and rules supplement for Swords and Wizardry. Athanor is a dying world with crumbling ruins, lost technology, dinosaurs, and ancient slumbering evil. Savage Swords of Athanor includes: new character class (the Rogue); modified spell lists and rules for magical mishaps; new races; a wilderness map, encounter charts, and key; and new monsters and items. This supplement includes material presented in the Savage Swords of Athanor blog, compiled, cleaned up and expanded as well as new material.”

Congratulations to Mr. Easterly!