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Showing posts with label nifty things. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nifty things. Show all posts

Friday, October 1, 2021

Nifty OSR Products Oct 1

YEAH! It's October! Here's hoping we don't have snow on Halloween this year.  Currently we are actually above normal temps, but that can change in an instant. 

Rather than finding the newer OSR stuff, I decided to do a bit more of a deep dive this morning to see what I could find. 

Scourge of the Demon Wolf
Three died. They were mauled beyond recognition. The Baron sent his huntsmen to kill the beasts and for a fortnight they tramped across the countryside. Between their whoring and drinking they killed twelve wolves, parading their skins through the village. They were hung on poles as trophies of victory. Then the huntsmen left, the beasts slain, the village saved… so we thought.


As the fields turned golden under the summer sun the killings began again. Four more died. Then the Baron's man, the bailiff, was killed on the high meadow in sight of Mitra's Temple. His screams could be heard well into the village. He was only identified after we reassembled the pieces.

With the priest's help I wrote a report to our liege, the Baron of Westtower. My report ended with,

There will be no harvest until the beast is slain and the killings stopped.

A 72 page adventure compatible with the Swords & Wizardry  rules and a setting supplement to the Majestic Wilderlands. detailing a small barony, a complete fantasy village, a conclave of mages, a crossroads hamlet, and a camp of wandering beggars.

Talespinner magazine, Issue One

Talespinner is a magazine dedicated to roleplaying gamespublished by Ganesha Games (Tales of Blades and Heroes, Familiars RPG). Playable materials are double-statted for Labyrinth Lord (tm) so they can be used by players of "Old School" games. In this issue:
Three short fantasy adventures ("The Crystal Heart", "Knock on Wood", and "The Crumbling Tower", all for low-power player-characters);
 
Swimming Rules for TBH;
New character types for Familiars RPG;
Monster Menagerie: Swamp Trolls (for TBH and LL);
The Martial Artist archetype for TBH;
Sneak Peek: Heroes of the Tales (TBH supplement);
Alternative Initiative rules for TBH;


Attack of the Frawgs

"The thing I love about Stephen Newton's Attack of the Frawgs is that you think everything's fine. This is just another adventure. Everything's cool. Nothing too unusual. Nothing crazy. Good ol' vanilla fantasy.  But when the frawgs hit the fan... all bets are off. Best "holy shit" reveal I've seen for DCC yet." 










Hex Crawl Chronicles 3: Beyond Black Water (Swords and Wizardry)

When the game was invented and sold in a little woodgrain box, the author told us a required supplement was an Avalon Hill game called Outdoor Survival. This was a wilderness survival game that consisted of a hexagonal map system that players would travel around, trying to find their way back to civilization, all the while trying not to die of thirst or get eaten by bears. This game map was used as the first wilderness "hex-crawl" for what eventually became D&D. Later, Judges Guild took this to a whole new level with the Wilderlands series. For many years, hex crawling was just the way the game was played. This series brings that back, or supplements existing games that use that system of travel.


The Purple Worm Graveyard

It is said that when the largest and most ancient of purple worms know that the time of their death is near, they make their way through rock, earth, and water to the legendary Purple Worm Graveyard.

The graveyard is said to lie somewhere in the barren Rockspyre mountains, but its exact location is unknown. Now and then an adventuring expedition sets out on a hunch or clue seeking the graveyard. Most return empty-handed and dispirited. Some never return.

But a few, just enough to keep the legend alive really, come back with whispered tales of subterranean fields littered with a fortune in purple ivory, unguarded and ripe for the take.

The Purple Worm Graveyard is a short dungeon crawl adventure that's best for levels 1-4. The adventure has 15 entries and is designed to provide a variety of challenges for a new adventuring party or one-shot game. It's got fabulous treasures, cunning monsters, dangerous traps, and ancient mysteries for players to discover and explore. It's written using the Labyrinth Lord rules, but will work with any dungeon crawl adventure game.

GET IT

Shadowbrook Manor

This Labyrinth Lord adventure is suitable for characters of levels 1-3, and is usable with similar basic or advanced fantasy role-playing games.
Once a powerful proponent of Law, the Archmage Tazimack the Red was eventually driven mad by a fear of mortality. As he slipped into insanity his retirement home began to reflect the chaotic bent of his mind. Long after Tazimack's unnaturally animated body has disintegrated, his manor house remains as a shadow cast by a twisted intellect. Can the characters bring order to this chaos?


Creatures of the Tropical Wastes (Mutant Future)

Do you need more monsters and mutations for your postapocalyptic, sci-fi, or fantasy game? If so, Creatures of the Tropical Wastes is what you are looking for!

Fully compatible with Mutant Future - as well as Labyrinth Lord and other games that use the familiar and easy-to-use "Basic" role-playing game rules introduced in the 1970s - this collection includes:

* A Foreword by Derek Holland, author of several licensed Mutant Future sourcebooks.

* 50 new creatures, including the mysterious Ahas Folk, the insidious Egret Puppeteer, and the fearsome War Baboy.

* 30 new mutations, including numerous Plant mutations.

* Official Mutant Future Poison and Radiation Tables for convenience of reference.

* Original illustrations by fantasy artist Sharon Daugherty

GET IT





Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Nifty OSR Products August 18

 Some of these are new, and some of them I found whilst doing a deep dive.  

The Pool Below

A group of three teenagers disappeared recently. They all recently came of age, and the town guards merely assume they ran off to seek fame and fortune. The parents of the missing children are skeptical, and fear something more sinister has happened.

Additionally, the deacon of an old, burned out temple devoted to magic and portents is hiding a secret. Even though the temple is assumed to be defunct, an evil priest named Shukan is operating out of a secret chamber located in the temple’s basement. Shukan has connected a magical portal to the temple’s baptismal pool, turning the font into a gateway to hell and terror.

Requires Old-School Essentials. Old-School Essentials is a trademark of Necrotic Gnome. The trademark and Old-School Essentials logo are used with permission of Necrotic Gnome, under license.

GET IT HERE

12x12 

From the creator of the Thought Eater podcast and blog comes the 12v12 RPG!

-D12s only!

-Fun to play!

-Intuitive rules and quick character creation have you playing in minutes!

-Easily adaptable to any setting or genre!

-Doubles as an SRD; create and sell your own products for free!

Check out Froth's blog here 

GET 12X12 HERE

Lightspeed RPG

There’s a lot of dead space in the night sky, where nothing changes. Life, however, pops up in the most unexpected places. Across all of the great galaxy Regnum, civilizations have risen up in search of knowledge, power, and wealth. Though the darkness is cold and the voyage is long, starships of every shape and size streak through the void, always on the way to bigger and better things. Adventure finds its place in every dark alley, bustling port, and glimmering tower in Regnum. The heroes, villains, and opportunists who stumble upon it have a tendency to become great and terrible, and that is where your story begins.


GET IT HERE


Nutmeg in the dark


Nutmeg in the Dark is a standalone adventure written in Knave, though any OSR system will work.

Something has happened to the northern mountain pass, those who have survived to  return reported the smell of nutmeg before their party was ambushed in the dark.

The town guard is raising a party to go clear the pass. He enters the local tavern to conscript all the patrons, PCs will be generated from this group. (I thought this was an interesting use of the you meet in a tavern trope.) When PCs die they come out of the citizen pool. 9 characters, The guard, the players and NPC citizen soldiers, are active to fight, the rest hang out in back, waiting their turn to join when someone dies.

GET IT HERE

PINHACK

PINKHACK, put simply, is my personal collection of houserules put forth for (mis)use and cannibalization. I named it “PINKHACK” because it is a melange of Christian Mehrstam’s Whitehack and Chris McDowall’s Into the Odd (which is red), but also mostly because I very much like the color pink. The rules presented here are mere suggestions; there are no permissions granted or withheld, only inspirations. Everyone uses the system they are most comfortable with, anyways.


GET IT HERE


AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.


When I was a kid growing up with the first generation of personal computers, we played a LOT of shareware games.  As time went on we started attempting to create our own games using programming languages like ZZT , and re skinning Wolfenstein.  There was also an adventure game maker that we found that allowed us to create games similar to Sierra's Kingsquest etc.  

Latetly I've been doing a bit of research to find reasonably easy programs for creating Mac based games.  Just an idea I've had kicking around for when its get super duper cold out here and boredom sets in.  

In doing some basic research I stumbled upon GB Studio, which basically allows you to create Gameboy style games with a WSIYWIG editor.  NEAT! There are 4 games that you can test out (and play online if you like!) 





Which has lead my down a rabbit hole, attempt to combine Gardens Of Ynn with a Zelda style game. 

Yeah... I'm biting off more than I can chew.   But hey HERE'S TO TRYING NEW THINGS! 







Thursday, August 22, 2019

Nifty things (1000th post)

A month or so back I thought I'd hit 1000 posts on 3 Toadstools.  I made a mistake, as I was looking at my drafts and my posts.  This one is the actual 1000th.  Which seriously amazes me.

Nifty Things! 

It appears there is a 2nd edition, 2nd printing of Sword & Spell.  There are three books, and the first one is free. 

Sword & Spell is a replication of the timeless Original Edition fantasy adventure game published in 1974, with incorporation of material from its wargame predecessor.


Simplify your gaming experience and return to the days when referees rued the day when player skill and wit overcame their every challenge. Play one of six different character-types to delve dungeons, fight dragons, and with some skill and luck, return victorious with riches and magic items.

There are three separate pdfs.

Book 1 - Might & Magic
Book 2 - Monsters & Treasure
Book 3 - Underworld & Wilderness Adventures 




DIY Monster Manual 
This 141-page book provides a collection of B&W monster illustrations with space for you to fill in your own stats and details for your favorite "Old School" system and create your own Monster Manual.

Included is also an area to create random encounter charts and random treasure charts!

Not free, but not expensive.  Get it here.




200 Dark Fantasy Odd Situations
10 pages of odd situations for a total of 200 items
Split into 10 emblematic locations (forest, temple, sanatorium, city, ruins, ...)
Most are not combat oriented, but who knows ...
These odd situations are perfect to entertain your players during long travels or exploration without throwing at them only random combat encounters.

They also can be useful to make your world feel alive with events or characters unrelated to player characters or their quest !

Not free but not expensive, get it here.


Treasure 


This book contains treasure tables for 1st Edition Dungeons and Dragons divided into 10 levels.  Free

Easy to read layout.







THIS DEFIANT EARTH—1950s Sci-Fi Roleplaying: Players' Guide
This isn't really OSR, but looks cool.  Just reading the preview, it looked right up my alley.  Plus the art is pretty bad ass.  Apparently this was a kickstarter that took awhile to complete.  

THIS DEFIANT EARTH is a rules-lite roleplaying game set in a universe inspired by the popular imagination of the 1950s: an Atomic Age dreamscape as envisioned by television, cheap paperback novels, comic books, and above all, movies. In this world, the American Dream is alive and well, but threatened by monsters from the deep recesses of the Earth, alien flying saucers, and sinister foreign agents pledged to destabilize the American way of life with super-advanced technology. Players take on the roles of America’s noble defenders in these thrilling but dangerous times! It’s up to you to stop the horde of gargantuan ants before they establish a colony in the heart of New York City. It’s up to you to thwart the sinister plans of Kro-Gar, the conqueror from space. You will test-pilot rockets, fight monsters, challenge unknown landscapes, and make the world safe for freedom and democracy. You will stand a champion of THIS DEFIANT EARTH!

This players' guide version of the game includes all you need to get started playing the game, including ready-to-use monsters!


THIS DEFIANT EARTH is based on the same Lucky 6 System driving the Urban Knights and Fear Response games (also available from DriveThruRPG). A number of 6-sided dice are required for play.

You can get it here.