The Pyre of Kaylon Moss

The Pyre of Kaylon Moss is a tri-fold pamphlet on a slick cardstock style paper so this will be a short one.Written for Old-School Essentials it would work with any OSR fantasy game with a little work. It's a short adventure that sees the party boarding a cursed whaler ship (which has ten different locations). The ship is forced to repeat the explosive incident. The party will encounter ghost whalers and their captain, as well as an undead piecemeal whale. The grossest foes are blubber oozes. While exploring the ship the tragic incident repeats itself, changing how npcs react and upping the danger level. 

Any OSE game that features an ocean or the coast could benefit from this fun encounter. I snagged it because of the Freeport OSE game I want to do.

Grab the pamphlet and pdf here.

Carcass Crawler #1

I was unable to find any cool OSE books at Origins so I decided to check out Exalted Funeral. I ordered Carcass Crawler #1 and The Pyre of Kaylon Moss. I also got a cool Mystic Punks trading card that looks like early 90's Marvel trading card. If you aren't familiar with Carcass Crawler, it is the official zine of Old-School Essentials. 

One of the coolest features of this issue of the zine is six new classes. Who doesn't love new classes? My guess is people that don't like fun. I kid... The authors actually discuss how some groups don't like having too many classes and while I don't agree, I get it.  What are these new classes? They are: 

• Acolyte - these religious zealots have divine abilities, but aren't traditional divine casters. They have six divine skills (which replicate magic abilities), can create and use divine magic items, and can heal with touch. The divine skills are percentile based skill checks (like thief abilities)
• Gargantua - "Big Siblings of Humankind" gargantua are 7 1/2' tall humanoids, they are able to open barred doors better than the average adventure, like giants they can also hurl rocks, gargantua are essentially D&D's goliaths.
  
• Goblin - as I mentioned recently, I love goblins!, members of this humanoid class gain an AC bonus against creatures larger than humans, can detect construction tricks, have infravision, can move silently like thieves, and have an affinity with wolves (which they can ride)
• Hephaestan - these demihumans have mental powers, have bonuses when listening at doors, can knock folks out by putting pressure on nerves, and look similar to elves.... yeah you guessed it these are OSE Vulcans. Okay, now that I think about it the name is a give away too...
• Kineticist - these warriors can use mental powers to harness force, the have enhanced AC, mental defenses, honestly they feel like Jedi to me 
• Mage - these students of the arcane are similar to acolytes, they don't cast spells on their own, but can create and use magic items (including scrolls), they have innate mage armor, can heal and allow a new saving throw against a negative effective, and can imbue mundane staffs with arcane magic when they wield them

The previously described gargantua, goblin, and hephaestan are given racial statistics if you choose the race and class are separate rules from Advanced Fantasy.

The zine introduces rules for black powder firearms. There is a basic discussion of firearms, rules for who are proficient with what types, new specialists adventurers can hire, as well as equipment listings and rules for specific types of guns and accessories. I've toyed around with running some OSE Freeport and these rules will be very useful if I do that.

There are a few new optional rules to modify your OSE games. There's a new rule that introduces combat talents. These are six new fighting style/combat tricks that give fighters new flair and help them differentiate from their peers. These are reminiscent of the Battlemaster fighter subclass abilities from 5e. Another new rule is d6 thief skills. The author admits that "fixing the thief" is a very common old school rules tweak so he presents an alternative to the standard percentile skills. In addition, there are some discussion of adjudicating thief skills. These are guidelines and rulings related those class abilities. One thing I really like is a discussion of whether a non-thief can attempt the skill and what their chances are.

I am extremely pleased with this zine. The content is very useful and I got it at a great price. I was able to snag print and pdf for five bucks because it from EF's Reanimated section. That means it has some sort of imperfection. Honestly I don't see any noticeable issues with my copy. I definitely want to pick up the other two issues. If you're interested Necrotic Gnome's product page will direct you to where you can snag it.

Vorpal Almanac Available Now

With words written by my homie Levi Combs and illustrated by Sally Cantirino, the Vorpal Almanac is a 52 page hardcover dropping on Exalted Funeral today. The book contains 22 legendary and unique blades. Each weapon includes art, a full descript of its powers and abilities, as well as dark histories and lore. I really like this approach and think it's fantastic when magic items feel special.

I'm going to admit I've not checked the book out myself, but given the creators, publisher, and images I've seen I'm going to go ahead and say this one will knock it out of the park!

Get your copy now by following this link. There are two versions, standard hardcover and cloth and gold foil cover.

Rayguns & Robuts Review

Rayguns & Robuts is a retro sci-fi tour de force by Levi Combs, the mad genius of Planet X Games. Most of the content was written by Levi, with a contribution from Luau Lou. The cover is done by Planet X regular Ed Bickford (who also has some wonderful interior art). The rest of the interior art is done by Lawrence Hernandez, JE Shields, Dan Smith, and James V. West. In addition to the awesome artwork for the games itself, there are a couple of fantastic retro comic book ads for other PX content. These just add to the character and sheer awesomeness of Planet X Games books.

The book is a system neutral (OSR adjacent). Instead of giving stats for a bunch of new equipment and things, this book assumes you already have a system you like that has those things. The book contains an overview of the setting, ROBUTS and why they could have rebelled, planets and destinations, an adventure, and the craziest collection of characters you've ever seen. Seriously, you're players will never forget characters like Professor Mantis (a literal giant mantis scientist in a lab coat) or the cyborg chimp, H.A.M. 

This book is wild. Seriously, everything Levi rights is just interesting af. There's so must style. I love that every time the mechanical villains are mentioned they are ROBUTS in all caps. This setting feels alive and weird in all the best ways. To be quite honest this is the kind of strange sci-fi setting I was hoping for with Alpha Blue many years ago (in the days before its author went full asshole). 

When/if I do run this game, I think I'm going to use Survive This!! The Blackest Space. Scorched or the original Blackest Space are great options too. White Star is another great option. They all seem like a great fits. The few stats that are in the book would be easy to use with them. You can get your own copy of Rayguns & Robuts here. While you're waiting on your copy to arrive check out this great Spotify playlist Levi made for it.

Phylactery Issue 3

Planet X Games is back with another issue of their amazing OSR zine, Phylactery! Ed Bickford's tribute to Uncanny X-Men 141 is great. The artwork is a great collection of pieces from Adrian Landeros, Ed Bickford, Ala Fedorova, Chris Carmen, JE Shields, Lawrence Hernandez, and Dan Smith. As per my usual review, I'll give a quick rundown of each feature and thoughts.

My Zine DNA

Levi gives a little background about his history and love of zines. This is a nice little intro and I think it's cool to learn more about a writer I admire.

The Secret History of the Grandfather of Assassins

Great background for to add some assassin oriented history to your game.  Every game needs an assassin's guild right? The article ends with a two unique magic items.

Alternate Death Blow Techniques for High Level Monks 

This feature provides 10 different alternatives to the 13 level quivering palm ability of the 1e monk. These feel like they were taken straight from a Shaw Brothers production.

Gods, The Fallen and the Forsaken

Five new obscure divine patrons are presented. Of these my favorite is Jurak, godling of mongrelmen (one of my favorite races) and outcasts. 

More Secrets From The Lich's Crypt

Need unique nasty items? This article is for you. There are three presented. Like everything Levi rights, they have pretty cool backstories and lore associated with them.

Secret Organizations and Diabolical Cults

Three new cults are presented. Of them, I have to say the Shade-Druids of Usk-Var apppeal to me the most. There's something about a group of vile albino druids that checks all the right boxes. Levi does such a good job with these articles, I sometimes think he might be the head of a secret cabal.                 

Evil Books and Sorcerous Tomes

This librarian loves any new tome related content. Levi gives us three new maniacal magical librams. Of the vile books of darkness, I think the Tableau of the Gibbering Maw is my favorite.

Naga Bob, Veteran Adventurer

A hired sword and thief. He can be a rival, ally, mentor, or part of your party.

Saint Kurnus, The Fallen

Fallen paladins are great villains, especially tragic ones. The tale of Saint Kurnus is a sad one. 

The Grand Heresy of Chernobog 

Your game needs priest-liches driven by hate! These malicious undead spellcasters are described and a example is given.

Cursed Barrow of the Whispering Skulls

This short adventure includes, hooks, rumors, a map, and encounters. I haven't ran it, but it looks like a nice side trek for any game.

Myths and Legends Straight Outta The Grindhouse

Levi introduces us to Kaltraraag, "the Graveyard of Dragons." This legendary locale is said to be saturated with magic, being the final resting place of numerous dragons. 

Here There Be Monsters!

Four new monsters are presented: blight hag, Kyuss polyp, murderous idol, and witchmaw troll. The 

Kyuss polyp is my favorite, though I'm not sure if Kyuss is in the OGL.

The zine ends with some illustrations and an advertisement for King Tut's Rootin' Tootin' Weird West RPG Extravabonanza. Hands down, Levi Combs, is one of the best active rpg content creators. My man has a wonderfully twisted mind and knows how to articulate his thoughts. Order your copy today at Exalted Funeral.

The Halloween Babysitter

Diogo posted pictures of The Halloween Babysitter back in October and it looked so cool, I had to grab a copy from Exalted Funeral for myself. The zine is 21 pages of gorgeous and horrific goodness. The art is phenomenal and was created in a few types of media. The zine opens with a comic that does a great job of explaining the game and setting the mood. 

For one reason or another, the the players (who are all playing children) have been taken to a home with a peculiar babysitter. They most complete or her chores or face horrific punishments. The zine gives character creation rules, stats for antagonists the children will face, background on the babysitter, and a map of the home. The game is deadly, but given that it's for a system called Squishy, that's to be expected. This feels like a partial review, because I am not familiar with Squishy so I can't tell you exactly how this game plays out. It seems that the rules are really simple and easy to pick up and it can't be too complex.

If you like Halloween or horror, I highly recommend this zine, even if you never plan on playing it. It's just a cool collector's piece and beautiful. You can grab your own copy here.

Magic and Shit!

Do you want a collection of badass magic items inspired by the and presented in a totally metal way? Then you need a copy of Magic and Shit!

This zine is a masterpiece of style AND substance. To keep the old school metal feel, it's designed to looking like a cassette. . The tracks on the back are the names of the magical treasures found inside. 

Speaking of magical treasures, there are 28 twisted items. Each item is presented as follows: item name, song lyric inspiration, description with loose stats, and dark lore. I say loose stats because these items could be used in pretty much any elf game that uses a d20. While I'd say there easiest to add to old school versions, just a few minor adjustments and they are 5e ready (which is what system I plan on using them with). Not every item has an accompanying piece of art, but most do and the art is badass.

The items found in this book are definitely unique. My personal favorites are Bloodyguts' Bone Rattle and the High-Flyin' Jawbone of Cutter Wotts. Bloodyguts's Bone Rattle looks wicked, being a human bone topped with a skirge skull. This horrific item inspires magic fear. The High-Flyin' Jawbone on the other hand is a nasty weapon tied to the Howling Crater. It's essentially a nasty looking magical boomerang. I'm down for any references to crater mutants. 

I do believe Levi can't do bad work. This zine is packed with creativity and is a love letter to anyone that used to sit around and listen to music while rolling dice in their younger days. If you didn't back the Kickstarter keep any eye on the PX page over at Exalted Funeral. You're going to want this one when it goes live to the public.

Free RPG 2 Is Live!

All month long there are great things going on over at Exalted Funeral.The entire store is on sale, with everything being at least 15% off. In addition, Matt is hosting Free RPG 2. Not able to participate in Free RPG Day? Exalted Funeral has your back with the best of the indie scene! If you make orders this month you can snag two of the free releases in print.  [Looks like I'm a little slow, they sold out in the first hour] Not planning on ordering? They've still got you covered. You can go here and add all sixteen of the Free RPG 2 submissions in pdf form for free!

I've downloaded all of them and there are fantastic, bizarre, and fantastically bizarre submissions. I love them. These are my favorite:

Slashers & Victims - okay this one is cheating because it's The Lone Bards release, but seriously, it's a print and play slasher game... what more could you want?

The Man of Many Mothers - This twisted system neutral adventure involves a constantly reborn evil tied to the mystic land of the unborn and a dark coven of witches. This one is definitely fucked up, but is wonderful at the same time. If you're a fan of witches and such, you'll want to read this.

Halflings and the Hive - Another twisted system neutral adventure, this one involves a halfling village near a giant hive of extra dimensional bees. There are different factions and other aspects to customize encounters and it seems like a great community to drop into your game.

Free RPG 2 - No Money, No Problem

Recently the fine folk of Exalted Funeral announced they would be doing a Free RPG event.

For the entire month of July we are hosting a month long Free RPG event where we will host ALL submitted products and hand select 4 entries to be printed (quantity of 25 & hand numbered) 

please send them to exaltedfuneral@gmail.com and the deadline will be June the second to last week of June! 

They need to be:

B&W and Ready to publish in a zine or pamphlet format, Please keep it to 1-25pgs. We ask that you include our small logo or this above image someplace

The Lone Bards have answered the call for submissions and we did an update and more comprehensive version of Slashers & Victims Light. Though it is still based on Swords & Wizardry Light the new version has all the rules you need to play. It's also much more printer friendly. Keep an eye on Exalted Funeral the month of July to check out all the cool releases.

C.H.U.D. and Proud!

Going to be a little vain and less formal with this post.

Y'all this shirt is sick af. Designed by Seriously Ugly for my favorite online gaming store, Exalted Funeral, it is badass!

Final Days of The Ultraviolet Grasslands Kickstarter

There are only three days left to back the psychedelic rock Oregon trail rpg that is The Ultraviolet Grasslands. Luka Rejek's work on this looks absolutely phenomenal and since Exalted Funeral is taking care of distribution and such, you know it's going to be fantastic! The project has blown through stretch goals and has been doing fantastic. If you want something unique, you should definitely check this out!

#PamphletJam

Recently I discovered that Nate Treme of the Highland Paranormal Society has created pamphlet adventures.  This is a really brilliant idea. He sent copies Exalted Funeral. Order something cool from those awesome folks and they'll include one for free.

He's created an event, Pamphlet Dungeon Jam, over at Itch.io. Josh and I plan on taking part, so The Lone Bards will be taking part. I think all of my rpg creator friends should participate too. And keep the idea going. Having a con-exclusive pamphlet adventure that can only be obtained from meeting up in person is a really cool idea. I plan on having one ready for Origins and Gencon.

Deals With Demons

I mentioned this in a previous post, but I love Exalted Funeral. While browsing there yesterday, I found this interesting product: Deals With Demons by World Champ Game Co.. Check out the description:

Deals With Demons is a limited edition zine of a ruleset I use for player death in D&D 5e. (can be easily tweaked for other editions).

The zine is composed of six sealed red envelopes. In each envelope is a card offering a unique deal from a demon. After failing their death saves, a player may choose to accept the deal and return to life with a listed curse (and mechanical change to their character sheet) or pass and truly die. Rules are printed inside the cover so as to not spoil for players.

Each zine includes 6 unique demons (no repeats) out of a possible 18, so each zine is unique.

The first edition of DWD is limited to 25 hand stitched and numbered copies. Available here are the 10 remaining copies after Grand Rapids Zine Fest.

This is a fantastic idea and while it may not be used every game, it's a cool trick to have up your DM sleeve. The look and sound like quality products. If you want a set you need to act fast though. As the product description says, there are only 10 remaining and I have it on really good authority that one was ordered this morning... you know because I ordered one this morning.

Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dicerollers

Have y'all seen the newest shirt being released by Exalted Funeral? It combines gaming with one of my favorite b-horror flicks, C.H.U.D.! The art was designed by Seriously Ugly. You can pre-order the shirt here.

C.H.U.D. (Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Diceroller)
Armor Class: 14
Hit Dice: 3
Move: 12
Morale: 10
Terror: 12
HDE: 5

Attack: Claw (d6)

Bonuses: +2 to hit, +2 to Toughness, +2 to damage rolls, +4 to rolls involving games.

Radioactive: Because of the radioactive nature of C.H.U.D.s, damage dealt by them can only be healed by magic, powers, or professional medical treatment.

Metagaming: Dicerolling C.H.U.D.s have strange ability to break the 4th wall. This basically allows the gamemaster to cheat. For example, if they might know a character's weakness or attack a the character with the lowest AC or HP. When they use this ability the GM must explain how they did this (in character) by saying things like, "Dude I peaked at your character sheet." or "Everyone knows that your class has that ability."

Mutation: Anyone damaged by a C.H.U.D. has the potential to turn into one. If you're using Zombies!, players must make an Infection every time they are struck by a C.H.U.D).

The Ultraviolet Grasslands

The Ultraviolet Grasslands is a Kickstarter project written and illustrated by Luka Rejec and released by the cats at Exalted Funeral. What is it exactly? According to the Kickstarter, it's everything players and gm's need to run a psychedelic, heavy metal, Dying Earth meets Oregon Trail style game. It's a rules-light science-fantasy setting/adventure/campaign book that will give month's of weird fun.

I'm going to be honest. I'm having a hard time picturing that in my head but it sounds fucking epic! I'm on board with this one and have backed at the basic print level, but can see me raising my pledge as more things are unlocked. The project fully funded in less than eight hours and is running through April 13.

Definitely check this one out folks.