Friday, July 5, 2024

Gunslingers, Giants, and a Haunted Castle

Here are three free/pwyw Old-School Essential pdfs found on itch.io that I thought were cool and wanted to share.

Class Concordance #1 presents the gunslinger class. I assumed this might just be an OSE adaptation of the Pathfinder gunslinger or something like that. It is not. Though I only have a passing familiarity with Stephen King's Dark Tower series, these gunslingers are based on the ones of those tales. They are lawful warriors that serve an order and answer to higher powers. As far as class features are concerned they get a few at 1st level and a few other as they level up. For example they don't get their order's iconic weapons until 3rd level. The pdf ends with list of Otherworldy Beings based on King's mythos. It looks like it's supposed to be a d20 list, but it is numbered 3-19. Number 19 is The Author. Cheeky. I'm going to be honest, this one isn't really my thing, but I'm sharing it become I know folks love the Dark Tower books. Finally though the image says $1 it is PWYW (at least at the time of posting).

This is my WEIRD little GIANT is a giant-based tri-fold pamphlet. This one is fun as hell. It allows you to make each of your giants unique. We are presented with base stats. The rest of the pamphlet is random charts. There's one for figuring out how tall your giant is (which affects HD), how dangerous it is (which gives you abilities). There are also charts that allow you to figure out what your giant eats and their attitude. Of course it has chart that let you figure out why your giant is unique. Additionally there's a chart about what's in the giant's bag. I really appreciate this being included. The first issue of Dragon Magazine I bought had a chart like this. Finally there's a chart that let's you figure what the giants in your world. 

Castle Korpenhall is a one-page adventure. It was created by the illustrator/writer Gnarled Monster (who has released the fantastic looking Beyond the Borderlands series of zines). It was an attempt to turn Castle Ravenloft into a one-page dungeon. I think it does a fantastic job of capturing the vibe of Ravenloft and fitting it into limited space. One way this is done is by the map including items in the room and being more of an isometric illustration. In addition to OSE stats (which include the vampire Lord Blodig and other fearsome foes), there are Dungeon Revers and Mork Borg stats for the adventure. While the adventure is PWYW, if you pay $6 for it you also get an editable sketch of the original Castle Ravenloft and Korpenhalla.

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