Just A Stupid Dungeon Review

It's been a while since I've done a Lamentations of the Flame Princess review. A few weeks ago I picked up a couple new adventures at Time Warp Cards & Comics. Here's a spoiler filled review of one of them.

This one was written by James Raggi, the creator of Lamentations of the Flame Princess. The man can create great dungeons. The original Death Frost Doom was fantastic (even if it's a "nega-dungeon"). I think Tower of the Stargazer is a great first level dungeon (even if it can kill players right off the bat). Just A Stupid Dungeon isn't a good  though. To be fair, the adventure lives up to its name. You can't say you weren't warned.https://punverse.blogspot.com/2014/10/death-frost-doom-redux.html

The hook is pretty simple. There's a door in the side of a hill and no one really knows what's behind it. Related to the hook are stats for villagers and local kids. Raggi has stated that the reason for all the NPC stats and treasure listed in Keep On The Borderlands are because the players are meant to take it over. This doesn't bode well for the peasants. 

There are 10-11 rooms in the dungeon which have been stretched out to 24 encounters. There are a variety of funhouse style rooms, but they're pretty weird. Other than the peasants, the only other protentional combat encounter are rats... lots of rats. The dungeon ends with a world changing event, that involves world wide slumber. The ramifications are massive, but even more so if you've already ran something like Death Frost Doom in your game. Raggi's known to be miserly with treasure. Just A Stupid Dungeon has a bit more than usual and its pretty unique. 

If you couldn't tell I think this one is a pass. I don't regret buying it because I grabbed it on clearance, but had I paid full retail for this one, I wouldn't be happy.

October Horror Challenge - White Zombie (1932)

Day 12's prompt was "Black and White." I was originally going to watch City of the Dead, but something changed my mind and I rewatched White Zombie. 

Plot

A young man turns to a voodoo master to lure the woman he loves way from her fiancé, but instead the villain turns her into a zombie slave.

Review

This is a classic flick. It has a fantastic atmosphere and the sets are nice. I said it the first time I reviewed this one, but this is honestly my favorite Bela Legosi film. Yes Dracula is fantastic, but honestly I find Murder Legrendre to be a more striking horror antagonist. Like most flicks of the time, it doesn't do a great job showing another culture. The film is set in Haiti and features voodoo, but it's a watered down surface level take on them.

 Your Game 

These aren't new stats, but I thought I'd reshare the Lamentations of the Flame Princess stats I created for Murder Legendre a decade ago.

Murder Legendre

Armor: 12,  HP: 25, Magic-User 11, Movement 120', 1 dagger attack, Morale 9, Magic items  Zombie Potion (see below)

Spells Per Day: 1st: 5, 2nd: 4, 3rd: 3, 4th: 3, 5th: 2, 6th: 1

Legrandre's spellbook contains the following spells: Charm Person, Comprehend Languages, Detect Magic, Hold Portal, Identify, Message, Read Magic, Sleep, Shield, ESP, Forget, Phantasmal Force, Ray of Enfeeblement, Wizard Lock, Dispel Magic, False Alignment, Hold Person, Phantasmal Psychedelia, Speak with Dead, Charm Monster, Confusion, Animate Dead, Hold Monster, Magic Jar, Feeblemind, Animate Dead Monster, Mind Switch

Zombie Potion: Anyone drinking this potion must make a Poison saving throw or seemingly die. The next day the character rises from the grave as a "zombie" under the control of the potion's creator. Killing the creator will free the "zombie."

Movies Watched: 13

New to Me: 8.66

You Maniacs! You Blew It Up!

 This looks like a great place to set up shop.

Art by Erol Otus

Or maybe not....

Art by Ian MacLean.

The back cover of Broodmother Skyfortress for Lamentations of the Flame Princess lays waste to the iconic location, which is dope. I found it the other day while looking for resources for an OSE Keep game I want to do. Honestly I might have seen it before, but it looked new to me when I found saw it. I thought it was cool and I thought y'all might enjoy it too.

Green Devil Face #7

Earlier this week I discovered that  that Green Devil Face #7 (the official zine of Lamentations of the Flame Princess) includes a succubus class. Of course that means I needed to grab it. 

The zine starts with a introduction by James Raggi. He gives a manifesto for this issue of GDF (while also being cheeky and admits that it's cheaper and easier to release). Unlike the typical slick looking release by LotFP, this one looks like an old school zine. The text looks like it was typed on a type writer and some of it looks taped on. There is little art and it's all amateurish and hand drawn. This isn't a critique, because that's the point.

Leo Ruotsalo's 48 Ways To Use A Dead Princess is a table with 48 entries. This is the first of  two d48 charts. Each entry presents a new magic item created from the macabre remains of a dead princess. Some of these are really humorous, like the asshat and noble money maker (made from the buttocks and lady bits of a princess respectively). I will never use this chart as a whole. However, I really do like some of the items and will probably use them as twisted treasures. 

Tim "Samwise7" Harper's 2D6 Death & Dismemberment Table of Doom is a 2d6 chart you can roll on when a character dies. Some of these actually allow your character to survive, though you might be maimed in the process. This one is fun and despite its name, can add some life to your game.

Nik Stanosheck's Succubus class is next.  The class is short and sweet taking up only a page of the nearly 50 page zine. Obviously not going to reproduce the class or be too specific. I'll just say the class is essentially a variant cleric, with special consideration to spells and healing. This is the reason I bought the zine. I'm not saying I love this one, but its solid and definitely usable. 

Luca Negri's Esperantian Standoff is an interesting encounter. It involves inquisitors, a "witch," some bandits in disguise, and a relic tongue. Awh Rats is another encounter that takes the cliche "killing rats in the basement" hook and adds a failed magical apprentice, a portal, and a new rat-related magic item. Of these two, I think I like Awh Rats more, though both seem memorable.

Another chart from Tim "Samwise7" Harper, d66 is a Critical Hit Damage Table. This one is pretty straightforward. In addition to the tables, there are two optional rules included, as well. This is a cool table, but considering how lethal old school D&D is, do we need it to be deadlier?

C.A. Paul's Think of the Children! is a short adventure idea. The party are hired by a conservative church to find missing children. If you want to role-play as some self-righteous parents. this could be fun to run.

Alucard Finch's The Barber Surgeon's Ruin is another short adventure. The party find a miniature girl in their pocket. She leads them to her home where they encounter miniature malformed psychopaths created by a magic Brazier. Of the adventure/encounters in the zine, this is my favorite. 

Tim "Samwise7" Harper is at it again with Revised LotFP OSR Spells: First Level. This article takes the 20 1st-level magic-user spells from LotFP and reskins and reworks them a bit. The spells are more visceral, thematic, and appropriate for the game. For example Magic Missile becomes Arcane Vivisection which calls forth a blade of magical energy to strike surgically at the magic-user's foes.

Aarok Eckstrand's The Gaol of Hubert Bristol is an adventure that definitely plays to the weird of LotFP's weird fantasy theme. They tricked into going to a strange prison with a poo-eating monstrosity and hunchback jailers. I don't ever seeing myself using this one.

Sah's Vampire Eaters is an interesting adventure location. Players come to an out of the way prospering town. They are welcomed by the friendly residents. They may seek out the mystery of the town's prosperity. You might have guessed by the title, but they have a chained up vampire that they harvest meat from. This one is gross and weird, but could be a interesting village to add to your game.

 J. Smaug Vestergaard's Heksen (The Witch) aka The Salem Post Office Incident aka New England Deliverance is an adventure for levels 1-5. Loosely inspired by the Nic Cage flick Season of the Witch (which despite reviews, I loved), the party needs to deliver a wagon (that seems to simple mail) to a fort. This is a nice adventure that is a race against time. 

OSR icon, Jeff Rients, presents The Tomb of St. Satan. This is a fun idea. Basically a community got it in their idea that Satan was converted to Christianity by Jesus. The adventure site features one of Jeff's blasphemous spellbooks (The Middle Testament, The Grimoir of St. Satan).

The final article is another d48 chart, this time we get Leo Ruotsalo's The 48 Weirds. This is d48 random outworldly phenomenon to permanently change with a person is. This isn't something that would be used often, but I'm sure it would be handy if you need to do something like this.

There's some fun OSR stuff in this one. If you want some new bits and bobs to add to your game check it out. The pdf of Green Devil Face #7 can be found here and the print/pdf combo is found here.

All Dogs Go To Hell

This is an adventure review, so there will be spoilers.

All Dogs Go To Hell is a Lamentations of the Flame Princess adventure by Semen Tsevelev that was included in LotFP Gen Con catalog this year. It is now available as a pay what you want 23 page pdf here. The image doesn't have related illustrations, though it includes a few maps. 

There is a new introduction from the author about this one. Despite the title and cover, he says it's written for dog-lovers and by a dog-lover. While the dog in the story is definitely having a rough time, it can be a great new companion. And as Semen says,

"And try to keep the fucking imaginary Dog alive."

The adventure takes place in mid-17th century rural Ireland. For one reason or another the party is heading to a monastery. One the way their guide is killed and the befriend a grey Irish wolfhound, known in the adventure as "The Dog," the leads them to the monastery. There are several encounters that may happen one the way. Eventually they make it to the monastery and face off with some brigands posing as monks. 

There are two main weird elements of the adventure. The first is the Breath. This is a thinking magical disease that devours the minds and memories of those infected and uses them to spread its power. It affected the monks and has infected The Dog. Ultimately it will use The Dog as a hostage and harm it to get the players to do its bidding. The other weird element of this adventure is the Hand. This item, which peasants believe to be the petrified hand of a saint, is an object coursing with an ancient radiation. The radiation heals and eventually mutates larger creatures and is deadly to smaller ones (like the microscopic virus that is the Breath). The Breath is using The Dog to coerce the players into destroying or at least moving the Hand.

The adventure ends with stats for all the NPC's (as well as The Dog). There is a discussion of the Hand, how it works and the touches of radiation is has. There are details on the Breath, how it uses creatures, and physical changes it causes. Finally, it is possible that a new independent variation of the Breath created by proximity to Hand may bond with infected players. Information on that symbiosis is given.

Honestly despite it's name, this LotFP adventure doesn't feel as mean as some. Sure there is unpleasantness and body horror, but players can come out of it more or less intact and with a new faithful companion (assuming they don't let the Breath take The Dog in the end). There is also the chance that players get in incurable magic disease, but it could be worse.

Music Monday - Never Forget The Name

Divide has a new track about the main protagonist of Netflix's Castelvania series, Trevor Belmont. I love the duel nature of the track.

If you want to add some Belmont love into your games, I've got some recommendations for you. The following hyperlinks will take you to reviews of these resources. If you play DCC Nightworld is a monster zine that's Castlevania with the serial numbers filed off. There are also versions for SURVIVE THIS!! and 5e. The Macabre zine for DCC also has the Deathstalker class, which is essentially a Belmont class. Finally if you play Lamentations of the Flame Princess or other OSR games, Draugr's and Draculas is the perfect book. It features Dracula, his castle, and minions. This tome also has a Vampire Hunter class. You can't go wrong picking any of these up?

The Borderlands/The Final Prayer (2013)

Synopsis

A group of investigators from the Vatican are sent to check out a strange phenomenon in a small rural English church. The pair are (for the most part) skeptical at first, but soon found out that there is something going on. 

Review

I'm not going to spoil it, but the movie is a slow burn with a phenomenal ending. There are some seriously creepy moments throughout the film too. While some folks might not like the found footage nature of the film, it works well within the narrative. 

The dynamic between the protagonists, Deacon and Grey, is fantastic and feels natural. Deacon is a kind but skeptical priest because of all he's seen. While Grey isn't religious and more tech savvy, he's way more open to belief. They have great chemistry.

While this could change, it's currently available to watch for free here in the States on Tubi.

In Your Game

This movie would be a great Call of Cthulhu scenario. While I don't talk about the game much anymore, because of decisions made by the creator, I think this adventure would be a great Lamentations of the Flame Princess adventure. 

Pink Slime Fantasy

I know it's referring to pink slime meat, but wouldn't you
rather look at this adorable slime girl?

I keep seeing this post about Appendix N and Pink Slime Fantasy in my Facebook feed. It's a really good read. The writer says Pink Slime isn't inherently bad and I appreciate that. I guess I just felt like throwing my two coppers in because of various comments others have had about the post.  Here are a few thoughts though:

• While I don't want to eat it everyday I'm a fan of McDonalds and fast food, so while it's kinda gross to dwell on it, calling it pink slime fantasy doesn't make it inferior in my mind, just different. 
• The 3.0/3.5 and 5e Dungeon Master's Guides have included rules and stats for sci-fi tech. 
• I think a lot of modern fantasy fans don't care for the mixing of sci-fi and fantasy. I know many folks that don't and until recently, I was of the same mindset. 
• The core releases of D&D are standard pink slime, but WotC has made it possible for others to take the weird speculative fiction mashup via the OGL.
• I don't think D&D is eating itself, I just think it's found its brand and is sticking with it.
• Standard modern fantasy is easier to sell and has a broader appeal.
• Pathfinder (which is the big D&D alternative) has tech based areas and adventures.

Ultimately play what you want. I'm really glad we live in a time when I can have my pink slime 5e double cheeseburger and my Dungeon Crawl Classics New York strip cooked to perfection. 

Menagerie of Exiles Review

Menagerie of Exiles is another Gen Con 2019 exclusive adventure I picked up this year. Unlike More Than Meets the Eye, there are no penis-y tentacles, though there are still aliens inhabiting other forms. For one reason or another, the party find themselves on a pirate ship known as the Sultan's Pleasure. The captain of the ship and several crew members are inhabited by extra-dimensional beings (which appear as slug things on Earth, but pure light in their home). The captain leads the ship to a small village inhabited by more of these creatures living in human hosts. They must confront  one of their number that is guarding a machine that will take them home and either help keep the machine from operating or defeating the guardian and allowing the beings to home.

While there are only 32 pages to this pdf, there's a lot here. There's a nice discussion of the ship, it's crew, layout, and even piracy in the 17th century. In addition the authors have done a great job of considering how spells in the Rules & Magic book would affect this scenario. I really appreciate this foresight and kind of wish other authors would consider this when putting things together.

Overall, this seems like a great roleplay heavy Lamentations adventure. I enjoyed it because more than many LotFP, this adventure wouldn't seem too out of place in a regular campaign. Yes their slug/light creatures are weird, but they aren't silly or campaign breaking.

More Than Meets The Eye Review

More Than Meets The Eye is one of four Gen Con exclusives from Lamentations of the Flame Princess. It was written and illustrated by Kelvin Green (of Fish Fuckers fame). It's a short adventure that's an homage/parody of everyone's favorite transforming robots. This isn't his first time mixing LotFP with Transformers. He had a contribution to Slugs.

The basic premise is that there are aliens that can disguise themselves as objects on earth. There are two factions, which the author refers to as group A and D. Both groups are from a far away planet and need access to the Primal Matrix. The adventure is full of Transformers references, even taking place in the village of St. Michael's Bay. The major difference is these shape changing aliens are big penis-y tentacle things and pump their foes full of alien reproductive goo. Actually one of the larger aliens has an attack with one of it's penis-like tentacle appendages that actually requires the victim to make a save vs poison or burst open with an overflow of "love juice."

So yeah, if you can't tell, this adventure is weird af, but also a fun tribute to a geek favorite. While it seems too out of place in a super serious game, I think it would still be a fun side trek.

There is a chance the players might get access to a living space ship thing, but hey that's not going to unbalance a game, right?

Gen Con 2019 Recap

This isn't going to be super detailed and I'm sure I'll forget to mention things, but here's an overview of my Gen Con experience and some photos to accompany it.

Sadly this isn't all of the DCC/MCC swag I wanted to buy.

Wednesday

We left the day before the con started. Indianapolis is about 3.5-4 hours from home. I rode and stayed with some of my oldest friends, Wirty, Amanda, and Chris. We stayed at the JW Marriott, which was pricey, but also connected to the Indiana Convention Center. Tim Brannan was staying at the same hotel and I ran into him gaming with his family in the executive lounge. It was really cool because Tim is the reason I started blogging. That night we had reservations at an expensive, but delicious steak house, St. Elmo's.  I ordered the Dry Aged New York Strip and it was hands down the best steak I have ever had.

Thursday

I started my day out by playing Sparkle*Kitty. It was a lot of fun and I won two of the three games I played. It's kind of an advanced version of UNO, but it makes you say ridiculous word combinations out loud and would be a great party game. I also attended a Tabletop Gaymer panel, which was a lot of fun. I ran into my gaming muse, Dave, and he gave me a copy of the Buddy O'Burger issue of Crawling Under A Broken Moon. The last game I played that day was Mantic's The Walking Dead: All Out War. I'm not normally a fan of war games, but this was really good. The starter is reasonably cheap and I've thought about picking it up. I didn't spend much money in the exhibition hall, but I did pick up a set of DCC nunchucks for Matt Kelley and myself.

Friday 

Friday was rpg day! I started my day by playing my first game of QAGS. For Lucha Beach Patrol, I made a character named Silver Starfish. He was a honorable high flyer, and the de facto voice of reason for his group. After this I played in a session of of DCC Lankhmar with Thorin Thompson. Our session was No Small Crimes In Lankhmar (which is a part of the boxed set). It's a great adventure and was fun because our characters were shrunk down to the size of mice. Thorin was a great judge and I picked up his third party adventure, Sky ov Crimson Flame, after we finished. That night I also did an after hours game at the Embassy Suites. I am excited that I was in the first play group for Joshua Burnett and Leighton Connor's Leopard Women of Venus DCC. Josh ran the session and Leighton, Eric Bloat, and I ran through the 0-level funnel. It got late and we didn't get to finish the funnel, but it was fun. Seriously y'all, you definitely need to back this project when it goes live. I'll review the pre-Kickstarter preview Josh gave me later today. I also met Eric's lovely wife Jamie. She's a really sweet lady. Friday also ended in the best possible way. I finally got to meet Diogo Nogueira in person. Diogo and I have been online friends for a few years and he really seems like the nicest guy ever. After meeting him in person I can confirm that he actually is a living saint.

The Wholesome Trinity of Gaming

Saturday

I didn't do any on site gaming on Saturday. I met several folks for the first time in person, among them Bradley K. McDevitt, Alan Bahr, Matt Orr, and Brandon K. Aten. It was particularly cool to meet Matt and Brandon, because I worked on their project, Never Going Home.  I spent a majority of my time in the exhibit hall and relaxing. My feet and back were really hurting so I called it a day early and took a nap. I did wake up to go play board games and drink with the gents I came with. It was a good evening and Champions of Midgard is a pretty decent worker placement game.

Why yes,that is a Lamentations of the Flame Princess branded condom...

Sunday

We only hit the exhibit hall for an hour or two on Sunday. My feet were aching and I sat down at a demo table. I played Bahamas by Z-Man game which was a fun dice and cards screw-your-neighbor kind of game.

Pre-last day breakfast selfie with fam

Final Thoughts 

• For the love of all that is good and holy, do no pick you badge up Will Call. Just pay the extra cash and have it shipped to you. 
• It was great to go with old friends and see many online folks I've known for years. 
• I loved getting the con exclusives. I'm going to try to not kill myself with the nunchucks. Also I bought the Lamentations of the Flame Princess ones, despite telling myself I wouldn't.
• There were nearly 70K in attendance. This didn't seem as bad as I expected because the convention center is huge!
• That is actually one of my major issues with it. The events and exhibit halls were too large for my taste. I'm two days removed from the con and still sore. Pretty much every point A to point B trip I made required a 5-10 minute rest break. Yes this is because I'm really out of shape, but it still affects my opinion of the experience.
• While I had an absolute blast, I think I'm skipping Gen Con next year. I really like the size and scale of Origins (which has about a third of the attendance). It's also only an hour from where I live and though I moved away from it, I love Columbus. Both conventions are fun, but I prefer the latter (even if it means missing out on things like nunchucks and LotFP exclusives).
• I think I've caught Con Crud. I've been sniffling, coughing, and had a sore throat since Sunday.
• I'm actually looking forward to Con on the Cob even more now. I think it will be interesting to go from biggest tabletop gaming con in the world to a really small one. 

Collabs Without Permission - Death Frost Doom

I recently discovered Levi's YouTube channel thanks to Exalted Funeral. I've watched and read many reviews of this adventure, but this is probably my favorite. It is definitely the most entertaining. I agree with pretty much everything he says. This adventure is unique and has some great aspects, but it's also convoluted as Hell. I think I want to take the framework of it and use it to kickoff a campaign eventually.

After the video was made, all of the information came out about Zak which led to Levi adding some edits, redacting some names, and emphasizing that we should believe women when they come forth. Here's one of the edits, which flashes on the screen for a split second.

Vampires for LotFP

This is a follow up to my review of Draugr & Draculas. When Josh was working on it I asked him if he thought about including a dhampyr class. He said it's a good idea, but that he couldn't come up with anything that topped the class presented in this post. Going to be honest, after I read it, I totally understand. This is a fantastic vampire class and could also work for a dhampyr. I think when you add this class to a game using Draugr & Draculas, you truly have a complete vampiric package.

Draugr & Draculas Review

This week I received some Kickstarter goodness!

Draugr & Draculas is a one shot zine written by my friend Josh of JHLB Polytechnic and Bernie The Flumph. Last week I reviewed the first issue of Josh's zine, Crepuscular, if you if you missed it, check it out.

There is 60+ pages of amazing content packed into this little zine. Josh did every piece of art except for one, which was done by industry icon, Bradley K, McDevitt. I love Josh's style. Here's what you're getting if you pick this up.

• Draugr - three pages of undead viking goodness. There are stats for Draugr, Greater Draugr, Druagr Lords, and the unique Draugr Queen they all serve. There's a phenomenal piece of art for her. 
• Draugr Karl ("Free Man") - This class allows you to play an undead viking. While they are free-willed they still serve their Queen. They have some really cool abilities and eat flesh. What more could you want in a class?
• Pagan's Well - Pagan's well is an adventure site. It has a cool map and 12 encounter locations. Adventure hooks are also provided.
• Satanic Pacts - You made a deal with the Devil, now what? This short article describes how you can make a magical bargain with Satan and gifts he can grant you. There are many cool ones and the names are often humorous or related to pop culture. I think Red Right Hand and Black Phillip were my favorite names. I really enjoy the art for this entry.
• Vampires - This is a discussion about what vampirism is and how it affects mortals. It divides vampires into two groups (weaker plebs and older patricians). There's a lot of lore and flavor about them, including how to combat the blood suckers. Note: There are powerful vampires that don't fall into these categories.
• Count Dracula - The Lord of the Night gets a few pages of content specific too him proper. We're presented with his background, a secret origin chart (which has some fantastic ideas), and his stats. As you'd imagine, he's a quite the challenge to face.
• Dracula's Minions - several pages are devoted to Drac's chief minions, which are a hunchback, wolfman, fish-woman, invisible wizard, his brides (three vampire plebs), and three disciples (vampire patricians).
• Dracula's Castle - This sections starts with a fantastic centerfold map that shows the 36 major locations for the Count's castle. There is a random encounter tables, a spooking happenings table, and the major rooms get brief snap shots. It also looks like a map from one of the Castlevania games. 

• Vampire Hunter - This class is phenomenal class uses a whip, fights as a fighter, saves as a cleric and can do whip tricks (which basically function like Mighty Deeds of Valor from Dungeon Crawl Classics). They are also strong willed, have true faith, know a bit of folk magic that helps them face the undead, and have a talisman tied to their quest to slay the vampire scourge.
• Elizabeth Bathory - Bathory is Dracula's pupil, but eventually betrayed the Count and became his great rival. She's quite powerful, serves Lamia, and uses the reanimated corpse of her former lover as a bodyguard (stats given). Elizabeth's art is the one piece not done by Josh. It's a great piece and Bradley outdid himself. I do admit it feels just a little out of place though because it's not the same style as the rest of the book. Not a critique of the piece though, it's awesome!
• Bathory's Blood Magic - A few pages are devoted to the blood magic of ancient Lamia. It can be unlocked by a unique spell that can only be cast by women.
• New Spells - Five new spells are presented, they very in level, though one is extremely powerful. My favorite is a tribute to Radu of Subspecies. 
• New Magic Items - The final section details four new magic items. One is a valuable tool for those that face evil, two are related to the Draugr, and one is the very sword wielded by Count Dracula!

If you can't tell, I absolutely love this zine! Josh really outdid himself with it and the book is worth more than the Kickstarter of post-Kickstarter price, in my opinion. The artwork is phenomenal and there isn't wasted space. The inside covers contain the location maps found within the tome.

I'll be honest this made me smile too:

The picture of my name in the Special Thanks To: section also leads me to one last thing I wanted to mention. This zine can easily be used in any old school game, but was designed with Lamentations of the Flame Princess in mind. Josh includes a note about what that means. 

If you've ever wanted to play a Castlevania campaign, this zine is for you. The pdf will be available at the JHLB Polytechnic publisher page on DriveThruRPG soon. 

Quick Reviews for Birch + Bat Studios

Birch + Bat Studios is the creation of Kiel Chenier and Arella Prest. You might know Kiel as the author of the fantastic and controversial (aren't they all) LotFP adventure, Blood in the Chocolate. They have some really cool mugs, shirts, stickers, and other things, but today I want to talk about their pdfs.

Their gaming pdfs are 50% off through the end of the month. I've purchased three of them and though I'd do a little quick review/recommendation.

Seance of Slumber is 11 page 5e supplement adds the element of dreams to your game. It includes a new merchant, who has some really cool dream related merchandise (including new magic items). There are some random tables to determine what the characters dream of. This is a fun little pdf and is currently less than a dollar.

Von Bottom's Hoard  is an interesting adventure for D&D (any version or variation) that has a humorous anime feel too it. The titular Baron Augustus von Bottom is a wealthy retired adventure who's swollen into a giant balloon man because of dragon sickness (caused from hoarding gold and eating dragon meat). The very open-end mansion crawl adventure is full of zany maids, cooks, and other servants. If you like humorous fantasy anime, pick this one up for sure. It's currently available for less than two dollars.

Burlesque House Siege! is an OSR adventure designed for tabletop gaymers and GenCon2016. The party find themselves having a waking up at the Maison Derriere, after a good night (which can randomly be determined by a roll). The players learn that there is a bandit army on its way to the burlesque house and must prepare, rally the employees, and defend the establishment. The pdf contains details and stats for several of the dancers, plus the bandits and their leader. Additionally there are discussions on running it as a convention game or making it a part of your home campaign. Finally, there are rules for running the Maison Derriere, should the pc's come into ownership of it, along with random burlesque dancer, performance, and show interruption tables. One thing I really loved about this adventure is despite the fact that every friendly character is LGBT, that has nothing to do with the plot and conflict. While I'm sure this one won't jive with some folks taste, I really like it and want to use it at some point. This pdf is also currently less than two dollars.

Monsterarium Review

Monsterarium is a unique bestiary for old school D&D games released by Knight Owl Publishing. The monsters are pulled from Persian folklore and the artist's mind. It has a slight Lamentations of the Flame Princess design style, but can easily work for any version of D&D.

The book is divided into two sections: Monsters and Creatures of the Wood. This is a strange dichotomy because the author mentions, not all of the monsters want to hurt you and no all of the woodland creatures are friendly. There are ten monsters and eight creatures. They are:

• Al -demons that target newborns and their mothers
• Cord Leg - a bizarre creature adds to a character's physical load
• Ejdohogo - ancient peacock dragons
• Faux Siren - a plan that lures do-gooders to death with a pleasant visage
• Hair that had a Human - a parasite that appears to be a human face and long luxurious locks 
• Lich Queen - a very fashionable undead queen
• Loot Wyvern - small winged lizards that bury themselves in treature
• Night Hag - shapeshifting hags that steal sleep from humans
• Peri - bloodsucking sprites
• Tremulous Troll - lawful fungus covered troll that believes she is the last of her kind
• Faun - Lord of the peri's and wisps (featured on the cover) and ruler of the Wood
• Flying Gold Fish - mysterious healers and light sources for a glorious city on a hill
• Harpy Summoner - anti-patriarchal allies of the women of the Lejawardian Mountains
• Torchbearer - a demigod/legend/ghost story that will aid adventurers
• Keeja - the chief of the peris
• Spate Nymph - a wise and apathetic nymph
• Wisp Warriors and Wizards - crystal born denizens of the Wood

If you want to add a new level of strange to your game, this is a monster book for you. These denizens aren't random encounter chart fodder and each deserves its own adventure hook. Today I found out that you can order print copies from Knight Owl Publishing's website. You can grab one here. You can pick up the pdf here. 

Draugr & Draculas Kickstarter

Druagr & Draculas is a new Kickstarter by Joshua LH Burnett. It's a one-shot OSR zine about viking and vampires! If that doesn't excite you, we probably shouldn't be friends. Josh is doing all of the art and writing himself.  The physical copy will be 5.5" X 8.5" zine, staple-bound, and printed in black-and-white, just like the Zine Quest guidelines. This thing is going to have some great stuff.

• Stats and details on Dracula, his servants, and his rival, Elizabeth Bathory!
• Draugr information and a class
• Rules for making a deal with the Devil!
• Magic items of perilous power
• Pagan's Well - a small dungeon full of traps and treasures
• Anything else he can fit in.

I'm going to be honest, this book had me with Dracula. Josh has promised this version of the big bad will be something Lee and Langella would be proud of. Then the man decides he's going to pit Drac against my other favorite historical vampire, Bathory?! I've been joking that she was one of my lovers in a past life for years. Then you throw in undead vikings and deals with the Satan... Those are just icing on the delicious, evil, devilish cake for me. 

I seriously can't wait to hold this one in my hands and put it to use. I need this zine and you need to back it asap.

ConTessa Fall 2018 Fundraising Bundle

Right now you can help support a great group and pick up some awesome gaming material by purchasing the ConTessa Fall 2018 Fundraiser Bundle. It's worth the price for the full version of the Lamentations core rules and She Bleeds alone. I've read the Azurth Adventures Digest Issue 1 too and it's a lot of fun. Of the material I'm not familiar with Sandy Peterson's Cthulhu Mythos for Pathfinder looks really good. I don't play Pathfinder anymore, but it would still be cool to have and read.

You can learn more about ConTessa and their purporse of giving voice to traditionally underrepresented folks here. As I said, I'm a fan and I even have a shirt.

Going Through Forbidden Otherworlds

Going Through Forbidden Worlds is the last of the GenCon Lamentations books I wanted to review. I've been putting it off, because honestly this one might be too weird for me.

By one of the various hooks presented the party will go to another dimension where physics works very different and things morph and fuse. The adventure takes place in a complex with several rooms featuring disturbing monsters. There's also a collection of bonkers magic items. According to the other, the mood of the adventure should either be black comedy or cautionary tale. I hate saying this because they author is fantastic, but I'm just not feeling either. This one might be a bit too weird for me. It's well written and if you want a quick jaunt into the bizarre, it's a good one to pick up.

The cover is definitely evocative, there's things I might pull from this one, and it features Scrap Princess artwork (which I love), but ultimately I don't think any of my players will ever be "going through forbidden otherworlds."

Mabon

In honor of the Autumnal Equinox, which is tomorrow, I wanted to share some great witch themed rpg material.

• Of course, Tim from The Other Side has your OSR witch needs covered. He's released Witch material for Swords & Wizardry Continual Light, The Green Witch for Swords & Wizardry, The Hedge Witch for Hero's Journey, The Aiséiligh Tradition for Swords & Wizardry, The Witch for Swords & Wizardry Light, The Sisters of the Aquarian Order for White Star, and The Witch For Basic Era Games.
• If you'd like to include some cosmic horror into your OSR witchcraft, definitely check out She Bleeds for Lamentations of the Flame Princess.  
• The Hag's Hexes is a great 5e resource for fiendish crones. 
• If you want to add witches into your Dark Places & Demogorgons game, pick up the Players Options & GM Guide. Once again, The Other Side has some great witchy goodness. Check out Tim's 80's version of the Hex Girls, Willow and Tara, The Charmed Ones, and witch related monster (the Scarecrow).