GM's Day Sale: My OSR Recommendations!

  The GM's Day Sale is on at DrivethruRPG, and will be on through March the 13th. Here's the OSR offers I recommend.

Whether you've never played OSR games, or you're a veteran looking for something cool, here we go!

OSR GAMES: THE BIG ONES

Worlds Without Number - Kevin Crawford's masterpiece, and one of the most successful games on the whole DrivethruRPG platform. A great game in itself, and a book with tons of tools to generate everything, from world building to adventures, whatever game system you prefer.

Old-School Essentials - Whole Line - The best retroclone around, a faithful reproduction of the B/X D&D rules, with an exceptional work done on the text to make it clear and user-friendly, with an egregious layout. Recommended if you're new to the OSR and want the distilled, simple experience of the original B/X rules. Everything you need to play in one book. Also, my favorite OSR game.

Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG Core Book - A glorious OSR game that is not a retroclone but captures the feel of old school games, with unique mechanics that build on a solid d20 system, generally compatible with other OSR stuff. Recommended if you want a more modern cut, while true to the spirit of OSR... and you like crits and fumble tables.

OTHER OSR GAMES

Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells, and Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells - Both of Diogo Nogueira's original games are a blend of OSR and modern sensitivity, with streamlined rules and inspired tables.

You may definitely want to check: Hyperborea (Player's Manual and Referee's Manual), Troika, and Warlock!

OSR SUPPLEMENTS

A lot of supplements and adventures are included in the GM's Day Sale!

The Gardens on Ynn - A point-crawl adventure set in an ever-shifting extradimensional garden, with a system to generate content while you play.

The Stygian Library - Gardens of Ynn's twin, this time a dungeon set in an infinite, extradimensional library.

The Black Wyrm of Brandonsford - An EXCELLENT sandboxy point-crawl adventure for characters level 1-3, very easy to run, with lots of interaction between locations. Gotta review this sooner or later! Just reviewed it!

Lands of Legends - My zine series with 500 areas and 500 unique encounters for your sandbox. Learn more about Lands of Legends here!

Ominous Crypt of the Blood Moss - A very good 10 room dungeon. I've reviewed it here.

Puzzle Dungeon: The Seers Sanctum - Another very good 10 room dungeon with, well, a lot of well conceived puzzles!

Hideous Daylight and Temple of 1000 Swords - Two third-party Old-School Essentials adventures by Swordlords Publishing with awesome reviews.

Xanadu - Another acclaimed third-party Old-School Essentials dungeon adventure, by Singing Flame.

Bottomless Pit of Zorth - Another acclaimed adventure, with a slime theme and insane art, for characters level 3-5.

OR REAL OLD SCHOOL?

The sale is on a lot of actually old titles! Here's a few titles I recommend:

Rules Cyclopedia - The BECMI D&D rules combined in one volume (except for the Immortals set, which can be grabbed for free!).

The whole B1-B12 series of adventures is on sale, with some must-have scenarios for the Basic D&D set. Note that the current sale makes them cheaper than the regular bundle with the all series!

So if you want to only pick up a few, I'd go with those that are the best in my view: B1 In Search of the Unknown, B2 The Keep on the Borderlands,  B3 Palace of the Silver Princess, B4 The Lost City, B7 Rahasia, and B9 Castle Caldwell and Beyond with its five mini adventures.

And then there's a little less known supplement that's worth checking:

AC10 Bestiary of Dragons & Giants - Despite the "Bestiary" in the title, this is, for the most part, an adventure anthology with a dozen or so quick scenarios involving, of course, dragons and giants. A great pick for sandbox campaigns!

ALSO OF NOTE: 500 rpg items for $5 on itch.io!

On itch.io there's a great charity bundle with almost FIVE HUNDRED rpg items (full games as well as scenarios, zines and accessories) that's only $5. Among other things, it includes the Wyrd Science magazine issue 1 and 2; the Into the Wyrd and Wild setting; Planar Compass issue 1; the OSR adventure Roseate Growth; the OSR-compatible mini-game for spell research Vade Arcanum; the OSR dungeon adventure Sea Fortress of the Yule Queen.... and who knows what else! Definitely wroth checking!

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Into OSR? Check my other OSR posts!

Axian Library Preview: A d12 Table of Magical Mishaps

  Here's a d12 table with twelve Magical Mishaps for your OSR game of choice, wether is Old-School Essentials, Labyrinth Lord, Sword & Wizardry, or any other clone of OE, B/X, or BECMI Dungeons and Dragons.

These are a preview from the new, alternate Magical Mishaps table that will be included Axian Library, currently on Kickstarter.

Of course the full table will include 100 results, to complement the original table from Wondrous Weavings Warped and Weird, totaling 200 different effects!

They are, in turn, a functional part of the whole alternate arcane magic system detailed in Wondrous Weavings Warped and Weird, which empowers the the players of magic users to break the rules of magic, if they are willing to take some risk....

These mishaps have effects that are not "Spell range is reduced by 10%". Who needs these? I don't. I want  actual consequences and the possibility to create fun, interesting, challenging situations that push the game and the story on.

Hope you'll like them!

d12 Magical Mishaps

Roll a d20. If the listed effect affects the target, and the intended spell didn't target a creature, the effect is applied to the caster.

1. The target transforms into a number of little frogs equal to their current hit points, for 1d6 rounds. The target’s consciousness controls all the frogs at once, and may speak (and cast spells) through one frog per round. At the end of the effect, the target’s hit points are equal to the number of surviving frogs. Frogs have the same statistics as normal rats, except they inflict no damage (and no poison).
2. All creatures within 100’ of the target (included) take on the illusory appearance of the caster, for 1d6 rounds.
3. The floor 100’ around the caster becomes covered with…. Roll 1d6. 1: 500,000 copper pieces; 2: Scrolls with scrawled portraits of the target; 3: Cream; 4: Oil; 5: Pillows; 6: Caltrops. 
4. The caster (with all their equipment) becomes a lesser Djinni for 2d6 rounds or until its Hit Points are depleted. While transformed, the caster is unable to cast spells, but acquires all the characteristics and abilities of the Djinni. Lost Hit Points don’t carry over when the transformation ends.
5. The target becomes made of 5,000 tiny diamonds for 1d6 rounds. If killed before the effect ends, the diamonds become permanent and are worth 20 gp each.
6. The caster becomes immaterial and cannot affect, nor be affected by, the physical world. They can move through walls, and interact with other immaterial beings such as ghosts and spirits, and can attack them as if their attacks were magic weapons. The effect lasts until the character makes a save vs spell (one attempt per turn).
7. Supernatural darkness gathers around the caster. Anyone seeing them must save versus paralysis or be paralyzed with terror. Paralysis is broken if the caster goes out of sight, or when the darkness dissipates after 1d6 rounds.
8. A red cap appears on the caster’s head and other heads within 100’ (this includes statues, paintings, and so on). Any headgear previously worn disappears, and reappears in place of the red caps after 1d6 rounds.
9. All the humanoids within 100’ of the caster (included) become ethereal together with their equipment, except for their bones. For 1d6 rounds they can act as skeletons, with the same game statistics and abilities, except they are not considered undead. Any hit points lost as skeletons are carried over when the effect ends and the bones are reabsorbed within their de-etherealized bodies. Boneless creatures are unaffected.
10. All items held by a hand within 100’ of the target (included) become flowers. The original items reappear in place of the flowers after 1d6 rounds.
11. The target is wrapped in iron chains fastened with four padlocks, and is unable to move and act.
12. The spell appears inscribed on a scroll wrapped around the target’s head (or the caster’s If the target has no head, or there is no target). The target is blinded until they spend one round to unwrap the scroll.

If you like these, go check out the Axian Library for LOTS of similar content, optional rules, and more!

My Personal Zine Month OSR/OSE Round-Up

Zine Month has begun, and a lot of cool projects have launched!

As the ZiMo page currently displays more than 100 projects, and might probably hit 200 soon, I've decided to collect here the OSR / Old-School Essentials projects I find most interesting. Let's start!

The Big List

Old School & Cool Vol. 3

This third installment focuses on high level play. Since Old-School Essentials limits characters to level 14, OS&C3 offers options for further character development, including spells, magic items, and monsters, gods, and also an adventure.

Aberrant Reflections

A low-prep, system-neutral, mirror-themed dungeon adventure, inspired by Zelda and Metroidvania games, with art by Jacob Fleming (the Tower Silveraxe guy). 

Brewkessel #2: School of Spellcraft and Sorcery

The second issue of this modular, Hogwarths-gone-crazy megadungeon, with the option to also grab the well-received issue 1. For Old-School Essentials.

The Mirror of Malatesto

An art-heavy, grim dark adventure, introducing a whole setting via a catacomb crawl scenario. For OSR games (and 5e).

Planar Compass Issue 3

Perhaps the most beloved Old-School Essentials zine? Each issue further develops their weird astral setting with more and more gameable stuff. This issue offers 2 new classes, monsters, adventure seeds, and more.

The Toxic Wood

Perhaps the most anticipated OSR zine? Lazy Lich has spoiled us with awesome stuff already, and I guess here's more coming... as soon as it launches.

Barkeep on the Borderlands

The title and art alone are a winner. A system neutral pubcrawl scenario + toolkit. Worth saving for later!

QUKE BORG

While I'm not a big Mork Borg fan, this blends it with the Quake video game. Pure genius.

Delver #4

The fourth issue of a beloved zine series with lots of tables for Old-School Essentials.

Candle: Fantasy Audio Magazine Issue 2

A cool COMBO of printed zine with Old-School Essentials articles and stuff + audio cassette with fantasy music. I'm also a contributor! (For the zine, not the cassette).

Axian Library

A zine anthology in hardcover for Old-School Essentials, full of tables, options, and fun. Well this is my zine month project. If you're reading this blog post but have never heard about it, it means I should have spammed harder!

DNGN

A risograph-printed weird fantasy megadungeon adventure by Vasili Kaliman (Singing Flame),  coming soon, for Old-School Essentials.

Downtime in Zyan

A zine presenting a system of downtime activities for OSR games, written by Ben Laurence (Through Ultan's Door), with amazing art by Evlyn Moreau.

Humble Beginnings

Six starting areas, each with a map, a starting town, rumors and encounters, for Old-School Essentials. 

Grok!?

A 24-page with a fantasy gonzo setting, amazing art, and an original system mixing OSR, Savage Worlds, Fate, and more. Yummy. Plus the PDF is $1. Smart move!!

Thalassa

The adventure game set in the mythical age sung by Hesiod and Homer, with its own system, influenced by Into the Odd and Cairn.

Demonsbane

A weird hexcrawl (complete with sites and dungeons) with fungal folk, mineral shambler giants and rat folk. Designed for Cairn, by Perplexing Ruins.

Special Mentions

The following projects are not OSR, or not ZiMo proper, but I find them cool so why not post them here?

Pamphlet Islands

A series of OSR islands on pamphlets, easy to print at home! By Italian designer Danilo Moretti (featured on Knock! magazine issues 2 and 3). Not a ZiMo project but 100% in the zine spirit. Go check it now because it's the very last few hours!

Attack from Space

A combat rpg of Knights vs Aliens, powered by the LUMEN system by Gilarpg (which I've just discovered). With a clever art direction!

The Royal Cartographer

A worldbuilding/mapmaking RPG for 1-4 players about the imprecision of maps. I like map-making games: you make maps you can use in other games!

Knock! 3

Well, not officially ZiMo and, due to sheer size, hardly a fanzine, the Knock! magazine (or rather MEGAZINE) is the elephant in the OSR zine month room, so to speak. If you're reading this blog, I guess you don't need me to explain what it is.

The Stuff I've Missed or Forgotten

I urge you to go to the Zine Month platform and check what's going on. New projects keep coming every day!