D&D Capped at Level 3

Using ONLY one of the Basic D&D sets as a complete set of rules.
AKA "Holmes Only" D&D

This whole project started as a post on Dragonsfoot in 2008.
The link is right here -> Holmes as complete game.

Now, I know what you are thinking - how is this a game review?  Technically, it isn't, but this has been stuck in my mind for a couple of weeks so I have gone through the Holmes basic rules, its retroclone Blueholme Prentice, and for the sake of both completeness, and because it is my favorite version of Dungeons & Dragons ever, I did the same for the Moldvay basic rules.

I will be doing some direct comparisons between the three rules sets as well as posting my "house rules" I would use if I ever decide to do this in a real campaign, and not just as an intellectual exercise.

This is the cover of the 1977 Holmes Basic Set rules.

Some notes on it:

• Classes are fighting man, cleric, magic-user, and thief; it allows dwarves, halfling, elves, and humans as races. 
  
• Clerics automatically turn skeletons at level 2 and both skeletons and zombies at level 3.
• 1st and 2nd level magic-user spells and 1st and 2nd level clerical spells are listed and described.  3rd level magic-user spells are listed but not described.
• Contains 57 monsters (considering all colored dragons as a singular "dragon", e.g.)
• All weapons d6 damage, daggers attack 2x per round, heavy weapons every-other-round.
  

This is the cover of the 1981 Moldvay Basic Set rules.

Some notes on it:

• Classes are cleric, fighter, magic-user, thief, dwarf, elf, and halfling. 
• Clerics automatically turn skeletons at level 2 and both skeletons and zombies at level 3.
• 1st and 2nd level magic-user spells and 1st level clerical spells are listed and described.
  
• Contains 68 monsters (considering all colored dragons as a singular "dragon", e.g.)
• All weapons do d6 damage but an optional rules it to use the d4, d6, d8, and d10, depending on weapon.  All weapons attack once per round.
  

This is the cover of the 2017 Blueholme Prentice rules.

Some notes on it:

• Classes are cleric, fighter, magic-user, and thief; it allows dwarves, elves, halflings, and humans as races.
• Clerics do NOT automatically turn skeletons at level 2 and both skeletons and zombies at level 3, requiring a successful turn check at all 3 levels.
• 1st and 2nd level magic-user spells and 1st level clerical spells are listed and described.
• Contains 70 monsters (considering all colored dragons as a singular "dragon", e.g.)
•  All weapons do d6 damage but light crossbows attack every 2nd round and heavy crossbows attack every 3rd round.
  

 

 

ADDITIONAL NOTES ON CLASSES

According to the Holmes rules, dwarves and halflings MUST be fighting men according to the dwarf and halfling descriptions, however according to the fighting man description, both races can opt to be thieves.  It gets even trickier with elves.  They advance as fighting men AND magic-users according to the both the elf description and the fighting man description, but according to the magic-user description, SOME elves are magic-users.  As a DM, I would be lenient and allow dwarves and halflings to be fighters or thieves and I would allow elves to be fighting men, thieves, or multi-class as fighter/magic-user.

Moldvay uses the much-maligned, but better in my opinion, "race-as-class".  A dwarf is a fighter with some additional special abilities, and the same goes for the halfling.  An elf is a combination of fighter and magic-user.  Mr. Moldvay cleaned up most, if not all, of the head-scratching which made it into Holmes from the 1974 original D&D rules.

Bluehome Prentice, like Moldvay, forces dwarves and halflings into the fighter class and makes it clear from the actual Holmes rules, that elves can be fighters, magic-users, or a combination of both.  Interestingly, Blueholme also has rules for "Combination Classes", which allow characters to combine any two classes (elves do this by default).  Theoretically, you can create a halfling-thief or dwarf-cleric with these rules.

 Mr. Thomas made the decision to never give clerics the ability to automatically turn undead.  I find this strange since he stuck really close to the rest of Holmes for his rules.

OTHER GENERAL NOTES

Treasure types and hordes differ between using a letter (Type A, Type B, etc.) or a number (1, 2, 3, etc.) for treasure types.  Most of the differences in the books, especially in regards to Blueholme Prentice is probably to avoid copyright infringement.

Other than what has been mentioned, all three games are either the same or nearly the same on all other details.   

MONSTERS

All three rules have a good assortment of monsters.  

Holmes has monsters from 1/2 hit die (kobold) through 15 hit dice (purple worm), 4 types of dragons, and 6 types of giants.

Moldvay has monsters from 1 hit point (bat) through 11 hit dice (gold dragon), 6 types of dragons and no giants.

Blueholme Prentice has monsters from 1d2 hit points (normal centipede) through 15 hit dice (storm giant and purple worm), 4 types of dragons and 6 types of giants.

We see that Moldvay, I assume because the Expert set was produced along with the Basic set, has a lower-powered spread of monsters.  Additionally, quite a few monsters are just humans (acolyte, bandit, noble, etc.) with differences in armor, spells, higher-level leaders, etc.  For a game maxing out at 3rd level, I think this is a good choice.  It would be nice to have a few higher-level critters, though, if only to show the DM what his players might be getting up to.  Again, with the Cook-Marsh set right on the heels of Moldvay, high power monsters in the basic set wasn't needed.

MY IDEAS AND NOTES

As an intellectual exercise, as stated before, I decided to make house rules for each of the sets.  I gave myself one page per game, each nicely organized, and (hopefully) easy to understand.

Some other thoughts were to boost the combat ability of fighters since all character classes have exactly the same "to hit" values on levels 1 through 3.  I ended up giving fighters a damage bonus at each level.  I could easily have given them an attack bonus, instead.  I suppose I thought that fighters should be "closers" when it comes to killing foes, especially since all weapons do 1d6 damage across all three sets of rules.

With thieves, I ditched percentile thief abilities completely and went with a 1d6 thief skill test.  I did this partly because thieves are wretched at thievery until mid levels, and I wanted them to be adequate thieves at level 1, and partly because percentile thief skills are too fiddly as a general rule.  They are nearly always at 5% or 10% increments until the highest level as it is.  If you have not read my comparison of White Box Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game and Delving Deeper, rest assured that the authors of those two books feel as I do and ditched the percentage skills, too.

I mentioned clerics and turning a couple of times, so I added back in automatic turning when using Blueholme.

Experience in any of the three games will be an issue if giving experience points for treasure.  To alleviate this, simply switching to a silver standard for purchases and living, while keeping 1 gold piece = 1 experience point is the simplest solution for me.  You could also just give 1 xp for 10 gp, and keep a gold standard.  I prefer a silver standard anyway, so I did what I did.

I also adjusted Holmes' attacks per round, since as written, it is pointless to ever carry anything besides a dagger as a melee weapon and crossbows are horrible, so I gave bonuses when using them.

I have the exact same "X-in-6 Rule" on each document.  This is how I often adjudicate 

- "Hey ref, can my fighter, Conanyan jump across this gorge and attempt to grab that broken rope bridge hanging down on the other side?"  

= "Sure you can, roll 1-3 on a d6!"

- "Hey, I want my magic-user Urkle to do that too!"

= "Ok, if you insist, roll a 1 on 1d6.  Oh wait, you have a 15 dexterity, make it a 1-2 on d6."

In all three systems I allowed higher level spells as rituals.  This would work for non-combat spells, which I find desirous - summoning monsters and dispelling magic seems quite suited to swords & sorcery, while fireball doesn't.

I suppose this is a good time to mention I made additional notes for each rules for a more sword & sorcery game, which is the biggest benefit of limiting all classes to 3rd level.  They are also exactly the same on each of the rules documents.

Oh, one more thing, I don't own Mentzer Basic set, so I could not compare it.  I assume it is nearly identical, as far as rules, spells, and mosters as Moldvay, but if there are differences, one of you fine folks can do your own basic set as entire campaign thingimajig and let me know what you think.

Firstly, the original rules which caused the conversation back in 2008.

Secondly, Blueholme Prentice retroclone.

And finally, my OG game set, Moldvay.

Modern Necessites (OSE Version)

Modern Necessities - Old School Rules for Modern Themes
by The Scrying Dutchman

• You can purchase the pdf and the drivethru rpg version of the printed book here:  https://www.drivethrurpg.com
• You can purchase the the lulu version of the printed book here:  https://www.lulu.com
• I have not seen the product on the Necrotic Gnome website but I believe they don't stock print-on-demand products, in house.

For the record, I purchased the Lulu version, as I have never had a bad Lulu print but I've had numerous poorly printed books from Drivethru.  As of 31 July 2023, the Lulu version is also $6 cheaper!  Get on it folks, you won't be disappointed!

 

Four days.... I've been alive in this Hell for four days.  Again we hear the suppressive fire starting from across the river - the Volga - that bitch of a river that has drunk the souls of my entire platoon... and the platoon before that.  Four days.  My beautiful twin sister, Olga, is dug in beside me.  Poor Olya, I pray that her scars don't keep her from a good husband some day.  She is adjusting dials on some device sent down from Moscow.  She was told it will protect our emplacement from explosions - something about radio frequencies and tuning ley lines.  My Olya is the smart twin.  I'm the sniper.  With shaking hands, I finish loading my battered Mosin.  I know from experience that they will stop shaking when the iron monsters of the 14th Panzer (Ork) roll into view.  I pray that if she and I survive this battle that Olga returns home.  Stalingrad is no place for my sister.  Four days...

 

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Modern Necessities is a set of character classes, equipment, and rules for adding modern combat into an Old School Essentials (OSE) game.  This book cannot be used as a complete game, as is.  You need to have either OSE, a TSR version of Dungeons & Dragons, or some form of retroclone or OSR product for the basic rules.  There is also a version of this book for the 5th edition of what WotC calls "D&D". I haven't seen it and won't spend my hard-earned scrilla on 5e.

 Physically, the book is a bit taller than normal, US-sized books.  For my fellow 'murcans, this book is 11.5" inches high and 8.25" wide.  This equates to 29.5cm high and 21cm wide for my Euro-friends, Aussies, and Canuckistanis.

The cover is pretty cool but I'm not exactly sure what it represents.  There's a pointy-eared fellow, a chick with a pistol, maybe a medusa with a gatling gun and an ogre holding an old timey bomb.  This is just a guess.

After the title page, table of contents, and introduction from the author, the book jumps right into the new classes.  There are a lot of them.  Each class, in OSE tradition, is detailed on one page.  The format uses bullet points with paragraphs as needed for more detailed information.  The second page includes tables for each class (XP, HD, attacks, skill success, saving throws, etc.)

The classes are:  Soldier, Heavy Gunner, Crook, Tech Expert, Sniper, Survivalist, Hired Killer, Medic, Psychonaut (magic-users who get their spells from hallucinogenic drugs and communing with inter-dimensional entities), Wheelman, Ninja, Exorcist (what it sounds like), and Face (the sexy, talker folks).  The rest of the classes should be self-explanatory.  I wish Mr. Dutchman would have reorganized the class chapter to keep all of a character class' details on facing pages.  Sometimes it is but sometimes you have class information on the front and charts on the back of a single.

Note that some of the classes have access to spells.  For a more realistic setting, the referee will have to ignore this.  Tech Experts get access to technomancy spells (detailed in this book), Medics and Exorcists get access to cleric spells.  Psychonauts get access to magic-user spells.  Faces get access to magic-user spells (illusionist spells, if Advanced OSE is in use).

After classes, we get a 2-page spread on races.  Dwarf, elf, gnome, halfling, half-orc, and human are the options.  They are the same as the OSE versions but are given traits and flavor on how they might behave in a modern society.  Dwarves are old-time fans and are good with revolvers, sawed-off shotties, and the like.  Half-orcs are [apparently] dressed as gopniks are best with "spray and pay" weapons.  You get the idea. 

The next 35 pages are guns and gear.  

There is a simple way to use "spread quality" tagged items, such as shotguns.  In this case, if your character is blasting some schmuck with a 12-gauge, and his homie is standing within 5 feet of him, there is a 2-in-6 chance that he sucks up some shot himself.  I am not sold on the "full auto quality" tagged weapons.  Each character has a standard Armor Class but full auto targets AC 5 [14] and anyone within 10 feet is hit with this as the target number but then saves for half damage.  I can see a player whose character has a better AC complaining about this.  With D&D-style AC to be hit and not armor reduction, I don't know if I could come up with a better mechanic.  I don't know.  I'd have to think about it.

The author has some fun with the weapon descriptions and it tickles me.  Here is the description of the Fire Axe, as an example.  "Carried by firefighters and often stored away in buildings for use in emergencies.  Sometimes slamming it into someone's chest counts as an emergency."  Dry and funny.

I won't spend too much time on the weapons, even though it is dang near half the book.  Weapons are broken out into tables based on the class of weapon, light, medium, heavy, etc.  Taking two pistols to compare, James Bond uses a Walther, .32 caliber pistol, according to the Dr. No movie.  Bond can take out the evil SPECTRE schmucks at 30/60/90 range with 1d4 damage.  Dirty Harry, on the other hand, with his .44 magnum, "the most powerful handgun in the world", blows away rapists at 60/120/180 range with 1d8+1 damage.

The rules eschew bullet counting and the game relies on a Reload Number, instead.  A d6 is rolled after an encounter and if the result is below a certain number, the weapon must be reloaded (again, not "bullets" but rather an item called "ammo reload", which is whatever number of bullets are needed).  Don't worry. it appears to work better than how I am describing it.  This simplifies counting ammunition, which is probably good for a military game with bullets whizzing by.  If emulating a spy novel, where maybe only a handful bullets are ever fired, it might not be necessary.  Overall, I enjoy the reload.  For the record, our famous British spy has to reload with a 2-in-6 chance and our favorite San Francisco ass-kicker has to reload with a 4-in-6 chance.

Later on in the book, we get a rules and table for damaging vehicles and occupants of vehicles.  I think that the table could have been included in the main weapons tables easily enough.  It is always a single-digit number and the tables have room.

I am really happy to say that Mr. Dutchman lists weapons by "type" and not specific weapons.  He does include examples in the description.  My dad's old Winchester .30-30 is a "lever action rifle", journalist's favorite punching bag death machine is listed as "assault rifle".  The author failed to take into account the +1 Charisma bonus that the AK-47 wielders get when shooting next to those inferior AR-15 chumps.  Oh well, maybe in the next edition!

There is a list of firearm attachments (night vision, suppressor, etc.)  Armor affects AC, as expected in OSE.  I think the author went a bit too crazy with armor types but I understand his reasoning because some "armors" have special properties (NBC suit makes you immune to diseases while wearing them, etc.)

The next chapter is for vehicles.  There is a very simple mechanic for shooting into vehicles.  Each vehicle has a Vulnerability Rating (VR).  Vehicles are immune to weapons which have a Vehicle Damage (VD) stat equal to, or lower than, the VR.  Let's go back to our two literary heroes for a minute.  Bond has his Walther in hand and wants to stop the Peterbilt bearing down on him.  James empties is mag into the truck's hood and not a damn thing happens.  Bond's 'Murcan comrade whips out his .44 magnum heater, *BOOM*  *BOOM*, he drops two rounds into the engine block, damaging the truck.

The vehicle list is by type, just like weapons, and not specific models of cars, boats, helicopters, or tanks.

Technomancy spells are next listed.  Some are super hacker type spells.  Some make weapons "magical", imparting a bonus to hit. There are six levels of spells, with eight spells per level.  It would be nice to have a line delineating the breaking point between spells.  Or perhaps a table break.

A chapter on NPCs follows.  There are 16 NPCs included.  You get a commando, detective, cyber criminal, some other humans, and a cybernetically upgraded dog, called Drone Dog.  It reminds me of one of the Sprawl Trilogy books where some tinker in the woods had a pack of enhanced dogs.

Chapter 10 is optional rules.  Hit locations, "cinematic" mode, damaging armor, gun jams, etc.  Cinematic mode is when the players want to run either a Rambo game or a James Bond game.  Characters damage enemy Hit Dice rather than Hit Points.  Enemies damage character's Hit Points, but all weapons do between 0 and 4 points of damage.  This is the same rule from the excellent Scarlet Heroes OSR game.  There is also an optional rule for Experience Points that I think would be needed for any modern game, other than a game where the PCs are bank robbers.  James Bond is a bad ass but he isn't looting the corpses of fallen enemies, looking for chump change.  He is a bad ass because he has completed missions.

⇨ GRIT: ★★★★☆:  This supplement definitely brings OSE into the modern age.  The rules are mostly useful for modern campaigns which involve heavy firepower.  The game is guns heavy and light on spy gadgets, is what I'm saying.  I don't know if Mr. Dutchman intended it this way, maybe he is planning a spy supplement for spy craft?  Mr. Dutchman states in his introduction that players can "revisit old classics with an AK-47 in hand and a vest full of grenades".  He then mentions what I believe are hints about Ravenloft and Isle of Dread.  I think it would be a heck of a good time playing this.

⇨ VIGOR: ★★★☆☆: As a set of rules, they work.  There is no setting information in the book and this might be intentional, as the rules are generic enough for most modern combat settings.  If the author ever does a second edition, I would love to see a few 1-2 page mini settings.  Maybe he does a mini setting which is very D&D but with guns, another which is very realistic but the characters go to a lost dinosaur island, which may or may not be Jurassic in nature, another where the characters are womanizing superspies, out to foil the plots of some supervillains with goofy names, another where they are cowboys who defend the herds from rampaging ankheg, etc.  Giving the referee and players a handful of samples, to me, is always a plus.

⇨ GRACE: ★★★★☆: This is a decent-looking book.  Having all tables and class info on a page spread would do wonders.  Also, by eliminating the space between bullet points in the NPC chapter would allow another one or two foes or friends to be added.  I also would like the aforementioned weapons vs. vehicles score in the table with the weapons.  Those complaints aside, the book is laid-out quite well.  It has a modern layout, plenty of white space to break up the text, and there aren't random tables showing up on page 23, referencing something from page 50.  The art is decent to good.  My personal favorite is the drow on page 1, showing her rack, with her finger to her lips and a submachine gun ready to go.  I think perhaps having a more unified art style would be better (the sexy drow just mentioned is cartoony but a bit serious in tone vs. the demon gal on page 35 which is cartoony, but more in the way of Who Framed Roger Rabbit).  I hope that makes sense. 

Points of Light

Points of Light
by Robert Conley

The pdf can be purchased here:  https://goodman-games.com
It can also be purchased in hard copy from Ebay for about $10.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

First things first, I own this in hard copy and do not have the pdf.  One thing which jumped out me right away is that there is no copyright which I can see in this product.  I was trying to find the date this product was printed and I don't see this either.  Based on the game systems it is designed for, according to Goodman Game's website, the product is designed for 3e, 4e, or system neutral.  Seeing that the Wizard's versions of "D&D" are so unrelated to real versions of D&D, if this book is to be used, the DM is going to have to ignore the class and level information included.

Just an off-the-top conversion note:  I suspect that if the Dungeon Master was to keep the levels in this setting, don't adjust levels 1-3, divide levels 4-6 by half, and divide levels 7+ by three.  This book is in the typical Wizard's style "D&D", where every back alley bum, sleeping in the street has a class and a level.  Even after doing the above math, if it seems reasonable that the NPC should be a normal man, just set him to HD 0 and ignore the uber-bum issue.

With that out of the way, you, dear reader, probably want to know what this product is all about.  This book is 48 pages of mini settings; three are in the remains of a fallen empire, and the fourth is a vast swamp on an outer plane which the Acheron River flows through.

The book introduces a new class named Myrmidon.  There are no class-specific details other than stating it is a lawful evil version of the paladin.  Speaking of mechanics, the setting does a good job of steering clear of them, other than the inflated level and class mumbo jumbo.  I recall reading one spot where a saving throw vs. paralyzation (I think) was needed and all other saving throws are in 3e-speak - save vs. reflex, etc.

The first setting is called Wildland.  It is set shortly after the empire fell.  It is advertised as being similar to the Dark Ages of Europe.  The second is called Southland.  It is a relatively empty land, where brave characters might carve out their own realms.  The third is called Borderland.  It takes place after the primary gods of the empire had a falling out and now two of the gods' followers are warring with each other.  The fourth is called Swamps of Acheron.  It is a massive swamp where one of the gods holds sway and tests his followers when they seek advancement in the hierarchy.

Each of the settings includes its own map and I really like the maps.  Each map is made of 5-mile hexes and takes up one page (say 125 miles in one direction and 100 miles in the other direction).  The Swamps of Acheron takes up about half a page.  I spent a few seconds looking, to see if the maps fit together, and it doesn't seem that they do.  They seem to be set in different parts of the fallen empire.

The Wildland setting is centered on a two very large rivers which dump into the ocean.  There are two large forests, which make up a decent portion of the map.  Trade centers around the massive rivers.  The background here is that about a hundred years after the Bright Empire fell due to civil war, tribes of barbarians and humanoids invaded the formerly peaceful lands.  

Several tribes of barbarians and humanoids live and survive in the Wildland.  The scattered towns are the only really peaceful places to be found here - and they may not be peaceful if you don't follow whichever deity is in vogue.  There was a large nation of elves living in the woods but they have been chased out by the humanoids; only a small number of them are left.  The town of Delen is the one place where the various locals can meet and discuss trade, treaties, and the like.  Even humanoids are allowed in this town to make their cases in regards to treaties and to trade.  This town also has some stone golems, which are used to punish peace-breakers by drowning them.

Wildland is very much the stereotypical D&Dish fantasy setting - but with more barbarians.  I like this one but I prefer the following setting.

The Southland setting is primarily desert and steppes, with some small wooded areas and a large river.  There is also a massive bog, called Olden Bog, which sits near the main river.  This setting is set somewhere between 200 and 1000 years after the fall of the Bright Empire (text isn't that clear, here).  Ruins are scattered here and there.

We have the standard humanoid invasion from the previous setting, as well as an invasion of dark elves.  There are fewer towns that in Wildland and trade is more rudimentary.  The author expects the PCs to find a nice place to settle and then conquer territory, setting up their own trade routes, etc.

Some of the fun names in this setting include Blood Forest, Forsaken Plains, Nightshade Canyon, and Titan Head Mountains.  There is a very Black Company-vibe naming scheme with some of these.  

Overall, I prefer Southland to Wildland.   

The Borderland setting is very mountainous with scattered hills and a couple of small forests.  The setting includes four main areas:  the side fighting for Sarrath (god), the side fighting for Delaquain (another god), the side who wants to remain neutral, and the side which is just trying to rebuild from the war.

This setting is set up so the player characters can join one faction or another, or spaghetti western the whole thing and play each side off the other, while making that shiny, shiny gold.

I find the geography in this setting the most boring.  It is nearly all mountain or hill.  There is one major river which separates the two warring sides from one another.  Most of this section details the small number of settlements and which faction they support.

This is the weakest of the three standard, prime plane settings, in my opinion.  It isn't bad but I find the "new civil war, but this time it's god vs. god!" not to my taste.

Scattered throughout the first three settings are small inset maps of towns or castles.

The final setting is The Swamps of Acheron.  As I stated earlier, this one takes place on the outer planes.  This setting confuses me a bit.  It is set up so followers of Sarrath make a pilgrimage to this swamp to be tested for advancement in the god's hierarchy.

The land is a swamp, which is fed by smaller rivers branching off the Acheron, with some mountains here and there.  This setting clocks in at five pages and isn't all that exciting.  The monsters, of course, are more powerful. The 999 story tower is the best part of this chapter, it has a few big bads to keep the peasantry at bay, but no map, which is to be expected in a supplement which is so short.

There are four main civilized deities which are used throughout the settings, and one which the humanoid scum prefer.  The big religious conflict is between Dalanquin and Sarrath.  We have:

• Dalanquin - goddess of honor and justice.  Lawful good.
  
• Sarrath - god of order, discipline, and war.  Lawful evil.
• Thoth - god of knowledge and wisdom.  No alignment stated.  I assume Lawful neutral.
• Veritas - god of truth and law.  No alignment stated but I also assume Lawful neutral.
• Azeel - god of blood.  Some form of evil, presumably Chaotic.

Overall, I really enjoy this supplement.  I doubt I would ever use the 4th setting but the first three (especially the first two) can be used quite easily.  The maps are lovely and usable, but would have to be edited to remove location information about monster lairs before they can be handed to players.

⇨ GRIT: ★★★★☆:  This supplement certainly accomplishes what it set out to do.  The owner gets four short settings which can be used for a fantasy adventure game.  Even though I am not a big fan of one of the settings, no doubt there are many people out there who love that extra-planar stuff.  I believe the author did a good job of capturing four settings different enough for different tables but all related, more or less, so a DM can combine them into one larger setting (this will take work for sure, plus some mapping).  Nearly everything in this setting is going to require the DM to put in a bit of work.

⇨ VIGOR: ★★★☆☆: Each of the first three settings have quite a number of detailed encounters of various difficulties for parties.  Goblins here for the Chuds just leaving the farm to an old dragon with lots of loot for the Chads which our farmer Chuds hope to become.  The fourth setting is a bit lacking in these details.  This is not a module and it won't work as one but a competent DM can take what is here and keep the campaign going for a while.

⇨ GRACE: ★★★★☆: This is a pretty good-looking book.  The page backgrounds are a faded map and do not interfere with reading the text at all.  There is a fancy border at the top and bottom of each page which also does not interfere.  The maps are hexed-based and each hex has a 4-digit number on it, which makes finding a description a piece of cake.  The maps are gorgeous!  There are a few tables in the book for wandering monsters and rumors.  They are too dark and would be nicer if they were light and dark rather than dark and darker.
 

The Stars are Fire

The Stars are Fire
by Bruce R. Cordell

PDF can be had from DTRPG:  The-Stars-Are-Fire
or, from Monte Cook Games webstore (PDF and real book versions):  the-stars-are-fire
or, most likely from your friendly local gaming store.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

The Stars are Fire (TSAF, to save some finger damage) is a 224 page rules supplement and campaign setting for the Cypher System RPG.  I bought the book based (mostly) on the cover.  Take a look at that cover.  I'm happy to say, that at least in this case, judging a book by its cover worked out well.  I also must say this up front - I have next-to-no knowledge on Cypher System.  Some cat on the ShadowDark Discord pointed me in the direction of the free download, which I downloaded and skimmed.  I have since ordered the forthcoming boxed set but please don't expect a lot of rules details from me as I have only a rudimentary understanding of the rules.  Now that I have said that, rest assured, you do NOT need much knowledge of the game for this supplement to make sense.  In fact, the game mechanics in this supplement are a very minor part of it and can be ignored, in general.

OK chiruns, let's get into this.

The inside front cover is an extremely "not to scale" layout of our solar system.  The inside back cover is a vehicle scale representation, but doesn't include capital ships as they are too big.  There is a fold-out poster map which has both of these pictures on it, one on the front and the other on the back.

Chapter 1 is a list of sci-fi adventure seeds.  By reading through these, you will quickly realize that the author is dropping the kitchen sink of science fiction into this book.  TSAF is designed for any style of sci-fi, as this list and the rest of the rules supplement section shows.

Chapter 2 covers the very basics of the Cypher System, some minor advice on running science fiction, and then an example of play.

Chapter 3 digs into more detailed advice on running science fiction games.  TSAF simplifies tech levels into Contemporary (near future), Advanced (think Aliens or the Expanse), and Fantastic (Star Wars or Star Trek).  I prefer this delineation model to Traveller's more expansive tech levels.  I imagine that many folks would prefer the Traveller version, though.

Chapter 4 is about science fiction subgenres.  There are 21 included, by my count, of which several have a few paragraphs as examples.  Each of the subgenres lists a novel series, tv show, or movie which fits into the subgenre.  Some of these I have read or seen but some I have not.

Chapter 5 is a d100 chart about "conflicts of the future".  This would be useful for a really basic adventure generator but I don't envision using it very often.  

Chapter 6 are optional Cypher System rules for science fiction.  This includes issues with Zero G, high gravity, and the effects of vacuum.  There are several "GM Intrusion" tables in this section.  I assume that these GM Intrusions are something similar to the GM "spending a benny" in Savage Worlds.  It's a meta currency.  I read that players also have these "Intrusions" as well but this might have been in the free download of the core rules.  This chapter includes details on starship combat, with notes on both Star Wars style fighters and Star Trek style bridge crew.  Included is a page on vehicles vs. creatures for those who want to bring your Star Fury fighter to the Godzilla fight.

Pages 48 and 49 might be interesting but due to the darkish blue on black background, I find them unreadable and therefore skipped these pages.

A few pages discuss psionics and posthuman upgrades.  

Throughout this section, the GM Intrusions are listed based on the subject matter. Salvage from a wreck?  Intrusions are covered.  Ship damage from radiation?  Yep.  

Chapter 7 is filled with equipment lists. Page 67 has a very useful chart for light speed communication delay between planets in our solar system.  Each of the equipment lists is divided based on each of TSAF's three tech levels.  Each piece of equipment includes its default Level, which is the roll needed to use the equipment (I think?  Maybe it is to actually find the piece of equipment?)  My lack of Cypher System knowledge means that this isn't super clear to me.  The equipment is listed in order of Level, from low to high, at any rate.  Each equipment piece also includes a price.  There appear to be five price levels in the game; again, due to lack of Cypher knowledge, I don't know how this translates into actual credits, dollars, or gold pieces.  There is a conversion rate in a chapter further on, but it also isn't very detailed.

Some of the equipment has a small mono-color picture of it.  I really enjoy these mono-color pictures.  Actually, I prefer them to the full color art pieces.

Chapter 8 is the equipment list for vehicles and spacecraft, plus a couple of useful sidebars - the most useful to me is the transit time between planets in the solar system.  Travel times for nuclear plasma engines and the fusion engines used in the setting included in this book.

Chapter 9 is the bestiary for the book.  The critters are all pretty unique, other than Posthuman and Synthetic Person, from what I can tell.  I like all of them.  Some of them are used in the Revel setting, which is the included setting.

Chapters 10 through 17 are all about the included setting, The Revel.  Dumb name aside, I LOVE this setting.  I don't love it as much as the included setting in TSR's Buck Rogers in the 25th Century RPG, but this is a close second.  When I read through this section, I compared everything I read to the XXVc setting.  The Revel is perhaps less cheesy than the XXVc setting but it certainly has its own cheesiness (Mars as an example).  

To shortly summarize the setting:  Earth has "gone silent" and any ship that enters the Earth's atmosphere disappears forever.  Luna One (our moon) is high tech and is run by an [assumed] friendly AI.  The Big Five Spirals are massive space stations owned by the local mega-corps.  Venus has floating cloud cities.  Mars is the "Old West" planet.  The outer planets and asteroid belt are space stations and pirates.  There are some extra-solar planets included as well.  Men were able to build FTL ships and get a few colonies going before the earth went silent and the knowledge to build FTL ships is no more.

This section of the book includes some history about the setting, of course, as well as notes for players and GMs for playing in the setting.  I mentioned earlier in the equipment section that these chapters include more details on the prices.  Currency is based on the Lunar Lumen, which is the most stable currency.  The price range for price levels is extremely wide.  Whereas I like the very limited tech levels in the book, I believe that the price ranges should be narrowed and have additional price levels.  For example, a very expensive item might be from 10k to 250k Lumens.  I understand what the intention of the author is, here, but to take this to real life, this one price level includes everything from a used car to a really nice house.  Know what I mean?

Chapter 17 includes the actual history of, and what is going on with, both the Earth and some hidden tunnels on Luna.  I appreciate what the author does here but I think this chapter would be better served with the words "Make it up, oh, and here are 100 options if you want to randomly decide the Truth", followed by many options of what could be going on.  I won't spoil it though for you folks who are playing in the setting.

Chapter 18 includes various ways to get the PCs involved in the setting.  It isn't long but I enjoy the sidebar which states that if the characters need a ship, just give them one, and make up the details if you want as to how they got it.  

The first included adventure, Salvage Over Saturn, takes place in the Revel setting, and ties back to the example of play in chapter 2.  It is good.  If I run this setting, I will definitely use this adventure, probably as a way to get the party together.

The other two adventures are not as good and not as detailed.  I don't love either one but Alien Planet seems better than Prison Break, to me.  These two are generic sci-fi, and not specifically for the Revel.

The last page of the book is the Space Combat Status Tracker, which is used for space combat, especially when multiple players are on the same ship, such as Kirk, Spock, and the gang.

⇨ GRIT: ★★★★★:  This book contains all one would need to run a science fiction campaign in the game system, in any of the included tech levels.  If you want to play a campaign based on X Files, Babylon 5, or Total Recall 2070 television shows, this book has you covered.

⇨ VIGOR: ★★★★☆: The Stars are Fire is mostly rules adjustments, equipment lists, science fiction "how to's" and a setting.  You can certainly play using the Revel setting (I would) but you will need to take pretty expansive notes on the three TV shows I mentioned earlier if you want to use them as a campaign setting.  This book is detailed enough for me but I imagine that some folks would want more detailed notes on any of the included topics.

⇨ GRACE: ★★☆☆☆: The Stars are Fire book is "ok" looking.  The layout is very useful and I enjoy the sidebars which point to other sections in the book itself, as well as the Cypher System rule book, which I don't have yet.  Where this book fails is the color scheme, including the full-spread I mentioned earlier that is blue on black.  The art is also very iffy to me.  I like nearly all of the monochrome pieces but the full color pieces are too computery for me, I guess I will say.  When it is a picture of a ship flying through space (pg 93) it looks fine to me, but when the art piece is a person (pg 50), it looks too cartoony for me.  This is no doubt related to growing up with Trampier and Otus as artists.  I'm too old to enjoy computer art.

Horror in Hopkinsville

Fright Night Classics:  Horror in Hopkinsville
Richard Ravalli

It can be purchased in pdf from https://www.drivethrurpg.com or directly from the publisher, in print.  He can be reached on Twitter @chillcryptworld or elsewhere, I assume.  I purchased from the author since if it isn't a physical product, it really doesn't exist to me,

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Horror in Hopkinsville is [I think] the first module in the Fright Night Classics line (product number 1001 is the lowest of the three I own).  I don't actually know for which game system this module is written.  I assume either Chill or Crypt World, based on Mr. Ravalli's handle, but as I don't actually own either of those two games, this is just a guess.  The stat blocks are d% based, so it should be able to be used with any d%-based game with minimal conversion.

This is a very well-made product. The cover is glossy, but not too glossy and the paper is very thick.  The module measures 24 pages long but the last page is blank, so in reality it is 22 pages of module.

The cover is very lovely and is from a chap named Frank Ordaz.  The interior art pieces (all b&w) are drawn by Mac Teg and Eric Smith.

The inside cover is the layout for the Wright House, where much of the adventure takes place.  Interestingly, the house has a Mudroom in the back of the house.  I don't know if houses in Kentucky have these - I assume that this is a yankee thing.  The map is very clean and neat, and it shows location of furniture, which might come in handy.  The title page has a drawing of the house and it actually matches the layout, from what I can determine.

The Introduction gives a quick recap of the 1955 strangeness which is the basis for this adventure.  I am fairly certain I saw some documentary or Ancient Aliens episode or something about the 1955 event.  I've seen so many of those that they all sorta blur together in my head.

The module gives some reason why the PCs might arrive in Hopkinsville, Kentucky.  The events which are haunting the Wright family are described, as well as what the family believes is happening and what is actually happening.  

Some notes on what happens when characters research the history of the 1955 event follow.  The first bout of game mechanics occurs here and are useful, even if you don't own the actual rules, whatever they are.  Characters who are skilled in history, journalism, or paranormal folklore will gather some information.  One could fathom that whichever rules this is meant for includes success levels (low, medium, high, and complete).

The next two pages have stat blocks for the NPCs (the Wright family), rats, and the bad guys (name withheld in case any of y'all want to play the adventure).  An annoyance of mine in regards the mechanics first rears its head here - the abilities.  I don't know what they are.  I quick glossary after the title page, or on the blank final page would have solved this issue.

Here are what I think are the ability scores:
STA - stamina
STR - strength
DEX - dexterity
PER - personality
WLL - willpower
PCN - perception
AGL - agility
CHN - no clue here.  Since personality is a score, I suspect this is not charisma.  Channeling, maybe?
Melee - obvious.  I imagine this is the average of some of the above.  Maybe DEX and AGL or PCN and AGL.  I'm not sure.

Since these are all straight percentages, the game can be played with just the ability scores.  Skills in whichever system this is for apparently have three levels, lowest, medium, and highest.  David Wright (the dad) is a bad ass mechanic and pretty good with his shotgun.  Julia Wright (the mom) is pretty good with water sports and swimming (I assume this is what aquatics means).  Rats are pretty ratty, as expected, and the bad guys get two attacks, so characters beware!

Chapter 2 is all about the Wright house.  Players are expected to do some roleplaying here, as well as gathering clues.  The referee is going to have to think about why a party of randos shows up at a house in some town in Kentucky.  The pre-generated characters have a reason to be there but no reason why they would all be together.  UFO hunters or paranormal investigators are two of the potential hooks which are given.

At some point while in the house, the bad guys will attack.  It is not a serious attack and it's mostly to keep the characters on their toes and to allow them to gain a clue as to where the baddies originate.  There are a few potential attack locations mentioned.  All of them can be used if the characters spend too much time dawdling around the house.

Another quick note on the art.  The art appears to actually match up with the descriptions of both the house and the pre-gens.

Chapter 3 is all about hunting down the bad guys.  The sewer map is very usable.  I seriously doubt it is anything close to reality, though.  With a quick internet search, Hopkinsville has a population of 31k people and the sewer map seems like something you'd find under a major city.  Be that as it may, it is usable, which is the point.  The characters are going to need light sources while traipsing through the sewers.  Characters will run into rats and the bad guys.  Since the players won't know how many bad guys there are, I would place a lair on the map.  There is one place on the map which screams out "Place lair here!" to me.

Once the characters have eliminate the baddies the adventure ends.  Players should realize that this adventure takes place in the modern times and characters blazing away with firearms in a residential area is definitely going to summon the po-po.  

There are some rules for advancing skill levels and raising ability scores.  This is useful if you want to use the pre-generated characters.

The final page of the adventure proper is a handout for the players for when they successfully research the 1955 event.  The drawing of the monster is not so scary.  Maybe it would have scared people in 1955 but it's kine of cute, I think.  

Eight pre-generated characters finish up the book.  There is a mix of professionals and teenagers and they each have a hook as to why they would be adventuring in town.  Again, though, there isn't really any obvious reason why they would be together, but that is easily negotiated I suppose.

The inside back cover has an advertisement for another module - The Blood Countess.

I have two more of the Fright Night Classics modules that I look forward to reading.  Oh, the author is a big Kolchak fan, which is how we virtually "met", which means he is probably a cool dude in real life.

⇒ GRIT: ★★★★☆:  I wish I knew what game this adventure is designed for.  The built-in mechanics and stat blocks are simple to follow.  Since I don't actually have the game, I'm going to give this module 4 stars, under the assumption that it works well for the actual RPG.  The module seems to be very useful and a competent Referee could easily use it for any other modern day game - I am one and I will use it.

⇒ VIGOR: ★★☆☆☆:  I imagine that this adventure can only be played once in a campaign.  Once it is completed, it can't be reused for the same campaign.  While reading it, I decided that it would be a GREAT convention scenario.  It can be played in a 3-4 hour time slot easily, the players would have a ball, and would then go about their business.  Unless a few pages were added, describing Hopkinsville and the surrounding areas, including more adventure hooks and locations this is a "one and done" book.

⇒ GRACE: ★★★★☆:  The book is very well put together.  It is old school saddle stitching but the paper quality is much better than the TSR modules of yore.  The art goes from adequate to good.  Since the art actually corresponds to the adventure, it is useful, and not just "for looks".  The layout could have been better, though it isn't bad as it is.  Bullet points could be used for important details, and since there is an entire blank page (two sides) in the back, there is plenty of room for adjustments.

Conan Role-playing Game

Conan Role-playing Game
David "Zeb" Cook

It can be purchased from EBay, for about $300 according to a 15 second search I just did.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

The Conan RPG is a box set by TSR which came out in 1985.  I didn't know about it until probably 1992, when I saw it in a mall toy store in Virginia.  I bought it and it is one of the few games that I purchased in the 1990s and have kept.

The box includes a 32 page rulebook, a 48 page World of Hyboria (the setting) book, a beautiful folded map of the setting, three blank character folios, one folio filled in with Conan's stats, a reference booklet and the master reference sheets.

Before I get started on the review, let me show y'all the map. It is gorgeous!

Granted, having a full-sized map would be awesome, but I really love having Conan facing off against a couple of beasties.  What will he do with that treasure?  Build a castle?  Donate it to an orphanage?  Hell no!  My man is going to blow it on wenches and wine, in true barbarian fashion!

The Conan RPG was written in the time when TSR turned their energy into color chart games.  Marvel Superheroes,  Gamma World 3rd edition, even my beloved Star Frontiers got the treatment in Zebulon's Guide.  I will go over it a bit more later on but the short-short version is "roll d100, compare result to a column on the chart, and the color shows result".

I have been on record for a couple of decades, stating that ALL of the rules of a game should be included in a 32 page book.  THIS game is the reason why I decided to make that claim online in the early 2000's, on dragonsfoot.org.   This game, for its faults, and there are some, epitomizes game design for me.  It is clear(ish), concise, and the author doesn't vomit useless information all over the game.

The rulebook begins with the traditional "what is role playing?" in the first column on the first page, the second column is "what is in the box", and then the third column begins the rules.  This is on the FIRST PAGE!  How awesome is that?  No God awful fanfic, no long, drawn out lists of people thanked, none of that.  Just game.

An unique thing to Conan (at any rate, this is the only game which I have seen it work this way), is that what are ability scores in other games are determined by character skills, and not the other way around.  Conan is a skill-based game.  Characters pick a list of individual Talents (a mix of abilities, skills, and knowledge in the game).  The Talent Pool score is determined from the talents in the pool.  The talent pools are:  prowess, fighting, endurance, knowledge, perception, and insight.  The general Talent Score is figured by adding up all of the talent scores in the pool and dividing by 10 and rounding down.  It is counterintuitive to people who've been gaming for over 40 years but it works well in practice.

I will use our main barbarian man, Conan, as an example.

• He has the following Fighting talents (Sword-10, Brawling-7, and Wrestling-5).  Adding these three talents together nets us 22, rounded down to 2.  Conan's Fighting Pool is 2.
• He has Blacksmith-3 as his only Knowledge talent.  His Knowledge Pool is 0

If you can wrap your head around this concept, and then later on wrap your head around the color chart, this game is a piece of cake.

Creating a character consists of filling out a short form that gives the character a small backstory, which included physical description, dad and mom, dad's profession, and a couple of the character's talents.

Choosing talents is simple and the character must spend some points on his father's trade, must choose at least one talent from each pool, and cannot spend more than 5 points in any one talent.  One thing to consider when generating a character is that what are hit points in other games ("Damage" in this game) is a talent.  This means that no more than 5 points can be applied to it at character creation.  This isn't that big of an issue since the average blow landed will do 1-2 points of damage.  The issue is that every player is going to drop 5 points here by default.  When I ran this game in the early 90s, this is what happened.  It is something that the players feel they must do to keep the character alive during the first adventure.  The game works perfectly well as written.  I think that if I ever run this again, I might have character start with an extra five points, knowing that they will put 5 in Damage.  I don't know, maybe I would keep it as is.

The entire character generation chapter is four pages long, and on one page, two of the colums are filled with some bad ass warrior drawn by Easley.  Characters can choose to take a weakness, which has differing effects.  For instance, "fear of animals" as a weakness means that the character can't take the animal handling talent.  Taking a talent gives your character another 5 points to spend on talents.  Each character gets a selection of three items of equipment.  Since column 1 has only one item - Any weapon, the character realistically picks just two pieces of additional equipment.  There is an amusing typo on this page and "& bridle" shows up with the "100' rope and grapple" selection and not on the "horse, saddle" selection.

Pages 6 through 11 are combat.  Combat is combat in most RPGs, you roll to hit, you do some damage, and some chump might die.  Here are some specifics for the Conan RPG.

• Initiative is 1d10 plus highest of animal reflexes, movement, or general prowess pool.  Rules are included for both individual initiative and group initiative.
• Attacker attacks with a specific weapon talent or the general fighting pool.  Attacker rolls d100 on the column for his talent.  The result is either the color white (miss), or green, yellow, orange, or red (usually damage from 1 to 4, one point per color).
• Defender rolls his defense with whatever weapon he is using.  White result means no damage deflected, green is 1 point, up to red blocking 4 points.
• A successful hit with damage left over from the parry is applied to the armor worn first.  When that is gone, it does meat damage (lose points from the Damage talent).
• Armor is specific to coverage of certain body parts and dice are rolled to determine where the blow lands.  The exception is a red attack result, which gives the attacker the option to land a specific blow.  Armor is also heavy and restricting.  Your movement will suffer, and hence your initiative will suffer, by layering on the armor.  Depending on the location of the specific, red-result wound, other problems might occur.  Hint - if your opponent is not wearing a helmet, aiming at the head and getting a red result is the best way to kill a foe. 
  
• When the Damage talent drops to 0 or below, the player rolls to stay alive and/or conscious.  White means death, Red means alive and conscious, other colors mean unconscious.

The next two pages cover movement in the game.  This is followed by two pages of dangers such as poison, falling, fire, and drowning.

The magic chapter is also two pages long.  Theoretically any character can learn magic but there are hindrances when doing so.  Social ostracization is one role-playing hindrance, the others are more mechanical - characters will have to start selecting magical weaknesses as time goes on and the character will suffer from Obsession (the desire for more magical power that your current magical power has brought you).  I really like the way this game uses these.  It matches up with the Conan lore quite well.  There are several magical talents (alchemy, mind control, natural laws, etc.) and spells fall under one talent.  There is no list of spells!  The referee is expected to come up with a specific spell if necessary.  Each talent lists what can be done with that talent, broken down by how difficult it is.  

To create an example, let us look to D&D for a minute.  The 2nd level cleric spell "speak with animals" is a moderate Natural Magic spell in Conan.  If the player wants his player to know a spell to do the same thing, he and the referee will come up with a cool-sounding name, any ingredients required, and what happens when the spell is cast.  Don't forget that you will be gaining magical weaknesses when you learn magic!

The witchdoctors of Jhebbal Sag have taught your character the signs to make and tokens needed to speak with wild beasts.  You must speak the words of power while sprinkling ground elk's horn over your head while making the sign of the God with your other hand.

Next follows two and a half pages of Living in Hyboria.  Prices for basic goods are included here, as well as a good ol' reaction table.

The next two pages cover character improvement.  Improvement includes Fame (a score which determines how well your character is known, Expertise, and Excitement.  Every swinging you know what in ancient Greece knew Xena (according to the tv show) but how many knew of Joxer the Mighty?  You start as a Joxer and if you gather fame, you will be the next Xena, known far and wide.  This is Fame.  Expertise is traditional mechanical advancement, points into talents, etc.  Excitement sorta ties in mechanically.  Each character has a number of luck points that only the referee knows about.  Good roleplaying, humor, helping other players to have fun, etc. can add to your pool of luck points.  Luck points are spent do reroll dice or to lower the severity of damage.  Having the referee be the only one who knows the character's total is pretty cool.  I think it would force players to roleplay well in order to keep the pool up.  If the player knows he has only one luck point left, he may not take chances, and how sword & sorcery is that?!  Not very!  

The book next has two pages of how to run Hyborian adventures, followed by two pages of creating adventures.

The book ends with an included adventure (remember folks, this is a 32 page rulebook!)  The adventure is the Tower of the Elephant (the Howard story).

The back cover of the book has a decent index on the inside and the color chart on the back.  Excuse me, the Conan Resolution Table.

I'm going to cover the Reference Guide and Reference sheets together, since to some bad editing or planning, the former flows into the latter.

The Reference Guide includes desctriptions and examples, when needed, of the various talent pools and weaknesses.  This is the first 10 pages.  Note that someone did an oopsie and forgot some talent info, which was stuck into the Reference sheets.  After talents, there is a page of combat modifiers and the hit location chart, followed by a black & white copy of the color chart, then two pages of weapons and armor.  Again someone flubbed it at this point, and the descriptions of armor and weapons were moved to the Reference sheets.  Some of the weapons will be familiar to most gamers but some (cinequesda, holy water sprinkler, and francisca, for example) really need to be defined.  There is a page which includes specific wounds, gems and values, and languages.  The last page of the Reference guide is a list of available talents.  Don't worry folks, they left off quite a few, just to keep life exciting!

In addition to including information left out of the Reference Guide, the Reference Sheets include reaction modifiers, a simple list of what happens when color chart rolls are made, based on what was rolled (combat, falling, poison, etc.)  If you look at the DMs screen for any game, the information normally on them is included on the reference sheets.

The World of Hyboria book is the setting information.  It was written from the hand of one Professor Ervin H. Roberts (EHR, rather than REH).  Well, it is written by this fictitious person after the first couple of pages of introduction, which includes a B&W map of the Hyborian lands and a listing of the Conan stories published in the 1960s and 70s.

The majority of this book in an alphabetical list of people, places, and things in the setting.  There is the occasional doodle, as if done by the esteemed Prof. Roberts.  Twelve pages of bestiarity follows.  It is again written by the fictional professor.  There are 25 creatures included, none of which are real life animals.  These critters are right from the Howard stories.  After the critters, we get two pages of Hyborian deities, followed by two pages of NPCs from the stories.  My namesake appears in this book!  If you are curious about your not-so-humble blog host, I am an absolute bad ass!  The last four pages include a small amount of information on cults and magical items.

Whew, that is all out of the way.  So what are the thoughts of Thoth Amon, the greatest sorcerer of the Hyborian Age?  I love it.  The game suffers with a bit of complexity in regards the color chart that TSR was trying to foist on everything in the mid-late 80s.  I don't like color charts, in general, but the one in Conan is superior to the one in Gamma World 3e.  Once you get the hang of the color chart, it goes quite easy since modifiers move on which column you roll rather than the d100 roll.  This makes it easier.

I should probably drop in an example of this.  Let us say that Conan does not have the Poison Resistance talent but his Endurance pool is 3.  When some Brythunian doxy stabs him with a poisoned needle, he rolls on the 3 column on the chart.  If the poison is old and less potent, maybe it gives a +3 column shift bonus on the check.  Conan's player now rolls on the 6 column of the chart.

I wish the team spent more time and were able to get a complete list of talents in one location, rather than some here, some there, some way over there.  This is my biggest gripe.

Note.  TSR released three published modules for this game.  I have all three and have read all three but it's been over 20 years.  I don't recall any of the modules being great.  I should reread them.

⇒ GRIT: ★★★★★:  Five stars.  As I said, this game piles the entire game system rules (barring two equipment lists, and barring descriptions of the talents) into one 32-page book, which includes art and an adventure.  If Zeb could do that, why can't other game designers?  I'm looking at you, AD&D and new versions with your three "core" books.  If you include every piece of paper in the box into one book, the total would be less than 100 pages.  In my opinion, learning the way the color chart / resolution table is the only real learning curve to get into this game, once your character is generated.  Honestly, though, after the first game session, everyone should know how the chart works.

⇒ VIGOR: ★★★★☆: The game gives a decent amount of information on the Hyborian Age setting. Between the sample adventure, the referee advice, and the World of Hyboria book, I think the game group should be set for a while.  I would have liked a list of talent scores for normal and giant sized animals.  Lions are included in the sample adventure.  I think a one or two page list of animal and giant animal stat blocks would give referees a good idea on which to base homemade monsters.  A gray ape has Claws-20 and Damage-30.  If we knew what a regular old silverback had for scores, we could create a new ape and know that if we want it halfway between real life ape and gray ape, we have a basis on which to determine talents and pools.

⇒ GRACE: ★★★☆☆:  The box isn't ugly.  The poster map is quite lovely.  The books fall somewhere in between.  The reference sheets and reference guide are purely to hold regularly accessed game information that would normally be on a screen.  I don't fault the authors for what they did here.  I do fault them for not getting Talents in one place and correct.  The World of Hyboria book is written to resemble a professor's notes, so it's not super sexy but I like how it looks.  It looks the way it is supposed to look.  The rulebook is three columns with only a little white space.  Fortunately, the book has lines between the columns to make it easier to keep your eyes in the right column.  A cat named Jeff Butler did the cover and I like it.  Jeff Easley did the interior art so you know it's great!  Headings are bold and organization is good.  It's not as pretty as a 2020s game like OSE or ShadowDark but the rulebook is pure gold by 1985 standards.

First Fantasy Campaign

First Fantasy Campaign
Playing Aid
Dave Arneson and Richard Snider

This book can be purchased from Ebay but it will probably set you back a few hundred dollars.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Dave Arneson's First Fantasy Campaign is a 64 page book comprising notes from the original Blackmoor campaign.  It was published in 1980, the year before I started gaming.  The copy I have has a paper khaki-colored cover.  As I go through this, you will see that it is a fun historical document.

The book starts with two introductions, one by Bob Bledsaw and one by Dave Arneson.  Arneson's is more interesting to me.  As you read it, you learn about some rules that were used in the campaign which did not make it into the published Dungeons & Dragons game in 1974.  There is some history of monsters, as well.  One interesting rule that did not copy over into OD&D is that character hit points did not improve after character creation.  Instead, characters got more difficult to hit.  What is even MORE interesting is how this was accomplished.  Apparently, characters made a saving throw when hit, and if successful, no damage was done.  As saving throws improved with level, higher level characters were more difficult to damage.  Fighters gained advantages with this saving throw but magic-users and clerics did not.  Remember folks, these were the only three classes in OD&D prior to the Greyhawk supplement.

The first chapter of the book is strictly army lists and costs for troops.  Since I don't play wargames, I have little interest in this chapter, other than as a curiosity.  I will point out that the original Blackmoor campaign included firearms.  Bombards are a standard weapon, with cannon being optional.  We also learn that Tarns can be purchased.  I'm pretty sure these are the giant birds from the Gor novels but perhaps they also existed in different fantasy, as well.  I am really curious what a "Female (special)" slave is.  The cheapest one costs more than the most expensive "Female (white)" slave.  In my deviant mind, I'm thinking a special female slave is a succubus or naga or something like that.  There are price lists for the Earl of Vestfold, City of Maus (where our special slaves are purchased), Regent of the Mines, the Duchy of Ten, and Egg of Coot.  

There is also included a price list for armor and weapons.  Some interesting notes in this section are that prices for pistols, muskets, and arquesbuses are included.  Or is it arquesbusi?  For how much can your character sell that cart full of weasel pelts?  As it so happens, a weasel pelt goes for 4 silver pieces, so how many pelts are in your cart, hoss?  We also learn here that Arneson was as hot and bothered about shields as Gygax was with polearms.  There are nine different types of shields listed!  Don't worry folks, slave prices are listed and it's cheaper to buy a slave off this list than the original list.

There is a small section following, which describes where the Blackmoor campaign is located on the Outdoor Survival map.  

Speaking of maps, a small map of the campaign setting is included in the book but it is very small and is drawn with very thick lines, making detail difficult to make out.  The book does come with fold-out maps of the setting which are much more useful.  My copy has what I believe are a player map, including outlines of the land, major cities, and geographical details surrounding the cities, and a much more detailed map, which I assume is for referees.

The following chapter details player characters and non-player characters from the original campaign.  Egg of Coot, of course, is the most cool.  How can a character not be cool with this name?!  The Egg enjoys things such as writing dirty words on latrine walls and creeds such as "never give a sucker an even break".  The other characters covered are Ran of Ah Fooh (a dragon breeding fellow), Gin of Salik (powerful wizard who travels the land banging chicks), Marfeldt the Barbarian, Duke of the Peaks, The Blue Rider, Mello, The Great Svenny, and the Bishop of the Church of the Facts of Life (the tv show came out in '79, so this name might just be coincidence).

Facts about the kingdon of Blackmoor follow, including population, history, and points of interest.  Personally, I think the population is way off.  According to this book, 1000 peasants reside in a kingdom of 4,346 square miles.  I'm certainly no medieval population guru but these seems to be an extremely small number.  I believe this is a typo.  An amazing old school graph paper map of the town of Blackmoor is included in this chapter.  There is also a map of Blackmoor castle, as well as a list of its haunted rooms.

Encounter tables for the area are included, as well as yet another equipment list.  Once again, we have slave prices, and once again they don't match what came before.  Fortunately, we have both wholesale and retail prices, so if your party has a huge haul from slaying the latest dragon, buying slaves in bulk will save a lot of coin!  

Specific rules for designing your own campaign come next.  This information would be useful, I believe.  One of the rules is about population density.  This here is why I believe that the preceding population is wrong.  Based on the rules here, there is fully a 40% chance that every hex will have a hamlet of 50-500 people or a 30% change of a village of 100-1000 people.  Taking the median numbers of just these two population results, the entire Kingdom earlier would be filled in 2 or 3 hexes.  Fans of the modern "hex flower" layouts are going to freak when they see the author forcing a square peg into the hex hole on page 27.  Trust me.

The Blackmoor Dungeons is the next chapter.  This is what people mostly know about the Blackmoor campaign.  We have ten fully keyed and mapped dungeon levels as well as an additional minor dungeon.  Fans of modern, thought-out dungeons will have to forego their sense of versimilitude and just enjoy these encounters for what they are - a pioneer of the hobby just writing stuff down, probably as it came to him, for his players to encounter.  Your character might encounter a mummy, or a hydra just wandering around underground, or maybe a pack of giant weasels.  It's all good.  Does your wussy magic lamp ONLY give you there wishes?!  You chump!  This dungeon can grant 20 wishes from one encounter!  I see your silly encounter with 10 goblins and raise you 200 goblins in this room right here!  That pansy Gandalf struggled fighting one balrog?!  Delvers are tripping over them in this dungeon!  It is a heck of fun jaunt reading through the dungeon key.  The maps are pretty good, oozing that OG vibe.  The scale changes based on the map and most of them don't include a scale.  Those of you familiar with the sample dungeon in the OD&D rules will recognize how freaking difficult mapping will be in the Blackmoor dungeon.  Ain't no virtual table top N-S and E-W corridor 5e crap here!  

The next 3 and 1/2 pages are about magic swords and rules for generating unique swords.  Fortunately quite a number of them are really handy when fighting balrogs, you are going to want one of these.  There is a lack of swords which get the bearer a good deal on buying female (special) slaves, however.  Your adventuring party will have to buy them the old-fashioned way!  Joking aside, this chapter is really cool.  Creating unique magical swords is in most versions of D&D.  Arneson kicks it up a notch, here.

Gypsy sayings, legends, and Chance cards follows.  The book does not actually tell us what a "chance card" is.  I assume that Arneson wrote this information on index cards and randomly pulled one when needed.  The "cards" in this book are organized into a d100 table, though, so this is perfectly workable.

Notes on the original Blackmoor magic system comes next.  Something interesting I find here is that magic-users only advanced in level by using spells, whether in the dungeon or just practicing.  Some magic items listed include Tricorder, Borer, Skimmer, and Robots.

The next section is something I wish would have made it into the D&D rules - special interests.  Loot taken from the dungeon does NOT award experience points until it has been spent (unless the character's interest happens to be stockpiling).  If the character's special interest in wine, then he needs to throw some raging parties!  Just a funny nitpick here, the book states that the booze has to "consumed by the player" and not player character.  No mention on whether your character gets extra XP if you ply the referee with fine wines as you, yourself, get hammered.  Clerics will convert GP to XP by donating the gold.  Yes, for those of you who have kept up with our female slave soap opera, spending gold on "room plus extras" will allow you to convert that gold into experience points, as well as allowing your character to release some stress after a high adventure dungeon delve.  In a surprising 1970s twist to "current year" players, your character can convert GP to XP by snuggling up to the slave gender of your choice.  There are % chance rules to determine your character's special interest.  It would be amusing to have a paladin whose special interest is women - not sure how that would play out!  The book mentions the original three classes earlier on but also brings up here, in this section for special interests, the newer classes.  They are:  fighting man, cleric, magic-user, ranger, paladin, assassin, merchant, and sage.  These last two are not from any OD&D supplement but they probably came from The Strategic Review magazine.

There is a quick blurb on page 52 on adjusting monsters so they can advance in levels similar to PCs.  If the referee wants to create a "hero" (i.e. 4th level) monster, this goes over XP requirements for the monster.  Unless the monster is being run as an adventurer by a player, I don't see the point of this.  The ref will just make a monster better without racking up XP.

Four maps of Svenson's Freehold follow.  It is spelled Zvenzen on one map.  I am guessing, but perhaps the player and Arneson each drew maps or wrote down notes and one of the two wasn't corrected.

Richard Snider's Additions is the final chapter.  We see detailed dragons indexed by color and level.  Dragon breath weapons causing damage equal to the dragons maximum hit points is included.  My players in the Dragonlance BX game I ran know all about this.  Breath weapons were the demise of many a PC and NPC.  We learn here, as well, that as dragons get older, their movement rate suffers.  I don't recall reading this anywhere else in D&D lore.  For those who find it amusing that D&D rules cover the characters subduing dragons, we here get rules for dragons subduing characters!  Subdued characters might be taken back to the lair because "junior might want a pet to play with".  The rest of the rules here are not as exciting.  A couple of pages of notes on Loch Gloomen are included, and then the book ends with information on some specific creatures such as orcs and nomads.  Those who have read the Lord of the Rings books will get a kick that Isengard orcs are listed.  Unfortunately, Saruman isn't statted out.  There is a listing for Tarns, where we learn that they are large Rocs.  Oh, and Balrogs yet again make an appearance.  I swear, you can't swing a dead cat in Blackmoor without hitting a freaking balrog!

Before I go into my rating, I must point out that there is an EXCELLENT documentary about this setting, and the pre-history of D&D.  It is called Secrets of Blackmoor: The True History of Dungeons & Dragons.  If you have ANY interest in D&D history, this movie is an absolute must.  I cannot stress this enough.  This movie is two hours long and it ends with D&D being created.  There is all sorts of history in it that would be difficult to find anywhere else.  I bought it on Amazon but I assume it is available for purchase or rental at other places as well.

⇒ GRIT: ★★☆☆☆: I am going to just say this here, this book is a lot of fun but it is only usable by a niche market.  It is more an historical artifact nowadays than a game supplement.  If you are looking for an actual Blackmoor campaign setting, buying one of the WotC era fantasy game books is probably going to be a better value.  This book hints at Blackmoor the Setting-isms but doesn't have a lot of setting meat on its bones.  I really like this book but it is extremely unlikely that I would ever use it in a game.

⇒ VIGOR: ★★★☆☆: Like the above score, this score is sort of arbitrary.  The longevity of this book is primarily in the Blackmoor dungeon.  The dungeon itself is extremely bare-boned and the referee is required to flesh out everything other than the treasure, the monsters, and the massive balrog population.  When fleshed out, the dungeon should provide many sessions worth of gaming.  The additional information on armies will help a high-level campaign, assuming that the players want to move into wargame territory.

⇒ GRACE: ★★☆☆☆:  The First Fantasy Campaign is not a pretty book.  The mountains on the cover look cool but the red on brown is very difficult to read.  The book is US Letter sized, but other than that, it matches the old school layout you would expect from a vintage 1970s D&D book.  What elevates this book from its OG peers is the art.  Ken Simpson did nearly all of the art, with Dave Arneson knocking out some art as well (I assume this is his original Blackmoor map in the book, as well as the dungeons and the pull-out maps).  Mr. Simpson's art is good and there isn't a bad piece.

Colony of Death

Colony of Death
Weird Fantasy Roleplaying in 17th Century Maryland
Mark W. Hess

Available at https://www.drivethrurpg.com or lulu.com, which is where I got it, I believe.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Colony of Death, Weird Fantasy Roleplaying in 17th Century Maryland, is a supplement for Lamentations of the Flame Princess (LotFP) including a setting and several adventures.  As it is a supplement for LotFP, it is recommended for folks 18 years, or older.  In fact, on the title page, it states precisely this.

Taking a quick side-trek, I lived in Maryland for three years, in a town between St. Mary's City, which this supplement is for, and Washington, D.C.  It was really fun reading about places I have actually visited and reading about a cryptid that I actually heard tales about!  If y'all get a chance to visit, take the time to do so. There is (or was before the covids) a reenactment from the colonial times in a rebuilt village.  Lots of cool history.  Plus, if you have any interest in visiting churches, some of the oldest Catholic ones in the USA are here).

Back to our regularly scheduled review.

As this supplement is for LotFP, which is a standard OSR game, this setting can be used for any OSR game.  I don't own LotFP, and when I run the adventures in this book, I will use real D&D, White Box, Blueholme, or something similar.

The book starts with a quick introduction and then gets into the colony of Maryland.  George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore, was granted the lands on which to build St. Mary's City.  Lord Baltimore wanted to prove that Catholics and Protestants could live, and work, together without fear of the hangman's noose or burning pole.  When the colony is settled, there were natives inhabiting the lands.  The natives were mostly friendly with the English. 

A page and a bit of the next page include a timeline from 1608 through 1650, when the adventures in this book take place.  Included in the timeline, which very well could affect interactions within the settlement, are accounts such as:  witchcraft being made illegal in 1635 (burn them all!), the Susqeuhannock indians, along with New Sweden, going to war with Maryland in 1644, a Protestant uprising during the English Civil War, ending with King Charles getting a "nip off the top" in 1649, somewhere around the shoulders; of course the Prots decided to attack the Caths in this period.  Puritans set up their own settlement in 1649, as well, which will put even more pressure on what was intended to be an exercise in Catholic-Protestant harmonious living.

This is where we stand - the year is 1650, St. Mary's City, once the home of peaceful coexistence between Protestant and Catholic English, and some friendly Natives, has suffered ten years of warfare.  Can the two groups of Englishmen repair the breach?  What about the Indians?  Will they continue to coexist with the English, or will they want war?  Can Maryland protect the interests of its various inhabitants against the aggression of neighboring New Sweden and Virginia?  The colony is ripe for adventure!

After the timeline, there is a listing and a bit of info on St. Mary's City, Providence, and Kent's Island.  These are the only cities listed and referees are encouraged to add villages, trading posts, etc.

Next, we get a page and a half about the people in the colony, as well as a very small hex map of the region, from criminals and indentured servants, to the local native tribes, to the European settlers.

Following, we have two pages on New World diseases.  Every month, characters make a saving throw to not catch a disease.  That's pretty hardcore.

The next two pages are encounter tables.  All good OSR settings need encounter tables.  Colony of Death, being a good OSR setting, has them.  The tables include real life critters like black widows, pirates, black bears, and rattlesnakes, but it also includes some disputed critters, such as sasquatch and the very, very Maryland cryptid, the Goatman!  When I read this far into the book, after I bought it a couple of years ago, I was tickled!  There are eight pages detailing these critters, following.  I wish more art was added in this section as there is a lot of white space, which could have been filled with line art, even if it is old timey clip art.

This ends the primarily setting information.  Several adventures follow, many of which include more snippets of setting information.

St. Mary's Shoemaker adventure includes a map of St. Mary's City, as well as some businesses in town.  The adventure involves the characters trying to solve a murder mystery.

The Hell's Bell adventure finds the characters discovering an unknown German village.  Hopefully one of the players chose German as a language slot!  This adventure is very Lovecraftian - village of hicks in the woods who are a little too closely related on the DNA scale, if you know what I mean.  What is with the bell?  Why do people keep going missing?

The Hand and Eye of Loki take the adventurers in the lands claimed by New Sweden.  Again, people are going missing.  Are Indians killing settlers, or is it something more mysterious?

To Burn a Witch is the next adventure.  Providence is a Protestant town, through and through.  The characters arrive just when a local gal is about to pay the price for wallowing with the Devil.  She is young and beautiful.  Is she guilty?  Is she innocent?  Will the characters rescue a damsel in distress or let her burn?

Another side trek.  Did y'all know that before he got famous for being a king and having the Bible, which was forever to include his name, translated into English, James was hip to the ways of witchcraft?  He wrote a book about it.  Sometimes the only way to deal with a witch is to burn it.

The Appendix of the book includes four pages of common names, broken down by both male and female, and by language - Algonquin, English, German, and Swedish.

A two-page spread map follows the first appendix.  It is a lovely map, 10 miles per hex, but unfortunately all of the important settlements are in the gutter of the page.  Splitting the map in two and leaving half an inch per page for the gutter would make the map so much more useful.

The final appendix discusses tobacco as currency, and growing tobacco.  This is another historical shout-out since tobacco was actually used as currency in the Maryland colony.  There are rules for running a tobacco plantation and the consequences due to soil depletion.

There is another cool town in Maryland you can visit called Port Tobacco.  It is in a Charles county, right off US301 highway.  It's another place you can visit in real life if you happen to travel through the area.

In conclusion I will say that I love Colony of Death.  Love it, love it, love it.  It is not perfect and I certainly have gripes, but I can wholeheartedly recommend that any referee who wants to set a campaign in the New World, pick this up.

⇒ GRIT: ★★★☆☆:  Being a mere 58 pages, with half of that relegated to adventures, this book doesn't give a whole lot of wallop.  What it does include, though, will whet the referee's appetite for sure.  I would love to have seen more details on the culture of the local natives.  I really would have liked to see a price list for items for sale in both St. Mary's City and the trading posts.  It is mentioned that prices are included in the LotFP rulebook, which I don't own.  As tobacco is the currency in the colony, having a list of gear which can be purchased, with the corresponding price in tobacco, would have been excellent.

⇒ VIGOR: ★★★★☆: As with GRIT, since the supplement is so short, you won't get years of play with only what is included.  However, what is included will get a game group quite a few sessions I believe.  Adding in things like trade routes between the various colonies could increase the vigor of this product.  I also would have liked to have a page or two of adventure hooks.  The adventures included are delightsomely dark and twisted, but what about more "normal" adventures?  A list of adventure hooks is always gold.

⇒ GRACE: ★★☆☆☆: The book is perfectly functional but not beautiful.  The cover is pretty cool, with a Schneller Geist flying over what appears to be a homestead next to a hill.  Internally, the book is well-layed out with a single column on most pages but two in the few places where it makes sense to have two columns.  The line art is functional but there should be more when there is a half page of white space.  The map, as noted, really, really needs to be split into two.  This map is my biggest gripe about the book.  If the author decided not to include art to fill up the white space, removing the white space would give another page, which could be used for adventure hooks, price lists, or something else.