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. 

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.