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.

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.

Cursed Scroll Issue #1

This is a review of the first issue of Cursed Scroll, a zine for the Shadowdark rpg.  If you have not heard of the game, you should check it out.  This is not a review of the Shadowdark (hence SD, if I need to reference the game system) book, which is not out yet.

If you want to pick up the free quickstart of the game, it can be found here:  Shadowdark

The author is a cool chickadee named Kelsey Dionne.  She has a YouTube channel (Arcane Library, I think it's called).  The zine is OGL, which as of this past week, might pose an issue with getting new copies in the next few weeks.

So, are you kids ready to dive in to this most happy and uplifting zine?  No?  Well that is probably good since this zine is dark, dreary, gloomy, and slimy.  

The zine is black and white, with a dash of yellow on the cover.  The cover is an evil-looking, horned dude, swinging a big axe, chopping through two unlucky foes and perhaps into a third fellow.  I think this gnarly, beastly dude might be a dralech, which is one of the new monsters in the book.  I will get to new monsters later.  

The back cover is a random table of twenty diabolical treasures.  All of the treasures are pretty neat.  Anything from a ring of daisies to a shrunken head might be rolled.

When the zine is opened, you get right into the gloomy, slimy goodness.

Before we open it though, this issue is all about devils, demons, slimy things, and other sorts of badness.  Be warned!  You, unwary reader, might end up gibbering in the darkness as mighty Mugdulblub dissolves  your flesh as a tribute to Its Ooziness.

The inside cover is a map for a hex crawl, called the Gloaming.  The map is usable but the hex lines are unusable other than for the numbered encounter hexes, the outside edge, and in Finimere Lake.  Elsewhere, they are so light as to be unreadable.  

Once past the map, we get to the first page, which is random encounters and rumors for the Gloaming.  The encounters include monsters from the rulebook and well as this zine.  We start to get the gist of the zine and the adventures by reading the rumor table.  It has sort of a dark fairy tale, black forest, swamp witches vibe - think Grimm fairy tales without the hideous Disney (the real diabolical cultists) whitewashing.  The encounters and rumors are really cool.  My only hesitation with them is that I worry that in future issues of the Cursed Scroll, encounters might point back to monsters in this zine, which would require referees to own each issue.  That isn't an issue for me so far as I'm madly in love with this game and I will probably purchase them all as they come out.  But for others though, I can see this being a future problem.  I would encourage the author to only reference the rulebook or the zine in question when creating encounter tables like this.

We next have the table of contents and introduction.  Nothing out of the ordinary so far.

The zine then delves into three different character classes.  My biases will come out here, just so's ya knows...

The first class is called Knight of St. Ydris.  These are knights who voluntarily accept a curse in order to fight demons.  This class is fine for the included hex crawl.  My issue with it is that it fills a very narrow niche.  In a class-based game, I want classes to be as broad as possible - fighter, the guy who fights! - thief, the gal who steals! cleric - the crusader bringing God to the heathens! - the wizard, using sorcery to subvert reality!  Characters who want to play this class have to do it in the included adventure (no spoilers, but there is really one specific place for the knights to be generated).  I would rather have just had a list of options for the Knights - something like "Fighter with d6 hit points but can cast 1st level witch spells or 3 times per day, you gain demonic possession (player choice at creation)".  Something like that.

All of that being said, the Knights of St. Ydris are basically a fighter-witch multi-class.  They can use demonic possession to do extra damage in combat and get minor and mid-range magical abilities, starting at 3rd level.

The next new class is the Warlock.  Now, as everyone should know by now, I jumped off the D&D bandwagon at 3rd edition.  Warlock wasn't a thing in the D&D games I played.  Warlocks in this zine are characters who gain a boon from a dark patron.  There is a list of patrons in the book, and some of them are doozies!   I do have another gripe.  I will have a few more, don't worry.  My issue with Warlocks is that they can use daggers as weapons and they can use long swords as weapons.  What is the reasoning for disallowing short swords?  It is not logical.

A quick sidetrack on the SD game system.  There are no specific, level-based benefits, other than hit points.  At each odd level, the player makes a roll to find out which "talent" his character will gain.  You need to know this while reading about the classes.

Ok, back to our Warlocks.  They are "howling warriors with sharpened teeth" and "wild-eyed doomspeakers".  I can imagine them as cannibalistic cultists, dancing around a statue of Cthulhu in the swamps of Louisiana - except, you know, a different patron and it's the Gloaming, rather than Louisiana.  This class has broader game play for players than the previous Knights.

The last new class is the Witch.  Forget those lame, dirty hippy, wiccan freaks of our degenerate modern times!  No, THESE witches are the real deal!  Cackling crones with bubbling cauldrons, outcast maidens with milky eyes, covered with dirt and talking to their pet toads.  My oh my, this is the way a witch should be portrayed!

So, what does Esmerelda get in this game?  Witches have a familiar, of course, and they can cast spells.  Witches have their own spell list.  I will point out some spell list details when we get to it.  

The next page is a list of class titles, which is something that SD is really into.  I'm ambivalent about class titles.

Following class titles, we get the descriptions of the patrons.  Some of them are really cool.  I will say, though, that as awesome as they sound, a couple are statted out in the included adventures, which turned them from "oh heck ya!  This thing is some elder god from beyond the stars!" to "oh, wow, my fighter has just as many hit points as this patron of immense eldritch power?!"  It is a lot like getting Deities and Demigods as a kid and having your players go into battle against the gods so they can score Thor's hammer.

I will quote the entirety of Mugdulblub here so you can see how awesome it sounds.  "The Elder Ooze that leaks between the cracks in memory and the darkness between the stars, Mugdulblub seeks the dissolution of all physical form".  Sounds bad ass, huh?  In the zine, there is the Mugdulblub, Almazzat (a wolf demon guy), Kytheros (sort of a Cronus I think), Shune the Vile (mother of the witches), Titania (fairy queen), and the Willowman (fear and nightmare thing).

Patron boons follow.  Some are basic between all classes (ability score gain, spell bonus, etc.) but some are unique, such as turning into slime for a few rounds or able to hypnotize foes.  There is a list of diabolical backgrounds which follows the boons.  Some are very fairy taleish (is that a word?), such as "Woodborn.  They found you in the hollow of an oak tree" or dark fairy taleish (Witchborn.  They burned your mother, but spared you".  I dig them.

Diabolical Mishaps comes next.  Another side note.  Shadowdark, as written, requires a spell casting check, and on a natural 1, the player or referee needs to roll on a table for the spell fumble.  Some of them make a lot of sense for the included hexcrawl/setting.  Cackles, Wither, or Mother of Night are all very setting-specific and make sense.  One of the mishaps has iron spikes which appear and cause damage.  This one I don't dig that much.

Next up we have witch spells.  The spell names are freaking awesome - eyebite, frog rain, dreamwalk - all are evocative.  When/if I ever run this game and if I allow Witches (or Knights of St. Ydris) as a class, I would modify a few of the spells.  Bogboil?  Awesome as written.  Cauldron?  Eh, not as much.  Having a witch with a cauldron is M1A1 standard.  This spell, however, conjures the cauldron.  I'd make the witch have her own cauldron and then, when this spell is cast over it, the effects can be used.  Having a boiling cauldron just pop into existence is too high fantasy for the genre this zine is emulating.  The Coven spell allows the caster to gain the reuse of a spell.  That makes sense for a witch with a coven.  Another change I would make is for Pin Doll.  I'd make the character already have the voodoo doll before the spell would work.  I wouldn't allow it to just poof into existence.

After spells, The Gloaming hex crawl is detailed.  All of it is dark fairy tale goodness.  Hexes can contain anything from an orc village, to a dragon, to a down and out village that is burning witches (hell ya!), to the Greywall Priory, which is where the Knights of St. Ydris are based.

New monsters are next.  As stated, some of these are needed for the included adventures and won't have much use elsewhere (named NPCs fall into this category).  Unfortunately, as stated, a couple of the warlock patrons are statted out.  If I was to use them, I would probably have the Mugdulblub in this section be a minor avatar of the real Mugdublub.  The characters can kill it (not an easy thing, fyi) but it's just a blip on the real Mugdulblub's galaxy-spanning goopiness.

The Hideous Halls of Mugdulblub is one of the included adventures (I'm counting the hex crawl as one and the cardstock encounter the third).  Hideous Halls is an adventure for 1st level characters.  The adventure oozes (get it?  Yuck yuck yuck) charm, sliminess, and fun.  There are three factions all living in the dungeon.  Any of them might recruit the characters or at least remain neutral.  There are a couple of issues with the adventure though.  My biggest issue with it is that every room has an occupant or something notable in it.  I can see players after four or five rooms saying, "alright folks, another room up again, something will be there".  Monster, trap, or weirdness, there are no empty rooms.  Personally, I think that 20-25% of dungeon rooms should be empty.  Empty rooms both keep players on their toes, not knowing if it is empty, and also give characters breathing room and a place to fall back to.  I will avoid specifics about the adventure as I don't want to spoil it for players.  There are some really neat NPCs, traps, and treasures.  One of the three groups living in the dungeon is quite memorable (the ones that really need to be near water), one group is very Lovecraftian and degenerate, and the third are a bunch of junkie, mushroom eaters.  I like all three.  One other issue I have with the adventure is the stairs in room 18.  From what I can tell, they don't go anywhere.  It is stated in the adventure that there are two ways to enter the dungeon and this isn't one of them.  I would probably not even mention the stairs to the players unless I expanded the adventure.

The book finishes with the map of the dungeon.  

There is a card included that is a small encounter.  It has a map and random encounters on one side and room descriptions on the other side.  This mini adventure is also pretty cool.  It is less dark fairy tale and more Lovecraftian.  The referee is going to have to hit up a dictionary though unless he is well versed in jurassic lore (I have kids so I know all about ammonites and trilobites and all that prehistoric jazz).

So, should you get this zine?  Hell ya!  Provided you like dark fairy tales, Cthulhuisms, or proper, old-school witches.  

⇒ GRIT:  ★★★★☆ This zine is 64 pages of dark, dreary, swampy goodness.  Want to run a game of Grimm fairy tale D&D?  Get this zine.  The classes (well, two of them) are great, the adventure is really fun, the spells are witchy.  Do you have fond memories of fighting Kuo-toa in the depths of the earth?  Did you fear Blipdoolpoolp and her lobster boobs in the 80s?  Do you enjoy listening to Acid Bath?  This zine is for you.

⇒ VIGOR:  ★★☆☆☆ As awesome as the stuff included in this zine is, it is really only usable in the specific genre it is emulating.  Bits and bobs of it can be stolen to be used in other genres but, really, it is limited to a dark, fairy, swampy, setting.

⇒ GRACE:  ★★★★☆  Yowza!  If the rulebook, when it comes out, is as gorgeous as this zine, we gamer folk are in for a treat!  Now, I give it four stars, but I LIKE black and white for my fantasy.  If you want lots of color, you may not like it as much.  The zine has an incredible layout.  The only real shortcoming with this issue of Cursed Scroll is the faded hex lines on the inside cover.  Some of the art is perfect (witch and cauldron on page 25, for example).  The rest of the art certainly fits and I'm not knocking it.  I would like to see more art but I imagine Mrs. Dionne is saving some pieces for the main rulebook.  I assume that if the main rulebook is as great as I believe it will be, she may score some more art in subsequent issues.

If this zine seems interesting to y'all, I strongly recommend you buy it now because in a few weeks, it might not be available if Lizards of the Toast go through with their OGL backstab.

Scarred Lands Gazetteer - Ghelspad

Scarred Lands Gazetteer
Ghelspad
Stephan and Steward Wieck
Published by White Wolf Publishing, 2001

Available at https://www.drivethrurpg.com/

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Scarred Lands Gazetteer Ghelspad (hence Ghelspad) was part of the D&D 3e line produced by Sword & Sorcery Studios, an imprint of White Wolf Publishing.  The book is 48 pages of campaign setting yumminess.  Forget that overly detailed Forgettable Realms hardback that is selling for the price of a used kidney.  If you have fond memories of the World of Greyhawk (either boxed set or folio), you very well might like Ghelspad.  Everything you need to know about the continent is included in this manual.

The inside covers have black & white pictures of the coats of arms for both nations and city states.

The book begins with the History of the Scarred Lands.  The short version is that 125 or so years ago, the gods got into a scrap with the titans.  The gods, as well as one titan who joined them, won the war but the planet has been messed up pretty badly.  The "Scarred Lands" encompasses the entire world, but this book covers just the continent of Ghelspad.

I will note here that throughout the book, the person narrating the section changes, so you may have an uppity wizard narrating one part of the book, or a conniving sycophant of a tyrant narrating a part, etc.

A history of Ghelspad follows. This section gives a brief history of the Divine War, the rebuilding that followed, the Druid War, the Blood Monsoon, the rise of the fore-mentioned tyrant, and the "here you are" point.  The entire history covers only three pages!  Amazing!  The genius of a concise book is that the DM can fill in every minor detail and not have to worry about some obnoxious player who read in some 400 page campaign setting that Super Wizard #1 wears mismatched socks, who then berates the DM for not following canon.

Something that I enjoy is that the Blood Sea actually has blood in it, which causes the red color.  This is because a dead titan is chained at the bottom.  The titans are "dead" but it is more like Cthulhu dead; dead but not really.

A two-page spread map of Ghelspad follows the history.  It is quite nice but it seems obvious that the map was originally in color and they converted to grayscale for this book.  Some of the place names are very difficult to read but I imagine they are easy to spot on a color map.

Nations and City States follows.  Each nation has its common name listed in alphabetical order, the predominant or official worship, the complete name of the nation (as opposed to its common name), the capitol, other cities of note, the ruler, the form of government, population composition (what % is elf vs. human vs. half-orc, etc.), and allies and enemies.  Each nation and city state gets a few paragraphs detailing it.  The continent has two different city states controlled by necromancers.  Some of the details specify certain magical or physical effects.  For instance, the city of Mithril has a giant golem overlooking the city.  The golem has not moved since the Divine War.  Can it move?  Will it move?  Can doughty explorers break into it and look around?  None of this is detailed, leaving it to a crafty DM to determine what the golem actually is or does.  The nations section covers 14 pages.

Topography of Ghelspad comes next.  This section notes many neat, unnatural areas such as a floating island, a forest that seems to never run out of monsters to send into the world, and the Blood Sea that I mentioned earlier.  Reading this section reminds me of reading a Black Company novel, due to the simple but evocative names, "Plains of Lede", "Inferno Gulf", "the Sweltering Plains" are some examples.

The next section of the book encompasses organizations on the continent.  There is a cult of whore-spies who infiltrate the various governments, a group of magic using thieves who are in it for the laughs, a cult of assassins, some Mongol-like horse warriors led by an undead king, some mercenary companies (I wonder if the authors read the Black Company chronicles?), and others.  This section is 7 pages long.

Cosmos and Cosmology follows.  Here is listed the eight gods (at least one died during the Divine War), as well as their titan ally.  The gods do not have alignment listed but it's pretty easy to determine which gods fall where on the law vs. chaos and good vs. evil axes.  The known titans are also listed, along with what they were known for in the old days.  Most of them are dead but still have worshipers, and druids of the Witch Queen and Mother of Serpents, Mormo, still receive spells, so there is that...

The last two pages list calendar days, holidays, the heavens, and planes of existence.

⇒ GRIT: ★★★★★:  The book packs a whole passel of info into its short 48 pages.  Some gamers would want stats for characters, new spells, and all that jazz.  I don't.  This game setting is truly universal since it has no game stats at all in it.  It can be used for whichever version of D&D the referee wants, or Savage Worlds, or GURPS, or RISUS.  It doesn't matter.  

⇒ VIGOR: ★★★☆☆: As I stated, as this book is statless and is intentionally sparse with details, the campaign won't be limited as it would be with every nook and cranny detailed, as is common in some campaign settings.  I would have liked to have a better map in this book, as well as regional maps, and perhaps an army roster for gamers who do mass battles.  One thing that is definitely missing is scale on the map which is included.  I have no idea how big this continent actually is.  This is a huge blunder, in my opinion.

⇒ GRACE: ★★★☆☆:  The book includes some decent line drawings, it has a neat border on most pages, and has plenty of white space to rest the Mark 1's between pages.  The map being a b&w rendering of a color map was a big oops to me.  They should have included a color map or removed all of the labels when it was converted to b&w and retyped the labels, allowing white space around the words. 

Postcards From Avalidad - As Above So Below

Postcards From Avalidad - As Above So Below
by Miguel Ribeiro
Postmortem Studios, 2021

Available in pdf from Drivethrurpg:  https://www.drivethrurpg.com/

Available in print from Lulu:  https://www.lulu.com/

 The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

As Above So Below is a supplement/adventure to Postcards From Avalidad (hence, PFA), the cyber-horror-punk-noir-ish game I reviewed previously, on May 23, 2022.

The book is 96 pages long, including table of contents, OGL, and map.

Whereas PFA details the Moroccan city above-ground, As Above So Below details the city below the streets.  The city below can be reached from a handful of points from Avalidad, proper.  Avalidad, below, is called Agartha.  As with PFA, this supplement includes stats for both Actual Fucking Monsters (AFM) and *Punk.  As I mentioned on my review of PFA, I know very little about either game system.  From the character's stat blocks, I suspect I would prefer AFM.

Starting with the table of Contents, the reader will realize that this is a beautiful book.  I really like the cover as well, though I wish the picture on it was a bit less busy.  This is a really gorgeous book and it shows that with some extra loving, and a person who can do layout and graphics and all that jazz (I cannot), a relatively cheap print-on-demand book can be made to look fabulous.

The book has a quick introduction (evil monsters living below ground) and then jumps right into the game system chapter.  In this chapter, the author gives some quick notes on the two game systems for which it was written, and has a very handy several pages on loss of sanity, for those who want to rock the supplement in a Call of Cthulhu style.  There is a list of 14 different mental illnesses which a Referee might inflict on a character.  Interestingly, the book also says that the player can choose the illness himself.  I think this can make for a really interesting game.  I can see a couple of my players really having fun with it.  

The Sanity stat in the game is for *Punk but it could easily be worked into any game I feel, and the same goes for the supplement's fear rolls.  I would definitely work both of these mechanics into a game system I was using for the supplement, if the game did not already have the mechanic.

There is a list of "Appendix N" movies to watch for inspiration (I have seen 8 of them I think, and Dark City is the best of the ones which I have seen).

After this, we get into the meat of the matter.  

Chapter 2 explains how the "adventure" starts.  I use quotes since this is not a traditional adventure.  Those familiar with the author's Giallo "adventures" will feel right at home here.  The adventure has an overarching plot which can be summed up as, "A Portuguese sailor whacks off for some creepy alien entity, scores the gizmo as payment, some other stuff happens, and then the gizmo disappears into Agartha.  The gizmo is worth some serious ducats.  What do you do?"  There is more to it than that, of course, but this is the gist of it.

Like Miguel's Giallo adventures, you get a very simple plot and then a slew of NPCs and locations.  Many of the characters are repeats from the main rulebook, but have abilities altered slightly to bring them all to a similar power level, specifically so they can be used as player characters.  The author does note that some of them might actually have been killed previously since there were not designed originally as PCs.  There is a mix of ZoneSec (remember, this is what passes for cops in this setting), Yakuza, hitmen, hackers, mercenaries, and the typical ne'er do well types that players enjoy playing.  Side note, the character on page 35 looks like a model from the magazine Gothic Beauty that I might have, err, uhhh, noticed from part of my misspent early 20s.  On page 52 there is a picture of a gill woman, which is nice since the gillmen live down below, in Agartha.  This brings us to the end of chapter 3.

Chapter 4 is all about Agartha.  This chapter goes over some NPCs, including Pigface the Mayor.  There is a random encounter chart in this chapter and a few of the adventure locations also have random tables with treasure.  The list of locations is pretty fun and characters can perhaps find a copy of the Necromicon, some sexy underwear, a mutant mating ritual, and for those curious, there is a 33% chance that if you shoot someone in the head who is taking matters into her mouth of painfully and permanently "freeing willy", if you know that I mean.  

The book ends with a not-very-helpful map of Agartha.  I think that with the detail spent on layout in this book, a two-page spread with a more detailed map would have been lovely.

So, what does your not-quite-humble reviewer think?  I like it.  I don't like it as much as the setting book for which this is a supplement but I do like it.  It is a very pretty book, it has useful information, and works well as a supplement to Postcards from Avalidad.

⇒ GRIT: ★★★★☆  As a supplement, this book does what I believe it has set out to do.  I hesitate to use the term adventure for it, since, to me, an adventure is Keep or the Borderlands or Masks of Nyarlathotep.  The book is an adventure location for under the streets of Avalidad, and it is good for what it is.

⇒ VIGOR:  ★★★☆☆ There just aren't enough adventure locations for me.  I think that if the author cut out all of the possible player characters which were duplicated from the core setting, and replaced those pages with more locations, this book would be better.  I also would have loved to see a few pages with notes on other reasons why characters would adventure to and from Agartha.  The adventure won't take very long without a lot of stuff added by the Referee

⇒ GRACE:  ★★★★★ This book is freaking lovely!  The only two complaints I have are that the page numbers on what I assume to be an Islamic pattern are not readable (there are not that many pages like this) and the map at the end.  I'm not going to ding a star for these issues.  This book, to me, is a benchmark on what a home-based, indie rpg publisher can do.