Campaign journals, reviews of TTRPG stuff, and musings on D&D.
A friend most generous has sent me his Judges Guild collection of Pegasus magazines as well as Fantastic Personalities supplement:
I also received the original art piece by FSF-INK that we commissioned for the Wilderlands Hall of Fame 2023:
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After five decades of continuous publication, the legendary Alarums & Excursions APA has come to an end. Lee Gold shared so with us, regular contributors, in late March, and then officially in the April issue of A&E (no. 593).
A&E begun its incredible run in June 1975, and continued all until April 2025. Lee's incredible tenacity and dedication is laudable, and I am forever grateful that she—with the help of other long-time contributors—was also able to make the back-issues available for as long as she was publishing new issues. I had an honour of contributing to A&E since August 2022, publishing a total of 33 issues of the Overlord's Annals zine.
Wikipedia and Fanlore entries provide a good summary of A&E APA for anyone interested. Grossly oversimplified, it was a bundle of individual fanzines focused on role-playing games. Each contributor would send in their zine, and then Lee would edit, collate, and distribute. Contributors would often address each other in their contributions, thus creating a community. At the time when there were no blogs nor forums, this was huge.
Lee was incredibly prolific. Fight On! issue dedicated to her includes a nice little essay “World Creating as a Hobby” as well as short interview. I also recommend Meet the Woman Who by 1976 Was the Most Important Gamer in Roleplaying After Gary article and Game Design History with Lee Gold video interview.
Thank you for everything Lee!
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Wilderlands Hall of Fame represents the most legendary gaming situation of the year, as voted by the players in our Conquering the Barbarian Altanis campaign.
Illustrated by FSF-INK.
Adventurers most troublesome, from right to left:
Trial by The Pit adventure is covered in session reports 44, 45, and 46.
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Deluxe versions of the ACKS Imperial Imprint Revised Rulebook, Judges Journal, Monstrous Manual, Judges Screen with inserts, and a poplar case to house them all:
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Majestic Fantasy Realms by Robert Conley, the spiritual successor to the Wilderlands of High Fantasy, is launching soon on Kickstarter. It is a sandbox fantasy setting perfect for hexcrawl games.
Crowdfunding campaign will include:
Rob will be releasing the whole setting under Creative Commons so anyone can adapt, modify, and contribute to their desire.
You can learn more about the setting on Rob's blog, and sign up to be notified upon launch at Kickstarter.
Really looking forward to it!
#News #Crowdfunding #OSR #MFRPG
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| Character | Class | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Tarkus the Promising | Cleric level 4 | Follower of Bachontoi, God of Red Wisdom. |
| Beorg the Gravedigger | Fighter level 3 | Inspired to adventure after burying several adventurers. |
| Thorm | Dwarf level 2 | Ashen hair, beard, and eyes. Left his own clan due to financial trouble. |
| Ambros | Cleric level 6 | Follower of Aniu, Lord of Time. |
| Ignaeus | Elf level 4 | A slightly weathered looking elf with dull blonde hair and chiseled features. Seeks wealth and knowledge. |
| Foxglove | Thief level 5 | A willowy human, long hair ties in a pony tail, looks a bit dangerous and dainty at the same time. |
| Dalkanarion | Fighter level 4 | A youthful specimen in full strength, full of purpose, bluster, and eagerness to prove himself. |
Ignaeus gripped his magical scimitar. He could hear yells and heavy thuds behind him. Reinforcements would come any moment now. But would they come fast enough?
Having driven mighty Dalkanarion back, the hobgoblins rallied and launched a counter-assault. By now they have slain the whole vanguard and surrounded Foxglove and Beorg.
The elf charged into the fray, closing the gap behind Beorg. Surrounded, adventurers fought desperately, dodging and parrying. Foxglove managed to retreat, badly injured, a final gift from Beorg. The gravedigger was soon slain. “I hope to be raised as an angry undead.” he uttered. Ignaeus killed with surgical precision.
“For Athena!” Dalkanarion bellowed, running down the stairs. Tarkus was right behind him. Marlon and Ambros followed. Behind them were five knights, and then forty heavy footmen. But the narrow staircase meant they could join one by one—while hobgoblins fought in numbers, holding a superior tactical position.
A particularly ugly specimen adorned with Chaos star duelled with Ignaeus. They traded several blows. Suddenly the beastman pulled a dirty vial and poured some vile chunky liquid down its throat. Its muscles bulged, breaking the chain shirt. The elf panicked for a moment, but composed himself in time. He launched a desperate jab, smashing through the monster's defences, driving the scimitar right through the bottle and throat.
Hobgoblin leader went toe to toe with unstoppable Dalkanarion. The two traded blows, but without victor. Adventurers, now in numbers and backed up, slowly regained control. The battle was desperate, fought inch by inch. Both sides stumbled over the corpses littering the hallway. Rivers of blood flowed between flagstone grooves, while gore caked the walls.
Tarkus the Promising joined the many corpses. His warm corpse was soon trampled in the heat of combat. Round by round, exchange by exchange, Ambros's holy army inched forward, slaying hobgoblins. Beastmen fought with iron discipline and unforgiving malice. Their chieftain was badly wounded but still fought on the front line, determined to kill Dalkanarion. Alas, that was not to be, for he was dragged out of combat by his own adjutants.
Ignaeus and Dalkanarion pursued the fleeing chieftain and his retinue but were too slow to catch up before they slammed the doors shut right in their face. Pumped Dalkanarion tore right through them, roared “Ares!” and cleaved the chieftain in half. A deformed, cloaked goblinoid escaped by jumping down the well. Another hobgoblin cut off the rope and destroyed the wheel, preventing timely pursuit. Adventurers poured into the chamber and killed the last remaining defenders, sans the one whom had escaped.
“Carry Tarkus, Beorg, and all the fallen soldiers.” Ambros commanded. Marlon nodded and the task was done. Ignaeus found Thorm, whom had been thrown into a small cave. A true miracle he survived the ordeal! Large force of heavy footmen, led by adventurers, cleared the dungeon in a little under two hours, finding no further opposition.
“High Priest Ambros, the keep has been secured!”
Twenty nine beastmen, five giant weasels, four kobolds, and one gelatinous cube. The price were the lives of Tarkus the Promising, Beorg the Gravedigger, and eight heavy footmen whom came from afar to serve Ambros.
The High Priest ordered the courtyard to be cleared and prepared for sacred ritual. He will bring back Tarkus and Beorg. Or at least he will try.
Discuss at Dragonsfoot forum.
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OSRIC, Old School Reference and Index Compilation, was the first retroclone of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Released almost 20 years ago, it led the charge during early days of OSR, providing means to legally publish content compatible with AD&D.
OSRIC 3.0, brings a host of improvements, focusing on providing more explanations and examples of play, replacing dense blocks of text with more accessible layout, discards OGL, brings the rules even closer to AD&D, just to name a few.
Campaign includes:
Learn more and back on BackerKit.
#News #Crowdfunding #OSR #OSRIC
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Update: following the reaction of fans, Goodman Games released two official announcements on their website (first, second). More details available on EN World topic.
Apparently Goodman Games shared the following at DungeonCon:
The implication is that the legendary Judges Guild module City State of the Invincible Overlord will be re-released by Goodman Games as part of the Original Adventures Reincarnated line. That is a deluxe line that reprints classics in letter-sized hardbacks, includes historical commentary, and conversion for either D&D fifth edition or Dungeon Crawl Classics.
Judges Guild produced some of the best material that hasn't been surpassed—Wilderlands of High Fantasy, City State of the Invincible Overlord, Ready Ref Sheets, just to name some—but was ultimately an unsuccessful company. They spent most of their company life lingering and licensing out their most attractive IP. That is how we got Wilderlands of High Fantasy boxed set by Necromancer Games, and then later two deluxe compilations by Goodman Games. Bud Judges Guild got cancelled hard when son (Robert Bledsaw II) and grandson (Robert Bledsaw III) of the original owner, Robert Bledsaw, went all anti-Semitic on social media. Due to this Judges Guild was removed from DriveThruRPG, and everyone in the industry broke ties with them. Goodman Games reached a special agreement to finish the second deluxe set without paying any royalties to the living Bledsaws. But all of that was in 2020. See here, here, and here for more details.
We know that Goodman Games later acquired all Judges Guild IP tied with Jaquays (see OAR7 Dark Tower, OAR9 Caverns of Thracia, and OAR9.5 The Hellpits of Nightfang), but it is unclear if that is the case with Wilderlands material as well. According to Aaron James Bledsaw, Goodman Games has licensed multiple Wilderlands IP:
We don't know much more since Goodman Games still hasn't announced anything yet—at least not officialy. Perhaps Bledsaws will use the money to refund backers they delivered nothing to.
As a big fan of Wilderlands, I must say that I am a bit surprised by including the Invincible Overlord on the cover. That tells me Goodman Games (or rather, the person responsible for the project) doesn't understand what City State of the Invincible Overlord is about. I hope they will reprint the original as they have done so far. But then again, they decided not to reprint the originals for OAR8 Grimtooth's Old School Traps and OAR9.5 The Hellpits of Nightfang, breaking the promise behind the line. I was not impressed by how OAR9 was done, nor with all the bloat that came with it. City State of the Invincible Overlord is about the map and terse key. I hope they reprint the original map in addition to whatever else they create. Either way, I will be backing this in order to get high-quality digital version of the originals.
Whatever happens in the end, the more Judges Guild material we manage to preserve, the better. I am looking forward to the official announcement from Goodman Games.
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A zine chronicling the Conquering the Barbarian Altanis D&D campaign.
This issue details sessions 74, and 75. Adventurers get to feel the real wrath of Zarifa.
You can download the issue here.
Overlord's Annals zine is available in print as part of the legendary Alarums & Excursions APA, issue 593:
This is also the last issue that will be featured in the A&E APA since it is ceasing publication. I might publish it in another APA. More information on that a bit later.
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OSRIC, Old School Reference and Index Compilation, was the first retroclone of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Released almost 20 years ago, it led the charge during early days of OSR, providing means to legally publish content compatible with AD&D.
New version, named OSRIC 3.0, brings a host of improvements, focusing on providing more explanations and examples of play, replacing dense blocks of text with more accessible layout, discards OGL, brings the rules even closer to AD&D, just to name a few.
Crowdfunding campaign will include:
You can read more about OSRIC 3.0 at Mythmere Games website, and sign up to be notified upon laucnh at Backerkit.
#News #Crowdfunding #OSR #OSRIC
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