Attronarch's Athenaeum

The time is here! This year I decided to do a single megapost by category (adventure / bestiary / supplement) instead by publisher. I also decided to limit myself only to things I bought, read, and that isn't TSR (many classics to pick up there!). Each category is sorted alphabetically. I tried to provide brief explanation for each item, but do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.

Spend reasonably!

Adventures

• Cyclopean Deeps (Swords and Wizardry) (volume one and two). Underground hex-crawl for high-level parties. Includes underground settlements as well. Perfect for plugging into lowest levels of large dungeons... Or under sprawling cities...
• Advanced Adventures #1: The Pod-Caverns of the Sinister Shroom. Fun and tough low-level adventure.
• Apple Lane. Memorable “beginner” setting.
• Bard's Gate (Swords and Wizardry) (player's guide). A massive city packed with urban encounters and adventures (8 included, from levels 1 to 10+). Very dense book. Some say this is FGG's finest product. The truths is: this is another Necromancer Games revival. And that's why it's great. :)
• Bottomless Pit of Zorth. Slimy adventure kicked off by players' greed. What else do you need? :)
• Broodmother SkyFortress. Part campaign-disrupting adventure, part collection of essays on running old-school games. Easily my favourite LotFP publication.
• Carcosa. Oh Carcosa, oh how wonderfully wicked you are! Geoffrey McKinney gives us a whole sandbox (campaign map with described hexes) surrounding Carcosa, as well as an in depth view of one hex (multiple points of interest). It is a horrific place, living up to source material.
• Castle Zagyg: Yggsburgh Campaign Setting. TLG is finally allowed to reprint material authored by Gary Gygax! Far from perfect, but still worth, Yggsburgh offers an insight into Gary's late work.
• Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set. The classic done right.
• Gatehouse on Cormac’s Crag.
• Journey to the Inside Out.
• Mike's Dungeons, Mike's Dungeons: The Deep Levels and Mike's World: The Forsaken Wilderness Beyond. Seriously, for less than $10 you can get material that will last you a lifetime whenever your players decide to go somewhere you haven't prepared for. As a bonus, aforementioned supercharge B1 and B2.
• Neverland: A Fantasy Role-Playing Setting and OZ: A Fantasy Role-Playing Setting. Two well known fantasy worlds gamified. Nominally for 5e, but very usable with OSR systems. Andrew did a great job!
• Palace of the Vampire Queen, The Dwarven Glory and The Misty Isles. Witness for yourself how the earliest adventures looked like. Will you be able to make them work?!
• Pavis and Big Rubble. A fully fleshed city and a ruined city next to it.
• Points of Light and Points of Light 2: The Sunrise Sea. Sandbox in the Wilderlands style. Written by Robert Conley, a Wilderlands veteran.
• Stoneheart Valley (Swords and Wizardry). A collection of three old Necromancer Games adventures: The Wizard's Amulet, The Crucible of Freya, and The Tomb of Abysthor. First one is shit, second is fine, and third is awesome.
• The Blight (Swords and Wizardry). A rotten, overpopulated, sick mega-city. Whole campaigns can be played in it. Heavy horror vibes.
• The Gardens Of Ynn. Procedurally generated garden. Nice flavour!
• The Halls of Arden Vul Complete. One of the best megadungeons to date.
• The Lost City of Barakus (Swords and Wizardry) (local and regional maps). Perhaps my favourite Necromancer Games mega-dungeon—because it is so much more! You get a starting city (with seven adventures), a wilderness area (with 26 keyed encounters and mini adventures), and a mega-dungeon with interesting factions and cool big-bad. Suitable for low-level parties.
• The Northlands Saga Complete (Swords and Wizardry). A compilation of ten adventures set in stereotypical cold north. Probably enough for several years of gaming. My favourite activity is stealing from this book and including parts of it in my own game. Tenfootpole has reviewed first four adventures back in the day (NS1, NS2, NS3, NS4). $18 is a steal for this.
• The Sanctuary Ruin and Ironwood Gorge. Superb adventure duo to kick-off a campaign. Great alternative to B2.
• The Slumbering Tsar Saga (PF). 800 page monster. High-level, high-lethality area with brutal challenges.
• The Stygian Library. Procedurally generated library. Perfect for when your players must recover Necronomicon or some other book.
• The Vanilla Adventure. Vanilla doesn't mean boring.
• Tower of the Stargazer. A great adventure for LofTP one-shot and to gage if LofTP adventures vibe well with you and your players. You know, mean traps, lying bastards, and miserable pay off.
• Vault of the Mad Baron.
• Veins of the Earth. Wonderful inspiration to make the underdark darker and scarier.

Bestiaries

• All the Worlds' Monsters Vol. 1, Vol 2. and Vol.3 . One of the earliest published bestiaries. Has that true vintage typewriter look and nonsensical monsters.
• A Groats-worth of Grotesques. For when you need monstrous monsters.
• A Magical Society Aggressive Ecology: The Slaver Fungus. Ecology as a monster.
• A Magical Society Aggressive Ecology: The Undead Leviathan. More ecology-as-a-monster.
• Book of Lost Beasts. More 1e monsters! How could you say no to that!
• Malevolent & Benign II. More monsters.
• Malevolent and Benign. Monsters.
• Monstrosities (Swords and Wizardry). Nearly 500 monsters. Each monster comes with an example encounter/nano-adventure. Includes tables with monsters by challenge level, guidance on creating new monsters, tables of monsters by terrain, and tables of random encounters (3d6, so bell curve).
• The Blight: Tome of Blighted Horrors (Swords and Wizardry). What, you want more? Well, here are 80 more—body horror aplenty.
• The Monster Alphabet. Spice up your monsters!
• The Random Esoteric Creature Generator for Classic Fantasy Role-Playing Games and Their Modern Simulacra. Bunch of random tables to create horrific monsters. Or horrifically comical; depending on your rolls and interpretations of therein.
• Tome of Horrors Complete (Swords and Wizardry). More than 700 monsters (no duplicates from Monstrosities). Again, each comes with a small encounter. Includes mundane animals as well.

Supplements

• Citybook collection (I: Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker, II: Port O' Call, III: Deadly Nightside, IV: On The Road, V: Sideshow, VI: Up Town, VII: King's River Bridge). Great system-neutral collection of various establishments that you can just drop in your game. Each has map, notable personalities, and a wealth of hooks.
• SEVEN YEARS OF FANTASY WEATHER Volume 1: Medieval England, Volume 2: The Iceland of the Sagas, and Volume 3: Indea.
• The Book of Taverns (volumes one, two, and three). Had enough of generic taverns and inns, but short on prep time? Steal one from here. Again, these are revivals of old Necromancer Games books. They are good.
• 6x6x6: The Mayhemic Misssile Method (Tenscore and Sixteen Ways for Sorcerists, Witches, and Other Thaumatrophs to Defend Their Indefensible Persons). Make those magic missiles unique. I've used it to give foes unique flair.
• A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe Third Edition. Everything you need to build a believable medieval setting.
• A Magical Society: Ecology and Culture. Make your fantasy even more believable.
• A Magical Society: Silk Road. Itching to run a Silk Road styled campaign? This is your answer.
• Arduin Trilogy. Compiles Arduin Grimoire Vol 1, 2, and 3. I still use special ability charts presented therein.
• Artifices, Deceptions, & Dilemmas. Illustrated environments.
• Bestial Ecosystems Created by Monstrous Inhabitation. Expanded bestiary.
• Book of Lost Lore. Various rules, procedures, tweaks, classes, spells and so on for 1e. Great resource.
• Book of Lost Tables. Wonderful collection of random tables to dungeons, wilderness, and settlements.
• Book of Names. Not as good as Judges Guild Treasury of Archaic Names, but I still found some I liked.
• Cults of Prax and Cults of Terror. One of the best takes on religion in fantasy.
• Grimtooth's Ultimate Traps Collection. Spice up your traps!
• HarnManor. Detailed procedures and guidance on creating and managing a manor.
• Lethal Legacies: Traps of the World Before. Sixty non-gimmicky non-instant-TPK traps.
• Magical Theorems & Dark Pacts. Most people know Dyson Logos for his maps—but did you know he has great supplements as well? This one collects various classes and spells, as well as few houserules.
• On Downtime and Demesnes. Bunch of downtime procedures.
• Palladium RPG Book II: Old Ones. Plenty of fully fleshed out settlements with lovely maps.
• Palladium RPG Book VII: Yin-Sloth Jungles. Monstrous cities!
• Psionics. Campbell's take on psionics is quite good.
• Swords of Cthulhu. Great source to add Cthulhu mythos to your game. Written for 1e.
• The Compendium of Weapons, Armour & Castles. Illustrated guide to various weapons, armours, and yes, castles.
• The Dungeon Alphabet. Spice up your dungeons!
• The Everyone Everywhere List. Oldie but goldie.
• The Heroic Legendarium: A First Edition Adventure Gaming Companion. Awesome collection of rules modifications and additions for 1e, as well as essays for players and judges.
• The Metamorphica Revised. Great resource for mutations. I use it to create unique monsters and characters.
• The Staffortonshire Trading Company Works of John Williams. Amazing resource if you are looking to run 17th century inspired setting.
• Tome of Adventure Design (Revised). Amazing collection of random tables to generate everything and anything you need for an adventure.
• Tome of Alchemy. Although for 5e, it is still very usable with OSR rulesets. No surprise given the authors are Matt Finch and Courtney Campbell.

#BlackFriday2023 #Sale #OSR

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