Attronarch's Athenaeum

OSR

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 (Aaron James Bledsaw III) of the original owner, Bob 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.

#News #GG #OAR #OSR

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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:

  • Players Guide
  • GM Guide
  • Curse of the Crooked Tower adventure by Steve “Zherbus” O’Connell
  • Whispers of the Death God adventure by Gábor Csomós
  • Fortress Tomb of the Ice Lich by G. Hawkins
  • GM Screen
  • VTT Resources (tokens and complete Foundry integration)

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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I stumbled upon Swords & Wizardry Complete 3rd Printing and couldn't resist picking it up:

#Postbox #OSR #SW #FGG

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Finally picked up last three orders from DriveThruRPG:

Empire of the Petal Throne: The World of Tekumel:

Barbarian Conquerors of Kanahu:

Axioms Compendium Volume 2:

Swords of Wuxia:

City of Solstice: Evil Streets:

#Postbox #OSR #ACKS #TSR #ADD

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Frog God Games is running another flash sale, this time for Lost Lands books:

The croak-tastic celebration of Frog God Games turning 15 is still hopping right along! That’s right; we're throwing a party, and you're invited. From April 15–21, 2025, we’re slashing prices on The World of the Lost Lands, our official campaign setting, by a whopping 50% across all formats.

Three books on sale are:

Stoneheart Valley is worth getting just for The Tomb of Abysthor, great mid-level adventure. Very challenging one!

The above are discounted for 50% until April 21st.

#Sale #FGG #OSR #SW

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Brink of Calamity by Trent Smith is now available from DriveThruRPG:

As of about 15 minutes ago Brink of Calamity is finally live for sale at DriveThruRPG in both (softcover) print and pdf versions. Note that DriveThruRPG is increasingly their print costs substantially on April 1st and the price of the print version of this book will go up by $3 to compensate (from $22 to $25), so if you're planning to buy the print version and want to save $3 you should place your order today, tomorrow, or Monday at the latest.

Since the adventure assumes you're using the rules and content from The Heroic Legendarium anyone who doesn't already have that should consider buying the pdf bundle that includes both titles at a substantial discount over buying them separately.

This book has been long in gestation and I had doubts at several points whether I would ever get it across the finish line (and I suspect some of you readers did as well) but I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out and hope people who read about the Perlammo Salt Mines on Prince of Nothing's blog way back in September 2022 will consider it to have been worth the wait.

Also, while I'm here, I wanted to note for posterity that at some point last fall The Heroic Legendarium became a Gold bestseller at DriveThruRPG (meaning over 500 paid sales on their platform), which is pretty nice. I'm surprised by how it continues to sell, and actually sells as many or more copies per month now as it was 2 years ago, which I can only assume is coming 100% from positive word of mouth because I'm certainly not doing anything to promote it.

I greatly enjoyed reading Trent's Heroic Legendarium and consider it one of the best modern AD&D 1e supplements. Trent's writing is clear and to the point, based on many years of gaming experience. That he is a nice guy is just a bonus on top. Brink of Calamity looks great after cursory skim. It is a genuine old-school sandbox module with locales and dungeons to explore. It reminds me a bit of L-code modules for AD&D, but much better developed and presented. Looking forward to studying it closer!

#News #OSR #OSRIC #ADnD

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The Northlands Saga Complete is a compilation of ten adventures set in stereotypical cold north. Probably enough for several years of gaming. Tenfootpole has reviewed first four adventures back in the day (NS1, NS2, NS3, NS4). Swords & Wizardry versions were collated in 2015 and published in the big omnibus titled Northlands Saga Complete:

Almost a decade later few more adventures were published, one for Swords & Wizardry, and two plus player's guide for Old-School Essentials:

The above are currently discounted for 75%, and the sale lasts until March 31st. Great deal if you need Scandinavian themed adventures and locales!

P.S. Just a few days before DTRPG massively increases its print cost, which in turn will be reflected on POD products. Make your orders in time.

#Sale #FGG #OSR #SW #OSE

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My latest order from DriveThruRPG—before their upcoming dramatic price increase—has just arrived:

Dwellers in Dark Places:

Hoard of Delusion:

Guidebook to the City of Dolmvay (Special Edition):

Guidebook to the Duchy of Valnwall (Special Edition):

#Postbox #OSR #OSRIC #LL #Dolmvay

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Tome of Worldbuilding and The Nomicon, companion volumes to the Tome of Adventure Design, have just landed on the DriveThruRPG. The former is more of a guidebook with random tables, while the latter is entirely random tables for generating names.

Tome of Worldbuilding has 350 pages, 15 chapters, and 401 tables:

Companion volume to the Tome of Adventure Design and The Nomicon, Tome of Worldbuilding is a system-neutral tool for designing fantasy worlds for TTPRG gaming. The book contains hundreds of random generation tables and other resources!

The Tome of World Building is written by ENNIE-award winning author Matt Finch, author of the critically-acclaimed Tome of Adventure Design. Using the Tome of World Building, you can create fantasy worlds quickly and fill them out with a wealth of detail from the random-generation tables in this book.

Tome of Worldbuilding is a guidebook in the style of How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox and World Builder's Guidebook. It offers direct guidance, with examples, supplemented by random tables to roll on for inspiration.

Here is the table of contents:

  1. Introduction
  2. Cosmic Matters
  3. The World
  4. Broad Brushstroke Details for the “Other” Continents
  5. Cultural Basins of the “Home” Continent
  6. Countries
  7. Terrain and Borders
  8. Illuminarchies
  9. Legendary Locations
  10. Cities and Settlements
  11. Deities and Religions
  12. Personalities
  13. Mythical Items and Places
  14. Monstrous Leaders
  15. Useful Facts

The Nomicon has 351 pages, 29 chapters and 231 tables:

A system-neutral book of tables for generating fantasy names for people and places! This book is a companion volume to the Tome of Worldbuilding and the Tome of Adventure Design.

As it says on the lid, The Nomicon contains tables for generating names. Some tables have full names (e.g. Atafa or Ianizzo) while others have multiple parts that you combine (e.g. Curiondio or Mbadiwothi). Names are divided into chapters by either their intended use (e.g. divine names) or how they sound like (e.g. Anglish or Nörslik). The latter are based on how real-world names sound like but do not replicate them entirely (for historical names I recommend Treasury of Archaic Names and The Everyone Everywhere List).

Here is the table of contents:

  1. Introduction
  2. Primordial and Divine Names
  3. Continent Names
  4. Anglish
  5. Arabish
  6. Britonnian
  7. Celtigaulic
  8. Dwarven
  9. East-Asiantic
  10. Elderweirdish
  11. Elven
  12. Espannic
  13. Eurovesian
  14. Hellenica
  15. Italican
  16. Metallik
  17. Nanskrit
  18. Nörslik
  19. Russlavik
  20. Sequatorial
  21. Stygian/Egyptic
  22. Teutonnic
  23. Trobadoric
  24. Names for Legendary Places
  25. City and Settlement Names
  26. Monster Names
  27. Titles
  28. Personal Epithets
  29. Miscellaneous Tables

Offset print copies should be available on the Mythmere Games website once the backers receive them.

#News #OSR #MythmereGames

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Troll Lord Games just launched a crowdfunding campaign for the legendary megadungeon by Gary Gygax:

This is the first of two crowdfunding campaigns. With your help, we hope to return to shelves worldwide Gary Gygax's Castle Zagyg. It is a monstrous project; one with with an incredible legacy! We hope to see all the material in Castle Zagyg released in 5 full color, hardcover volumes, each in its own box with relevant game maps.

There will be five box sets, and this campaign is for the first three:

  • Castle Zagyg Vol. 1 The Citadel (the town of Yggsburgh)
  • Castle Zagyg Vol. 2 The Ruins (the castle, East Mark, Mouths of Madness, and dungeon level 1)
  • Castle Zagyg Vol. 3 The Cellars (dungeon levels 2, 3, 3a, 4, 4a, 5 and 5a)
  • Castle Zagyg Vol. 4 The Dungeons (dungeon levels 6-9 and sub-levels)
  • Castle Zagyg Vol. 5 The Caverns (dungeon levels 10-17 and sub-levels)

Castle Zagyg Vol. 1 The Citadel box set will contain:

  • A full setting guide for Yggsburgh and the Outs neighborhood
  • A Map of the Town of Yggsburgh
  • Nine Interior Maps of Points of Interest
  • 600+ Non-Player Characters
  • 30+ Random Encounter and Event Tables
  • 50+ Random Encounters, offering hundreds of potential adventure venues
  • Orders of Battle for everything from Goblins to Knights
  • Crime and Punishment in Yggsburgh

Castle Zagyg Vol. 2 The Ruins box set will contain:

  • A detailed setting guide for East Mark, including 60 geographic locales and the town of Garham
  • A complete setting guide for the ruins of Castle Zagyg, including the Upper Works, Castle Fortress, Tower Walls, Manse, and Mouths of Madness
  • A Map of the East Mark region and its surrounding Environs; over 1,500 square miles of adventuring terrain!
  • A Map of the Castle Zagyg and its structures
  • A Map of the Mouths of Madness and dungeon level 1: The Storerooms
  • 100+ Encounter Areas in the Castle
  • 120+ Encounter Areas in Caverns and Storerooms

Castle Zagyg Vol. 3 The Cellars box set will contain:

  • 7 Maps: one for each dungeon level
  • The Deep Cellars
  • The Dungeons
  • Arena of Death
  • Arcane Workshops
  • Black Reservoir
  • Eternity Galleries
  • The Catacombs
  • 300+ Encounter Areas and Rooms

Most of the content is based on Gary's notes:

Who is Writing It? Volume 1, The Citadel is written by Gary Gygax. This is the content some of you have in Yggsburgh, previously published by Troll Lord Games in 2004; it will contain updated art on the cover and interior, plus new maps.

Volume 2, The Castle is written by Jeffrey Talanian. This originally appeared in Upper Works, published by Troll Lord Games in 2008. It will also feature an updated cover and new interior art, as well as new maps for more seamless play.

Volume 3, The Cellars includes one level written by Jeffrey Talanian (the 1st). The rest is being written by Michael Stewart. Mike has written and published a number of adventures through Troll Lord Games, and his writing style fits Castle Zagyg perfectly. Couple that with his work on Yggsburgh alongside Gary Gygax, and he is the perfect candidate for the task. He is back on board to pore over Gary's original notes and maps and to create the dungeon that many of us have longed for, and many more never knew they wanted.

Castle Zagyg will be published for the TLG's Castles & Crusades system, meaning it is broadly compatible with TSR's D&D editions and other popular retroclones.

Read more about the campaign at Backerkit.

#News #Crowdfunding #OSR #TLG

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