Adventures Dark and Deep by Joe Bloch of BRW games is an alternative AD&D second edition, imagining how might AD&D evolve if Gary Gygax remained at the helm of TSR.

Joe is a great scholar of AD&D and it shows. Adventures Dark and Deep consists of two thick core books (rulebook and bestiary), but now there is also Adventures Dark and Deep Lite which is a single tome to get people started with the system. PDF is available as PWYW, while PODs are at cost.

System aside, I am a great fan of Joe's supplemental books, which are easy to use with OD&D and AD&D:

• Book of Lost Lore
• Book of Lost Beasts
• Book of Lost Tables
• Swords of Cthulhu
• Swords of Wuxia

Book of Lost Tables sees a lot of use with its 348 random tables for generating random wilderness terrain, random wilderness encounters, random dungeon terrain, random dungeon encounters, random urban terrain, random urban encounters, character parties, and more.

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DriveThruRPG is running 40% sale off many titles in celebration of GM's day.

As usual, this is a good time to grab the classics from the TSR catalogue: OD&D, D&D, and AD&D 1e.

Since this is all about Judges, here are some books I find useful for preparing sandbox games:

• The Nomicon
• Tome of Worldbuilding
• Tome Of Adventure Design
• Cities
• Book of Lost Tables
• Goods and Gear: The Ultimate Adventurer's Guide
• HârnManor
• Medieval Manager
• A Magical Medieval Society

All issues of the legendary Fight On! zine are on sale too. Can't go wrong with those as they are chock-full of gameable material, including some contributions by yours truly.

Spend responsibly.

#Sale #OSR

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OSRIC 3.0 PDFs are now available on DriveThruRPG:

• OSRIC 3.0 Player Guide
• OSRIC 3.0 Gamemaster Guide

Offset print version will be available from Mythmere Games later this year.

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DriveThruRPG is running a New Year, New Game Titles sale, with up to 75% off on select titles. The sale runs until January 16th.

Here are six old-school systems worth getting:

1. Dungeons & Dragons Original Edition. The game that kicked it all off. Still very playable, still very inspirational.
2. Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia. The best edition of Classic D&D, combining content of Basic, Expert, Companion, and Master into one tome.
3. Arduin Trilogy. Contains first three Arduin Grimoires, which were supplements for OD&D.
4. Arduin II. Combines and restates Arduin Grimoires into a self-contained game.
5. The Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game Revised Edition. Reads like a heartbreaker based on Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. It has a ton of interesting concepts and ideas, knows nothing of “balance,” and features a lot of nice art.
6. Basic Roleplaying: Universal Game Engine. An original d100 engine that powers RuneQuest, Call of Cthulhu, and many other games, all in one tome.

And here are six OSR systems worth checking out:

• BLUEHOLME Journeymanne Rules. A retro-clone which extends Holmes Basic to level 20. Very well written, with guidance and explanations, making it ideal for beginners.
• Labyrinth Lord: Revised & Expanded. One of the best retro-clones of B/X edition of D&D.
• Adventures Dark and Deep Core Rulebook. A take on what second edition Advanced D&D could have looked like if Gary remained in charge.
• Against the Darkmaster Core Rules. A well done retro-clone of Middle-earth Role Playing game.
• Without Number games by Kevin Crawford: Ashes Without Number, Cities Without Number, and Worlds Without Number.
• Bandits and Battlecruisers. Class-less OD&D in space with a good deal of random tables.

There are more than 4000 titles that are discounted—do let me know your favourites. And as always, spend responsibly!

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OSRIC 3.0 Player Guide PDF has just been released for free on DriveThruRPG. Offset print and print-on-demand will be available next year, as well as GM Guide, adventures, and a host of other material.

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, and brings the rules even closer to AD&D, just to name a few.

Learn more about OSRIC 3.0 on BackerKit.

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Frog God Games is also running a 50% off sale. From what I can see some of the products are 75% off. Good sale to pick up some of the more expensive tomes and bundles like Razor Coast, Northlands, and Necromancer Games supplements.

#Sale #FGG #NG #Harn #OSR

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Last year I rolled 70 magical weapons as part of the RPG Blog Carnival: Wondrous Weapons and Damning Dweomers. Since then several people asked me for a print-friendly PDF versions.

Here they are:

• Ten Magik Weapons for Original Dungeons & Dragons
• Ten Wondrous Weapons for Original Dungeons & Dragons
• Twenty Magical Swords for Swords & Wizardry
• Thirty Unique Magical Weapons for Labyrinth Lord

Enjoy!

Illustration by Grey Gnome Games.

#Resource #OSR #ODnD #SW #Arduin #LL

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Massive issue counting 164 pages (!)—twelve pages more than the titanic third issue—featuring adventures, monsters, classes, artwork, and essays from over thirty contributors. Scroll down for full table of contents.

I contributed 7 Contrarian Practices for Running Online Games essay, outlining practices from our long-running sandbox game. This is a continuation of the 21 Lessons Learned After Running 100 Sessions essay published in the previous issue, which resonated with many readers. Several wrote to me and asked if I could write more about how we play online.

Bigger than a bull baluchitherium barreling through Bucklebury, Fight On! is BACK! Writers and artists old and new proudly present a whopping 166 PAGES of men, magic, monsters, treasures, underworlds, and wilderness adventures for your dreamworld delectation! It’s never been a better day to Fight On!

Discerning dungeoneers and daring dilettantes alike will be DAZZLED with articles, adventures, and art by Toren Atkinson, Attronarch, Zhu Baijee, Rick Base, J. Blasso-Gieseke, Calithena, Paul Carrick, Dr. John Cichowski, Jasmine Collins, Geoffrey O. Dale, Patrick Farley, Graphite Prime, Idle Doodler, Kelvin Green, Allan Grohe, Philipp H., Dave Hargrave, Cameron Hawkey, Kesher, Gabor Lux, Ripley Matthews, James Maliszewski, James Mishler, Michael Mornard, Peter Mullen, Prince of Nothing, Steve Queen, Glenn Robinson, DeWayne Rogers, Frank Scacalossi, Daniel Scherrey, Robert Scudder, Settembrini, Dan Sousa, Oakes Spalding, Anthony Stiller, Paul Swanlund, Del Teigeler, Andrew Walter, Bill Webb, Jennifer Weigel, Alex Zisch, and many more! Don’t delay – score your copy today!

Here is the table of contents:

Back issues are available via DTRPG and Lulu.

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DriveThruRPG is running a massive site-wide sale for Black Friday. I spent three days making a list of adventures, bestiaries, and supplements that I am happy to recommend and that are going for a good discount. I tried to stay away from super-popular recommendations, and focus instead on forgotten and overlooked publications I found useful.

Adventures are broken into three brackets: levels 1–4, levels 4–9, and levels 9 and higher. Bestiaries and supplements are a separate list. For the latter I focused on sandbox and world-building material. For little fun, each list has an assigned die that you can roll to determine what to look into first. :)

As always, spend responsibly!

Low-level adventures (levels 1–4) — 1d12

1. Gatehouse on Cormac’s Crag (4–6 adventurers of levels 1–3)
2. Advanced Adventures #22: Stonepick Crossing (6–10 adventurers of levels 1–3)
3. The Oneiric Hinterlands (4–6 adventurers of levels 1–6)
4. Advanced Adventures #1: The Pod-Caverns of the Sinister Shroom (6–8 adventurers of levels 2–4)
5. Advanced Adventures #27: Bitteroot Briar (4–8 adventurers of levels 2–4)
6. Bonepicker's Tower (4–8 adventurers of levels 2–4)
7. The Lost City of Barakus (4–8 adventurers of levels 2–6)
8. Bottomless Pit of Zorth (4–8 adventurers of levels 3–5)
9. Advanced Adventures #17: The Frozen Wave Satsuma (6–8 adventurers of levels 3–5)
10. Peril in Olden Wood (4–6 adventurers of levels 3–5)
11. Original Adventures Reincarnated #9: Caverns of Thracia (includes reprint of the original; 6–10 adventurers of levels 2–6)
12. The Halls of Arden Vul Complete (4–8 adventurers of levels 1–12)

Mid-level adventures (levels 4–9) — 1d12

1. The Tomb of Abysthor (6–10 adventurers of levels 2–8)
2. Advanced Adventures #31: The Lost Lair of Drecallis (4–8 adventurers levels 4–7)
3. Advanced Adventures #21: The Obsidian Sands of Syncrates (6–10 adventurers of levels 4–7)
4. Advanced Adventures #12: The Barrow Mound of Gravemoor (4–6 adventurers of levels 5–7)
5. A Shadow Over the Greatwood (4–8 adventurers of levels 5–7)
6. Advanced Adventures #46: The Dismal Glade of the Spider Goddess (6–10 adventurers of levels 5–7)
7. Advanced Adventures #41: The Forgotten Grottoes of the Sea Lords (6–10 adventurers of levels 6–8)
8. S4 The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth (6–8 adventurers of levels 6–8)
9. The Black Monastery (5–7 adventurers of levels 7–10)
10. Original Adventures Reincarnated #7: Dark Tower (3 books, first reprints the original; 6–10 adventurers of levels 7–11)
11. WG4 The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun (4–8 adventurers of levels 8–10)
12. Dawn of the Overmind (4–6 adventurers of levels 8–10)

High-level adventures (levels 9 and above) — 1d10

1. Tomb of the Twice-Crowned King (6–10 adventurers of levels 8–10)
2. EX2 The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror (5–8 adventurers of levels 9–12)
3. G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief (9 adventurers of level 9 or higher)
4. G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl (9 adventurers of level 9 or higher)
5. G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King (9 adventurers of level 9 or higher)
6. D1 Descent into the Depths of the Earth (7–9 adventurers of level 10 or higher)
7. D2 Shrine of the Kuo-Toa (at least 6 adventurers of level 9 or higher)
8. D3 Vault of the Drow (6–9 adventurers of of level 10 or higher)
9. Cyclopean Deeps Volume and Volume II (4–8 adventurers of levels 10–12)
10. S1 Tomb of Horrors (6–8 adventurers of levels 10–14)

Bestiaries — 1d8

1. 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.
2. Book of Lost Beasts. A collection of AD&D 1e monsters to supplement the Monster Manual, Fiend Folio, and Monster Manual II.
3. Dwellers in Dark Places. Awesome collection of more than 300 original OSRIC monsters.
4. Malevolent & Benign and Malevolent & Benign II. Collects all monsters published in the Expeditions Retreat Press OSRIC modules. Each book contains 150 monsters, so 300 new monsters in total.
5. Monstrosities. 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 normal distribution curve).
6. Tome of Horrors Complete. More than 700 monsters (no duplicates from Monstrosities). Again, each comes with a small encounter. Includes mundane animals as well. See Swords & Wizardry bestiary analysis here.
7. Hacklopedia of Beasts. Detailed bestiary with a lot of reusable details like size comparison charts, combat tactics, habitat & society, ecology, and yield.
8. The Monster Overhaul. Inteded to be a generic monster manual for a generic OSR system. Includes a little bit over 200 monsters, many with associated random tables.

Supplements — 1d6

1. How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox. Practical step-by step guide on how to create your own sandbox. Written by Robert Conley, a Wilderlands legend. (Watch out for his Majestic Fantasy Realms as well, forthcoming.)
2. Tomes by Mythmere Games Tome of Adventure Design, Tome of Worldbuilding, and The Nomicon. A great set of books to create infinite worlds and adventures.
3. Book of Lost Tables. Includes 348 random tables for generating random wilderness terrain, random wilderness encounters, random dungeon terrain, random dungeon encounters, random urban terrain, random urban encounters, character parties, and more. Very much in the styled of AD&D 1e tables.
4. Seven Years Of Fantasy Weather Volume 1: Medieval England, Volume 2: The Iceland of the Sagas, and Volume 3: Indea. Awesome series of weather supplements covering, as it says on the tin, seven years.
5. Realms of Crawling Chaos and Swords of Cthulhu. Two great source-books to add Cthulhu mythos to your D&D game.
6. HârnManor and Medieval Manager. Detailed procedures and guidance on creating and managing a manor, including simulating economy. The latter includes conversion to gp for ease of use.

Even more recommendations

Here are previous sales recommendations: 2024, 2023, 2022. Don't hesitate to reach out should you have a great recommendation yourself.

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