Attronarch's Athenaeum

blackfriday2023

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

Bestiaries

Supplements

#BlackFriday2023 #Sale #OSR

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Lamentations of the Flame Princess might be edgy, but it was Raggi and his vision that popularised splendid looking A5-sized rulebooks, adventures, and supplements, in the OSR space. Here are some of the books I've enjoyed very much, that don't feature excessive gore and edgelordiness:

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Frog God Games has a large catalogue, and they often churn out re-releases of their previous work with minor changes. I am not a big fan of their new layout and art direction. It feels cheap and is somehow even worse than previous budget black and white art pieces.

Great majority of the recommendations below are for Swords & Wizardry system, a retroclone of Original D&D. All statblocks have descending and ascending AC, and everybody uses a single save throw (but since HDs and levels are nearly identical, you can use TSR-era saves without any hassle). Do note that FGG begun to move away from Swords & Wizardry as a system label to OSR as system label. It is still S&W though...

Adventures

  • 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 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.
  • 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...
  • The Slumbering Tsar Saga (PF). 800 page monster. High-level, high-lethality area with brutal challenges.
  • 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. :)
  • The Blight (Swords and Wizardry). A rotten, overpopulated, sick mega-city. Whole campaigns can be played in it. Heavy horror vibes.

Supplements

  • 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).
  • 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.
  • The Blight: Tome of Blighted Horrors (Swords and Wizardry). What, you want more? Well, here are 80 more—body horror aplenty.
  • 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.

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The time is nigh! Spend wisely!

Here are some Troll Lord Games adventures and supplements I've found useful and enjoyable, although I do not run Castle & Crusaders system. I found most of TLG stuff to have minor errors (e.g. typos, location missing on a map, etc.). Also, most of the modules do require prep. Despite that, I find below worthy of mentioning.

Adventures

Supplements

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