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This post is part of the RPG Blog Carnival: Wondrous Weapons and Damning Dweomers.

This week I decided to use Magical Weapons for Labyrinth Lord by Djeryv / Wizardawn as the starting point.

Spell effects are from Labyrinth Lord and Advanced Edition Companion (no-art versions of Labyrinth Lord and Advanced Edition Companion are free).

(For those new to OSR, Labyrinth Lord is a B/X retroclone, meaning its supplements are easy to use with Old-School Essentials and Swords & Wizardry.)

Without further ado, here are thirty unique magical weapons, sorted alphabetically:

  1. Abysmal Battle Axe +1 of Invisibility (as magic-user spell Invisibility, twice a week). Hooked axe with obsidian blade and lacquered shaft that causes bleeding blisters. Has two eyes, one on each side of the blade. Poking an eye causes the axe and wielder to turn invisible.
  2. Bastard Sword +1, +2 of Exorcism (versus demons and devils). Blade of pure white light with handle and pommel of unknown alien material similar to polished steel.
  3. Bastard Sword +1, +2 of Lycanthrope Hunting (versus lycanthropes). The blade has silver sheen to it, although it is made of steel.
  4. Bastard Sword of the Cursed (-2, cursed). Bat-shaped iron sword-guard. The fuller (groove along the blade) is polished steel.
  5. Divine Heavy Flail +1, +3 of Death Dealing (versus undead). Favourite weapon of Prophet Gardgal Verdier.
  6. Dreadful Morningstar +1, +2 of Exorcism (versus demons and devils). Gnarly looking monringstar with bent spikes. Made entirely of pure holy iron.
  7. Earthly Light Pick +1, +2 of Magical Vanquishing (versus magical monsters). Forged by long forgotten dwarf blacksmith during the Great Construct Uprising.
  8. Fabulous Quarterstaff of the Cursed (-2, cursed). Wearer believes they are the most fabulous person on the planet and will make sure everybody else knows it as well.
  9. Fallen Mace +1 of the Necromancer (as cleric spell Animate Dead, once a week). Made entirely of stainless steel. Cannot blemish, not matter how hard it hits. Wielded by infamous chaotic cleric Mavorla the Despoiler.
  10. Fiendish Battle Axe +1. Danish battle axe with perennially bloodstained iron blade. Blood can't be washed off.
  11. Fiendish Light Crossbow +1 of the Skunk (as magic-user spell Stinking Cloud, once a week). A slim transparent cylinder is attached to the underside of the crossbow. Cylinder slowly sucks in smells from the environment, which are then magically enriched with vile vapours. Once the chamber is full, as indicated by it being filled with sickly yellow gas, it can be discharged with a click (no arrow needed).
  12. Foul Short Sword +3. The sword smells worse than a rotting troglodyte. Releases sticky ichor when gripped. Forged by Jaa'kewalimnit, a sludge demon.
  13. Glorious Morningstar +2, +3 of Spellcaster Doom (versus spell casters). Magnificent morningstar with obsidian head, ironwood shaft, and steel grip. It is the morningstar that crushed the head of notorious wizard Amenotari Thutmok.
  14. Hand Axe +1, +2 of Lizard Extinction (versus reptiles, excluding dragons & wyverns). A simple handaxe with wooden shaft and steel blade, easily mistaken for a mundane hand axe.
  15. Heavenly Long Sword +3 of the Sage (as magic-user spell Read Magic, twice a week). Gold blade and grip, while sword-guard is a golden winged sun. It looks absolutely splendid, and is desired by rulers throughout the land. Last to wield it was legendary King Numedas “The Fair” Septigius.
  16. Heavy Flail +1, +2 of Giant Conquering (versus giants). Although it looks like a mundane flail, it is so heavy it can be only lifted by characters that have at least 15 strength.
  17. Incredible Dagger +2, +3 of Magical Vanquishing (versus magical monsters). Nicknamed after legendary assassin Levacia whom allegedly yelled “incredible, is it not?!” whenever she'd stab someone to death with it.
  18. Light Crossbow +3 of the Eagle (as magic-user spell Fly, three times a week). Lightweight crossbow made of enchanted wood from elven forest. Three eagles are on the body; touching any of them grants the user ability to fly.
  19. Lost Quarterstaff +3 of the Skunk (as magic-user spell Stinking Cloud, twice a day). Striking either side of the staff into the ground makes the other side release noxious gas.
  20. Magical Light Crossbow +1 of Snake Charming (as cleric spell Snake Charm, twice a week). Gifted to prince Onurekri who liked to play with snakes. He died to suicide.
  21. Sacred Hand Axe of Wounding (+1, wounding). Gilded blade with ironwood shaft and bronze pommel.
  22. Sling +2, +3 of Deterioration (versus regenerating monsters). Y-shaped sling made from troll bones and thoul sinews.
  23. Treasured Battle Axe +1 of Magic Missiles (as magic-user spell Magic Missile, twice a week). Double-bladed steel battle axe with ironwood shaft. Blades and shaft are studded with red and green jewels. Jewels pulsate gentle light, unless both Magic Missile charges have been used.
  24. Trident +1 of Mind Reading (as magic-user spell ESP, once a day). Made of pure jade. Stolen from Sahuagin prince by a band of daring adventurers.
  25. Trident +1, +3 of Exorcism (versus demons and devils). Gold trident of a long forgotten merfolk hero. Sparkles with electricity when within 30 feet of a devil.
  26. Two-Handed Sword +2, +3 of Golem Banishment (versus golems and statues). Ten feet long slab of iron used to discipline golems. Forged by mad wizard Hjorth “The Ghastly” Pans.
  27. Unholy Light Pick of Wounding (+1, wounding). Borderline erotic moans can be heard whenever it draws blood.
  28. Villainous Dagger +3 of Seeing (as magic-user spell Detect Invisible, three times a week). Tri-edge dagger of polished steel. Belonged to notorious hunter Amargacht the Cruel.
  29. War Hammer +2, +3 of Lizard Extinction (versus reptiles, excluding dragons & wyverns). Double-headed mithril war hammer with wrought iron shaft and diamond-shaped mithril pommel. Weapon of legendary dwarven hero Fimbur Gorazinsson whom used it during Woelands Saurian Crusades.
  30. Wondrous Shortbow +1, +2 of Lizard Extinction (versus reptiles, excluding dragons & wyverns). Forged by Virthin Halrond, an elf who fancied lizardmens' flesh.

#RPGBlogCarnival #Resource #LL #OSR

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Wonderful news from Dan Proctor / Goblinoid Games:

The Labyrinth Lord full draft can be downloaded now!

Feel free to look it over and offer any feedback you might have over at our forum. Once we review for any additional formatting, typo, or other issues it will be made available for wider distribution and in print.

Also grab the character sheet by James West!

On the first skim it looks much, much better than the first preview version. Great art, solid writing, and very old-school feel. Just how it should be!

#News #OSR #LL

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Two months since announcing his return, Dan has shared Labyrinth Lord 2E preview:

Download it for free at DriveThruRPG.

Update: Dan removed the preview due to feedback. In how own words:

Hey everyone, based on feedback I'm going to need to rethink presentation. The release timeframe will probably change. I'm taking some time to mull it over and I'll update when I can.

Discussion at Dragonsfoot forum.

Discussion at OSR reddit.

Some quick thoughts:

  • Visual feel is reminiscent of later Mystara publications. I'm a big fan of black-and-white, and while I can tolerate the ornamental frame, I don't think coloured background is the way to go.
  • I like the addition of green explainer text. In general, I've observed a lack of instructional language in a lot of modern OSR rule-sets, so this makes for a nice addition.
  • The art is sometimes endearing, and sometimes off-putting.

Either way, I'm still looking forward to it.

#News #OSR #LL

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Dr. Daniel Proctor, the creator of Labyrinth Lord, Advanced Edition Companion, Advanced Labyrinth Lord, Mutant Future, and much more, has shared some exciting news:

When I suspended Goblinoid Games' social media presence two months ago, it was because I gave myself an ultimatum.

I would write a substantial, totally new product by the first of the year and be well on my way to editing a new edition of Labyrinth Lord. If I didn't succeed in these challenges, I had decided I would close up shop for good. I am near completion of a new solo adventure, currently sitting at around 24,000 words.

In retrospect, maybe I shouldn't have been so hard on myself. I've suffered from moderate to severe anxiety for about the last seven years, amplified by a series of large life changes. The kind of life changes you check the boxes for on a form to determine how much stress you have in your life. At any given time during those years I would probably have three or four big ones happening at once. As a result, all of my hobbies essentially came to a halt. It was hard enough to get by day-to-day, much less write creative content and keep up with the demands of my publishing business. Some of you know I'm a professor, and just performing those duties was challenging enough. And of course Covid.

But I'm happy to say that at this point I'm in a much better place than I've been in years. I've come to terms with many things in my life, and I'm finally in a position to pick up where I left off. I know the industry has changed, and I know many of my supporters have been disappointed with my lack of support for my game lines, Labyrinth Lord especially. I've also let down my publishing partners. But I'm here to tell you today that all of that is coming to an end. I'm still a one-person, Indy publisher, but in addition to my own efforts I'll be be reaching out to others for partnerships moving forward. I'm very excited for what the future holds, and I hope some of you will join me on this new journey.

To read a little bit more about what I have in mind, please visit my website. It's still under construction but I have some information there about what's next for Labyrinth Lord.

Here's to the future!

Dan

goblinoidgames.com

Be sure to read the link website because it shares more about upcoming changes. Some of the highlights:

  • Labyrinth Lord (LL) was one of the first retroclones (alongside OSRIC). Nobody back then knew what was and wasn't allowed under Open Gaming Licence. For that reason LL changed a number of small things from B/X (e.g. experience tables, treasure tables, and so on). As Old School Essentials (OSE) has shown, it is possible to entirely copy the system without running into trouble.
  • With new insight, LL 2E will come even closer to B/X, the system it emulates, and will include all the known errata (hopefully they are aware of this one) as well as improved layout and presentation. To be honest, I don't find the current one very lacking. It just oozes character.
  • There will be second edition of the Advanced Edition Companion (AEC) as well. There might be a second edition of Advanced Labyrinth Lord (compilation of LL + AEC).
  • Second edition won't be crowdfunded, and will simply arrive into stores (DTRPG and Lulu I presume). I've noticed a lot of resistance to fundraising from the older guard. Not sure why is that, but I get a feeling they think it would somehow sell them out, or something similar. In reality, it would provide them enough funds to improve the production values of their product.
  • Tentative release date is Q1 2023.

I am very much looking forward to the Second Edition!

#News #LL #OSR

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