I'm a huge fan of The Witcher franchise - video games, TV series, and even comics (in digital, of course). While I own The Witcher RPG, I don't expect I'll ever run it (I own WAY too many RPGs). Instead, I read it for the lore.
In the midst of the 3rd Nilfgaardian War Geralt of Rivia, the White Wolf, scours the Continent for traces of his lost love! But this is not the only tale. A million other stories play out across the vast continent and you are right in the middle of one of them!
The Witcher Pen & Paper RPG allows you to tell your own story in the world of The Witcher! Adventure across the Continent, interacting with living legends and influencing the politics of the land! Fight in the brutal and horrific Third Nilfgaardian War. Or play out your own adventure as you avoid death and dismemberment!
Featuring
9 Unique Classes: Play as Bards, Craftsmen, Criminals, Doctors, Mages, Men At Arms, Merchants. Priests, & Witchers.
A Bestiary of Vicious Monsters: Traverse the wild and hunt everything from the troublesome nekker to the hulking, hypnotic fiend.
Numerous Spells & Invocations: Call upon the chaotic magic of the Witcher world to summon tornadoes, leave hidden messages, and more.
A Visceral Combat System: Skill & tactics rule the day, and a wrong move can mean ruptured organs or more.
This digital edition includes both the full-size PDF and a Phone PDF version designed for reading on your smartphone.
I just finished playing in a 2-year-long AD&D 2e campaign run by JoetheLawyer. I realized mid-campaign that, except for my trip to Gen Con in '94, it was the only time I played 2e as a player. Go figure...
Within these pages lie the keys to open worlds of wonder and adventure! Whether you are exploring dank dungeons, forging mighty kingdoms, or questing to save the world, For Gold & Glory contains all that you need to run a complete game. Inside these covers, you will find rules to:
Create heroic characters and guide them as they advance in power.
Equip characters with everything they need to survive the perils of adventure.
Guide characters through encounters, whether through wits and skill or strength of arms.
Reward characters with glittering wealth and wondrous treasures.
Challenge all characters, from novices to veterans, with over 140 creatures both fair and foul.
For players and game masters alike, For Gold & Glory is compatible with the second edition of the "advanced" version of the world's most popular role-playing game.
Do you want to play in the Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland world but are bogged down with the massive Core Rulez? Well look no further! Neon Goons of the Toxic Wasteland is based off of Tunnel Goons by: Nate Treme! In these 10 pages you will find all the rules lite you will need to enjoy a quick slime-ridden vomit punk over the top good ole game!!!!
Looking for monsters for your campaign with a Cthulhuian twist to many of them? Look no further than the Terraric Tome. I may need to bring out my print copy in the weeks ahead and do a proper review, but damn does the Terratic Tome have an AD&D 2e feel along with a true edge to it.
This enchiridion of entities should only be used by DMs inclined towards malfeasance, sadism, and base wrongdoing.
Torn from the pages of the Books of Pandemonium, these horrific fiends -- including the grotesquely talented Curhadac, the sadistic Eremite, and the death-singing Acronical -- will test the mettle of any adventuring party.
Teratic Tome is an OSRIC-compatible bestiary featuring:
* Strange variants: Brine orc, gelatinous pyramid, and azure slime
* Undead: Ivory banshee, demimondaine, ash ghast, and verminated zombie
* New threats: Remnants, karkinoi, pontiffs, craanoi, and ingenues
* Unique entities: Baskra, Lunamic, Malchior, Pantagruel, and the Seamstress
Hey! Do you wanna adventure under Tenkar's Tavern? Written for Swords & Wizardry Light by Thom Wilson and published by Throwi Games, Under Tenkar's Tavern, Levels 1-3 is priced at PWYW. Hmmm, I should run this at a convention...
Under Tenkar's Tavern, Levels 1-3 for Swords & Wizardry
Once a boisterous and popular bar, Tenkar’s Tavern has recently become a place shrouded in mystery and despair. Members of the kitchen staff have disappeared and have not returned in several days. Additional hired hands have also since gone missing. An empty kitchen means unhappy customers and the barkeep Nerik is losing money! He needs outside help to solve his dilemma. Can the adventurers help find the kitchen staff or the source of the tavern’s problems?
An Adventure for three to six characters of 1st or 2nd level, designed for Swords & Wizardry TM by Matthew J. Finch.
Are you looking for new classes for your OSE/LL/B/X game or for Swords & Wizardry or other OSR ruleset? How about some mass combat rules that aren't only usable, but understandable? Rules for herbs and foraging? Maybe even alchemy? It's all here and more in Fantastic Wizardry, nicely priced at PWYW.
FANTASTIC WIZARDRY is a rule supplement for "basic" editions of "the world's first and most famous fantasy roleplaying game" and associated retro-clones. FANTASTIC WIZARDRY expands upon rules found in "basic" games by adding the following:
- NEW CLASSES! Alchemist, Arcane Fighter, Brawler, Hunter, Swashbuckler, Theurge, and Warlock!
- EXPANDED PLAYER OPTIONS! Misc. Combat Options, Exceptional Abilities, Retraining Abilities, and Mundane herbal Crafting and Foraging!
- MORE MAGIC OPTIONS! Alchemical Crafting, Overcasting, Intuitive Casting, Commoner Casting, and Finding, Binding, and Summoning Outsiders!
- ADDITIONAL GAME MASTER RULES! Strongholds, Settlements, and Demense! Hired Jobs, Missions, and Commissions!, Narrative Dice! Mass Combat!
FANTASTIC WIZARDRY is for those who love "old school" gaming but are interested in adding something new to their table!
Looking for a gonzo, Gamma World-esque RPG that riffs off the B/X rules, takes them to 11, and then rudely pukes out of the passenger side door of your car as you zoom down some abandoned highway? If so, Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland Core Rulez is the game you've been waiting for.
A gonzo vomit-punk post apycolyptic cassette futurism table top RPG. A visceral mash-up of 80s/90s pop culture mixed in a grimdark blender and barfed onto the table! Siskel and Ebert would give Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland two big thumbs down! For fans of The Toxic Avenger and all the sleazy over the top late night sci-fi/horror you can handle!
Ultra-Violent, and style matters tabletop RPG, that builds off of the “BX” rules. Half Medieval Fantasy half Sci-Fi, neon lords of the toxic wasteland is a no-holds-barred to the max game! Oozing 80's and 90's nostalgia the game features items from Ninja Stars to Fanny packs in addition to many references to the era.
In addition to being built on top of the 'BX" rules, the core rules use an ability class points system and fortune points which grants the player some flexibility in dire rolls.
The setting a post-apocalyptic Earth in which magic, mixed with the technology of the 1980’s- the early ’90s, has created the cassette futurism seen in both the Neo-Terraxx and Xeno tech, as well as the art style. Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland is over the top, bloody, random, wild, and a hell of a good time. Sit back, crack open some TAB, and roll some damage.
This bad boy has so much packed inside! The Core Rulez include:
All the rulez required to run a sick game of Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland! From character creation to combat to exploration to additional rulez, the Neon Lord (Game Master)has everything they need! Types of damage, drugs, diseases, poison, and how to play all the wasteland baddies are all included too!
Hair Style choices in character creation that can help or hinder you in your rad adventures in the forgotten future! Will you pick a Mullet or Mohawk? You decide!
11 Playable classes with 1 super secret hidden class.
Over 100 unique monsters!!!! The list spans from the Aggressive menacer all the way to Zombie!
An entire unique spell system with its unique spells and all the classics you come to expect from an OSR RPG! 121 soul-crushing black magic spells at the War Wizard's sick disposal! 41 prayers granted to the Holy Smiter by their deity. 44 Psychic Manifestations the mysterious Star Spawns can conjure up. 36 hacks the Skull Jammer can cook up on his high tech Tape Deck, plus all the other random spells or slimy dudes who cast their unique spells!
A massive section on fantastical items and all the rad treasure you can dig up in the ruins of the forgotten world or hoarded by Mutant Wasteland Warlords!
1 MASSIVE Setting to get your campaigns started!!!!
Do you want to play something like Warhammer Fantasy without all of the endless rules and need to have specific minis to put onto the field of play? Sword Weirdos might be for you.
Sword Weirdos is the fantasy sequel to the surprisingly popular Space Weirdos. "When will you write a fantasy version?" people asked. So I did. Sword Weirdos is a skirmish wargame that allows you to build stats for just about any fantasy or historical model in your collection. Your model's class and weapons determine its special abilities. With 26 classes and 54 weapons and other pieces of equipment to choose from, the possibilities are...a lot. I'm not that great with math.
You’re wondering what makes Sword Weirdos different from other games. Not much! It takes what I like from other games and mashes it all together.
Low model count: 5-10 models or so for each side.
Use any fantasy/historical minis you have.
Short but comprehensive. Everything in one 24 page zine.
Minimal tokens, but still a few because I like them.
No tape measures or rulers, all movement and ranges are measured with 5” sticks.
Uses all your RPG dice (except the d20, d20's get enough love) because dice are fun.
A points system, but you shouldn’t worry about it too much.
Alternating activations, opposed rolls, Maneuver Points, and random tables mean everyone is involved and rolling dice all the time.
Also includes:
A separate 4-page solo rules document.
A pdf with tokens, hobby advice, and a warband sheet.
If you like minis games but giant rulebooks turn you off or seem intimidating, maybe give this a shot.
New Big Dragon Games Unlimited used to be a leading provider of high-quality, old-school RPG materials. Wherin Evil Lies(also known asDragon Horde Zine V2, #1) is chock-full of classes, spells, magic items, monsters, adventure, and more for your B/X game.
Wherein Evil Lies is waiting to join your electronic collection of RPG books - priced at PWYW, it should already be there...
Part zine, part mini-splat book,
Wherein Evil Lies includes a host of evil and undead resources for classic/BX editions...
Including:
3 new classes: Deathslayer, Witch Doctor, Half-orc (Assassin)
9 new spells: fatigue, death rage, mummy's touch, ossify, revenance, wailing fear, necrotic portal, greater ossify, aura of fear
6 new magic items: equinox orb, fiendish mantle, hammer of salvation, plague mace, purity ring, stole of radiance
7 new basic psionic abilities: infuse terror, psychic vampire, destiny dissonance, aura of fear, psionic daze, crisis of breath, shadow twin
6 new monsters: atori, cackler, crypt riddler, korper, hill haunt, spawn of Chuamisi
optional rules for killing vampires
new petty god & minion: Anguia Umbra (petty god of iophilia, toxicophilia, assassins) and his chimera minion/familiar Azamus
a new adventure for 5-7 characters of 3rd-5th level: The Black Chapel
3 new d30 tables: quirks caused by becoming unhinged, methods of sacrifice, evil hooks & seeds for encounters and adventures
Sure, other books talk about hexcrawls (I've even done a video on it - What is a HexCrawl and Why Should You Run One?), some folks just don't have much experience playing in a hexcrawl, let alone running one. That's where Hexcrawl Basics comes into play - 26 pages of exactly what it says on the tin at PWYW pricing.
If you are interested in hex crawls and want to get your feet wet, grab Hexcrawl Basics and Blackmarsh to reference the concepts - both can be had for free, and they may just open your eyes.
This supplement is a guide to the mechanical methods of running a hexcrawl style campaign. It is written for OSR-style games, specifically Necrotic Gnome's Old School Essentials, but can easily be adapted to fit others. It includes methods of both traveling through hexes and exploring within a hex, clarifications on rules for getting lost, populating a hex with lairs, determining the range of monsters within the lair, and more.
Wow! Talk about nostalgia. I'm relatively sure I have a print copy of the Guidebook to the City of Dolmvay on one of my bookshelves. I remember when Pete was putting this together, and he inquired about including a Tenkar's Tavern in the book - there are a few places that such a place exists in published works, and the Guidebook to the City of Dolmay may very well be the first.
Dolmvay is an excellent city setting, ready to be dropped into most any Fantasy campaign. Go ahead, have your party visit Tenkar's Tavern ;)
The Guidebook to the City of Dolmvay is a FREE Labyrinth Lord™ supplement that details the people, layout, and government of the City of Dolmvay. The city is presented in broad strokes and is open to customization. It was specifically designed to give Labyrinth Lords a convenient and familiar city setting to place their adventures.
The Guidebook to the City of Dolmvay is largely open content. Small Niche Games would like to encourage professional and amateur publishers to use the Guidebook as a shared city setting and set their commercial adventures within the City of Dolmvay. Labyrinth Lords (and publishers) should feel free to change, add, or remove any of the information in this book to better suit his or her own game.
The Guidebook to the City of Dolmvay contains:
A breakdown of city-based adventure themes
History of the City of Dolmvay
Detailed overview of the City of Dolmvay including government, religion, commerce, and laws and punishment
Descriptions of over a dozen major festivals
An overview of the citizens of Dolmvay including a breakdown of social classes, daily life for commoners and nobles, style of dress, arms and armor, rumors and gossip, and common gestures, curses, and phrases
Layout of the city including details on architecture, street lighting, sanitation, as well as detailed descriptions of the city's wards, districts, quarters, neighborhoods, and businesses
Descriptions of dozens of factions and stat blocks for hundreds of NPCs
Descriptions of common shops and businesses, prices for food and lodging, and a dozen sample inns and taverns
Over 100 unique city encounters
Over two dozen new plants and monsters
A detailed description of the religious organization known as the Church of Law and Order including church history and doctrine, major NPCs, and new magic items
A detailed description of the Dolmvay Adventurer's Guild including training facilities, dungeons, and major NPCs
A detailed description of the city's magical sewer system including dozens of unique encounters and several sample sewer geomorph maps
Guidelines for NPC generation including common names, professions, dozens of quirks and traits, and rules for creating unique and interesting 0-level NPCs
Guidelines for random treasure determination including pick pocket tables and random tables for determining household treasures
So, you say you want to play an RPG set in WWII, where you play special forces, like the SAS or The Dirty Dozen, but you want it to use a familiar system, not too complicated, based onSwords & Wizardry? You say you want the core rules to be free,anda plethora of moderate to low-priced supplements and adventures? We've got your game right here with WWII: Operation WhiteBox. Your first hit, as they say on the streets, is free...
WWII: Operation WhiteBox is a roleplaying game of WWII special forces action designed for compatibility with the Swords & Wizardry WhiteBox roleplaying game.
In WWII: Operation WhiteBox, the player characters (PCs) play the role of WWII special forces operatives. They may be formally trained and part of an officially designated special forces unit such as the SAS or U.S. Army Airborne, or they may simply be guerilla fighters dedicated to making life hard for the German Army. They may also be covert agents working for organizations such as the SOE or OSS. Whatever their affiliation, their job is to complete missions behind enemy lines, paving the way for the next Allied advance.
WWII: Operation WhiteBox is a standalone game that uses the Swords & Wizardry WhiteBox rules as its base. In addition to standard gameplay rules, the game contains the following:
CHARGEN: This includes Attributes, Nationality, Rank, Profession, etc.
NEW CLASSES: Eight new classes including the Charmer, Combat Engineer, Grunt, Maquis, Sniper, Tactician, Wheelman, Uberlaufer, each with their own unique abilities.
GEAR AND WEAPONS: A list of typical WWII weapons and gear. Weapons are statistically grouped by function (Large Rifle, Small Handgun, Submachinegun, etc.) with some named examples to add flavor (M1 Garand, Derringer, MP40, etc.).
PLAYING THE GAME: Rules for Saving Throws, Surprise, Reaction Rolls, Movement, etc.
PERSONAL COMBAT: Rules for "theater of the mind" combat including new rules for automatic weapons, using cover and concealment, and explosives.
VEHICLE COMBAT: Rules for "theater of the mind" vehicle combat (basically the same as personal combat) and vehicles grouped and statted out (Small Truck, Medium Tank, Small Aircraft, etc.) with named examples to add flavor (Kubelwagen, M4 Sherman, British Spitfire, etc.).
GAMEPLAY EXAMPLE: A gameplay write up to show some of the new concepts in action.
COMMON NPCs AND ANIMALS: Stats and descriptions for civilians, soldiers, and common European animals.
COVERT SPECIAL FORCES EQUIPMENT: Descriptions of some real world equipment designed and/or used by special forces during WWII.
THE WWII CAMPAIGN: This chapter gives an overview of the different theaters, major events of the different time periods, and lots and lots of tips for running a WWII campaign.
SPECIAL FORCES IN THE EUROPEAN THEATER: An overview of various Allied special forces units such as the SAS, LRDG, OSS, etc., resistance organizations such as the French Maquis and the Norwegian Milorg, an German special forces units such as the Brandenburgers. This chapter also runs down how to design a special forces mission as well as the different types of missions commonly undertaken.
WWII TIMELINE: A chronological timeline of major WWII dates and events.
HISTORIC WWII SPECIAL FORCES ACTIONS: Contains a brief description of real world historical missions undertaken by units like the British Commandos, Jedburghs, etc.
RESISTANCE AT THE PONTEVILLE BRIDGE: A sample mission deep in Normandy.
MASS COMBAT RULES: Quick and dirty rules for resolving Mass Combat as well as how to incorporate PC missions into the results.
MINI-SETTINGS: Nazi Superscience, Nazi Occult, and Nazi Space elements to liven up your game!
Sometimes something is "one and done," and all you can think is - "more would have been awesome!" That's how I view The Wizard's Scroll, a zine for Swords & Wizardry, but really usable as is with any OSR game. Look at the contents squeezed into 50-some odd pages - new races, new monsters, new magic items, two whole adventures, critical hits, and so much more!
The Wizard's Scroll is priced at PWYW, so feel free to leave a tip if you find value in it.
The Wizard's Scroll is a new Swords & Wizardry fanzine. Within you will find all manner of excellent gaming material by some truly creative fans of the game.
2 Races: The Testudo (tortoise men) and Ratfolk
A Spell: Binding Familiars
An NPC for Carcosa
4 Monsters: The Skin Bag, Lightning Monk, Shield Guardian and the Abominable Beastman
7 Magic Items: Including Zum Kali’s Ancient Sword of Bone and the Claws of Carcajou
2 Adventures: The Demon-Shattered Tower (levels 2-3) and The Bandit Caves of Cyrus Blacknail (low level)
A Fantastic Location: The Wizard’s Tower
Optional Rules: Critical Hits and Basic Skills
A Recipe: How to Cook a Halfling
So put on your reading glasses (if you need them) and settle down in a comfortable chair. For the Wizards of the Scroll have cast an arcane ritual of "Read Magic" enabling the secrets of the Scroll to be read by all, for the very first time.
Kevin Crawford and his Sine Nomine publishing house are best known for Stars Without Number, Kevin's behemoth of an OSR ruleset that showed you didn't need the OGL and the 3.x SRD to create OSR-compatible material. Kevin plowed his own path, and it has worked very well for him.
In 2021, Kevin published Worlds Without Number, coming perhaps full circle, and giving us OGL free OSR rules for fantasy gaming that feel familiar to old school gamers, and continued using his popular Tag System (to enhance sandbox play).
As an alternative to WotC D&D, Worlds Without Number is an excellent choice. The Tag System should be in every GM's toolkit.
Worlds Without Number is a fantasy role-playing game, one fully compatible with the hit sci-fi game Stars Without Number. It's built from the ground up to provide gritty, hard-edged adventure in the fathomless future of the Latter Earth, a fantastic realm of time-lost sorcery, savage foes, and barbaric splendor. The cold steel in the fists of your heroes and the half-understood sorcery in their tomes must suffice to overcome the monstrous remnants of ancient alien rulers and the present depredations of ruthless lords and hideous beasts alike. The riches of lost ages await in the subterranean Deeps that once held their kingdoms, and even the heavens above are not beyond the reach of the recklessly daring.
(Note: this is the free version of WWN. If you'd like to grab the full deluxe edition with almost fifty extra pages of bonus content, head right over.)
Worlds Without Number isn't just a savage game of steel and sorcery. It's packed solid with system-neutral GM tools and worldbuilding support, with hundreds of pages of useful tools, tags, tables, and practical advice usable by any GM, regardless of their favorite setting or system. The well-loved sci-fi tools of Stars Without Number are reworked here to support fantasy gaming, whether in the provided setting of the Latter Earth or in your own carefully-crafted homebrew world. Even GMs who don't prefer the OSR-compatible game system of WWN will find more than half the book dedicated to tools they can use in the systems they like best.
So what do you get in this book?
Sword and sorcery heroes of blade, cunning, and spell. The proven OSR-compatible character creation system of Stars Without Number is redone here for a fantasy world of blade and black magic.
OSR-compatible rules, allowing you to plunder decades of existing adventure material for your play. You can even pull in Stars Without Number content, as it's fully compatible.
The Gyre region of the far-future Latter Earth, a premade sandbox for quick play. Venture forth to clash with the sinister powers that gather in the shadow of the waning rule of the Reaping King.
Worldbuilding tools crafted to the renowned Sine Nomine standard. Did you like the hundred different world tags in SWN? Then have two hundred inspirational tags to help you build ruins, courts, communities, and wilderness points of interest. Grab a wealth of tools for building histories, societies, governments, religions, and geography, all written with a keen eye toward producing good, playable content for your adventuring group.
Adventure creation tools to soothe the pangs of a working GM, with guides for building adventures out of combat, exploration, social, and investigative challenges. Use the tags you picked in the worldbuilding section to speed up your creation of a good night's gaming.
Faction rules for fantasy worlds, with dark cults, fierce lords, grasping abbots, and greedy merchants all serving to keep your world in motion even when the PCs aren't on the scene.
Nominally written for Swords & Wizardry, Hack! Firearmsshould be suitable for ANY OSR game (and possibly, with some tweaking, 5e. Written by the same team (Straycouches Press) behind the CRAWL! Zine for the DCC RPG. Do you want to bring firearms into your OSR game or run a S&W Western campaign? You've got what you need right here.
Hack! Firearms! is a supplement compatible with the Swords & Wizardry rules. It features simple firearms rules, an adventure tool-kit for introducing firearms to your campaign and whole bunch more!
Basic and optional rules for Firearms.
Different eras of firearms and their stats.
An adventure tool-kit for adding guns to your campaign.
OSRIChas a weird history in the OSR. Originally conceived as a tool to help 3rd party publishers release material for AD&D 1e, it soon became apparent that folks were actually using the new presentation of the classic ruleset at the table. I've done that, and it is easier to reference than the rules that inspired it.
OSRICalso opened the door for the clones and simularcums that followed it. If Castles & Crusades was "proto-OSR", OSRIC was the first complete ruleset to be OSR.
When I returned to DMing some dozen years or so ago, I chose AD&D1e, with the option to useOSRIC in lieu of AD&D 1E core books, and the sessions ran fine. I was hooked, 100%.
This book represents a compilation of rules for old school-style fantasy roleplay gaming, and is intended to reproduce the underlying rules used in the late 1970s to early 1980s. A complete game manual in itself, this source reference document (SRD) includes everything the game master and player alike require for beginning to advanced level play. This compact A5 trim of the OSRIC SRD is available exclusively through James D. Kramer contains the OSRIC rules, complete with indexes. Includes all Knights-n-Knaves.com errata through January 2013, and updated magic item tables.
The Universal NPC Emulator was suggested by one of The Tavern's YouTube viewers, and all I can say is, where has this been for my entire career as a DM? It's short, clocking in at 18 pages, of which 8 contain the tables you'll refer to.
When I discuss free and PWYW resources that should be part of every GM's toolkit, the Universal NPC Emulator goes to the top of that pile. Don't hesitate. Grab it before you run your next game session, no matter the system you use.
UNE is the Universal NPC Emulator. With just a handful of dice rolls, UNE can help create a surprising non-player character (NPC) with its own motivations. A few more dice rolls, and UNE can provide more direction to place the newly-created NPC smack dab in the center of the story. It can even help determine the NPC’s general mood towards the player characters.
Best of all UNE is system and setting agnostic. It will work in Techno-Roman science fiction just as well as 1930′s Cthulhu hour or apocalypse fantasy.
Examples and more tutorials for UNE can be found on the Conjecture Games Facebook page!
Pay-What-You-Want Conjecture - this product is free. Download with a clear conscience! If you want to "pay" without money, please review, rate, or leave feedback for this product. However, if you really like this product consider throwing a couple bucks to help pay for DriveThru's hosting costs, art in future products, and beer to make future products.
I love the entire run of the Black Pudding zine—the art, the layout, and the unconventional thinking. The whole line is classic J.V. West.
New monsters, new magics, a new class, an adventure, NPCs, and even a setting await you within the 28 pages of Black Pudding #5. Snag it for free, but trust me, you'll return for more (the whole Black Pudding line is PWYW) and likely leave a tip.
Dripping and dolloping into view comes the latest issue of this old school RPG zine chock full of nasty goodies for your classic fantasy games!
In this issue you'll see ipzees and orbii, you'll learn aromatic charms, you'll find weapons of magic, many strange people will offer their services for your adventuring party, and you will absolutely encounter some cackling ice witches.
Monsters, treasure, adventures, spells, hirelings, character sheet... everything but dice is included in this tasty concoction of gelatinized madness.
Delver Magazine is an OSE zine filled with random tables, charts, and an adventure. Priced at PWYW, it's another piece of every good DM's toolkit.
Delver Magazine is a bi-monthly (6 issues per year) resource for GMs of Old School RPG fantasy games such as Old-School Essentials, Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game, and other OSR games. Each issue will include a ready-to-play adventure, printable props, random charts & tables, articles, and maps for the included adventure.
Table of Contents for Issue #1
----- Random Charts & Tables -----
That Ogre is Waving
Listen! You Smell Something?
Strange Map
Gurch's Anvil
Strange Place for a Crate
Keeping Watch
That Skeleton Looks Familiar!
A Shady Character
Ixra's Wondrous Tomes
Nemesis: Fighter
Strange Statue
Wanted
The Ally: Cleric
The Auction House
The Figure in the Corner
Merchant: Binga
Town Militia
Agnaddob's Artifact Emporium
Library of Niloshis Whisperwalk
----- Article(s) -----
The Referee Roundtable - Bring the Fantastic to your Settings
----- Adventure -----
Secret of the Shattered Fist Monastery - 18 page adventure
Many gamers understand that the Cepheus Engine is an open ruleset based on Mongoose Travellers' open ruleset. As such, the Cepheus 2d6 system can get turned and twisted into interesting directions. The Sword of Cepheus 2e is one of those interesting directions, as it turns a ruleset designed for space opera into one more suited for Swords & Sorcery, Sword & Planet, or even Swords & Sandals.
The Sword of Cepheus is a roleplaying game in the triple “Sword” genres: Sword and Sorcery, Sword and Planet, and Sword and Sandal. In Sword and Sorcery, often-amoral protagonists face vile sorcery and horrid beasts as they complete awesome adventures for gold and glory. In Sword and Planet, humans finding themselves on barbaric or decadent alien planets use their superior brawn and valiant hearts to win fame, fortune, and the heart of an alien princeling. In Sword and Sandal, often set in a quasi-Biblical or faux-Roman world, men and women with sharp wits and strong sword-arms fight mythological creatures and overthrow tyrants. The common threads of all three genres are the blade-wielding protagonists who use their brawn, as well as brains, to fight foes both supernatural and mundane and undertake hair-raising, violent adventures.
The Sword of Cepheus rules include everything you need to play thrilling sword & sorcery adventures:
Streamlined skill-based 2d6 task resolution!
Customizable character generation with 12 archetypal careers for your character to undergo!
12 non-human species with their own careers!
40 unique character Traits to further personalize your character!
A wide selection of adventuring equipment and weaponry!
Simple yet intriguing rules for adventuring and exploring exciting worlds!
Fast-paced, action-packed combat - whether on foot, from horseback, or on the high seas!
A skill-based, perilous sorcery system, with 28 powerful Arcane spells and 18 reality-shattering Eldritch spells!
Risk disastrous magical mishaps and mutate as vast eldritch power flows through your sorcerous body!
95 terrible monsters for daring heroes to face!
A selection of treasures, including a selection of powerful magical artifacts!
Detailed Encounter Rules to keep adventuring exciting and fresh, for both players and Referees!
It's challenging to quantify Black Pudding #4. Is it a zine? Is it a rules supplement? Is it a rules substitute? It could be all of the above. All that, and it is priced at PWYW!
Random tables? Check!
New classes? Check!
Old classes with new skins? Check!
New Races? Check!
Potential hirelings? Yep!
A James West character sheet? You bet ya!
The die hits the table... a 1! A sound emanates from 2d6 x 10 feet down the dungeon corridor. What wandering, shlorping oozoid is this? It's a new Black Pudding. Get your torches ready.
In this issue you get new classes, a double helping of Meatshields, and a 15 page OSR play book, complete with the basic classes, rules, and Black Pudding flavor to enhance or replace your current play book. For use with dice of funny sides. Inspired by games such as Labyrinth Lord, The Black Hack, and Swords & Wizardry White Box.
In the late '80s, one of the game systems I played (ran) was Rolemaster, although it was often merged with MERPS. Of course, we always used the critical tables from Rolemaster. Rolling a "66" was always magical. :)
Against the Darkmaster is an Epic Fantasy role-playing game of high adventures, eldritch magic, and heavy metal combat.
Inspired by the classic fantasy sagas and 80s fantasy movies, Against the Darkmaster is built for heroic action and intense, character driven campaigns.
The Against the Darkmaster Deluxe Quickstart Rules include everything you need to start playing. In fact, it could well be a full RPG! This beautifully illustrated 122-page PDF includes:
Character creation rules and options;
Detailed rules for travels, combat, and adventuring;
For those who don't know, I am an improv DM by nature, and material like this is my bread and butter when running a session or campaign.
We RPG game masters have a lot of tools to help us run our roleplaying games. Our monster books and bestiaries give us piles of foes to throw at our adventurers. The various guides for game masters often give us non-player characters, treasures, and story-building tips.
One of the hardest parts of game mastering, however, is coming up with interesting adventure locations for our characters to explore. These locations need to be fantastic, detailed places that capture the minds of our players every session we run. Good locations are hard to improvise and often hard to strip out of a fully-fleshed-out adventure.
Sly Flourish’s Fantastic Locations is a book, available in PDF and print-on-demand, that gives you twenty system-agnostic locations to drop into your favorite fantasy roleplaying game. Each location builds on a fantastic theme, such as a mysterious ancient structure under the ice, a cursed castle of a mad king, a fallen celestial fortress, and a dwarven mine that cracked into the tomb of a dead god. Each location includes artwork by Brian Patterson of D20Monkey. Sometimes this artwork takes the form of maps. Sometimes it's an overlook of a specific location.
These sites and structures aren’t full adventures. Instead, you and your players build your own stories in these fantastic locations, then you populate them with the monsters that fit your story.
Thanks to the support of 779 backers on Kickstarter this book was expanded to include a total of twenty locations each with full color artwork.
This book is system agnostic. You can use it in just about any fantasy roleplaying game.
Please note that this book does not contain maps for these locations. This was done on purpose to give you greater flexibility choosing the chambers you wanted to use for shorter or longer games.
Castles & Crusades is one of the granddaddies of the OSR. I often refer to it as proto-OSR, as it still firmly clung to its 3rd edition roots while striving to emulate classic play. In any case, C&C is an excellent choice of system if one is looking to play something that feels much like AD&D 1e. You can use most AD&D books (DMG, MM, FF, etc.) with few or no conversions.
Everything, and I do mean EVERYTHING, released for the Basic Fantasy RPG is free in PDF, and essentially at cost in print. The latest edition ofBasic Fantasy is free of the OGL and released under the Creative Commons license.
Whether you play BFRPGor not, the complete line of supplements and adventures are free in PDF and highly compatible with the "classic" rules of your youth and most OSR rulesets.
Print copies can be obtained at cost from both DTRPGand Amazon, with Amazon offering the bonus of free Prime shipping for Prime Members.
Last spring, at our annual gathering, I gave collections of BFRPG core rules and adventures to members of my old gaming group.
This is the revised 4th Edition of the Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game, a rules-light game system written with inspiration from early RPG game systems. It is suitable for those who are fans of "old-school" game mechanics, and it's simple enough for children in perhaps second or third grade to play, yet still having enough depth for adults as well. With this edition, the game is now released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) license.
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Danse Macabre
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By Luiz Eduardo RiconHexplore PublishingOSRLevels 3-5 There’s something
strange in the neighborhood of Duskenville. Suddenly, not only are people
not dying...
Background Mutations for Paranoia
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After last week’s holiday I’m taking a little break from Mythic places, but
I’ll return to that series at some point.
Let’s go back to Alpha Complex.
...
A Brief History of Space
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When I came up with the idea for Iridium Moons three years ago, the concept
was to create a world that is a blend of Cyberpunk and Dune, with the only
fant...
T-26 Beutepanzer
-
This is my 1:100 scale model of one of the myriad WWII German conversions
of captured equipment, in this case marrying the Soviet T-26 light tank
hull ...
Felltower & Mapless Combat
-
I recently posted a set of guidelines for non-tactical, mapless combat for
Felltower. I wanted to get down in one place all of the rules I'd made to
supple...
Adventure Writing Session Turns Into a Hex Crawl
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Last Thursday I got on to do another Adventure Writing Session and Paul
Turner joined me. We decided to use his zine, Critical Hit to roll up a hex
flowe...
How many editions of D&D, Part II
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Back in July of 2022 I made a frivilous post on my thought regarding how
many editions of D&D there really were. I came up with 8.
Since then I have ent...
[BLOG] News on the March! Episode VII.
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This post continues the series of brief play reports I have been posting on
Discord. This does not cover every single session (sometimes, recon and
setup...
Are Artists Even Human? (False Machine News!!)
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Ordinary humans have literally zero idea of what it takes to develop and
create an image, meaning they treat it as a kind of magic, and adopt
towards it ...
Update: Rock Johnson
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Updated cover, courtesy of HuckSawyer'S excellent eye for editry.ALSO:I
made my wife read it. I made her promise to tell the truth. She said it was
actual...
Blogs on Tape season 6 has begun!
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Hi everybody! Its been a minute. How are you? Everything is awful all the
time? Horrors never cease? You’re being driven mad by the weight of the
unfathoma...
Tariffs, CanCon, and You
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In 1972 the CBC asked listeners to complete the saying "As Canadian as...",
to match "As American as apple pie." The winner was "As Canadian as
possible ...
Should you PAY your GM?
-
Let's start with the conclusion: GM-for-pay is okay.
In other words: there is nothing wrong with paying someone to run a game
for you, or charging people f...
Noodle Bar & Industrial Scatter Terrain
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This past weekend I got a couple of solid hours to paint when I wasn’t dead
tired, and decided to spend it on the 3D printed Flatline City Noodle Bar
tha...
A Surprising Look at Murderhobos...
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So I asked a question on Facebook this week. What did people do with the
humanoid women and children in the Caves of Chaos, among similar
adventures, persu...
36 units sold on day one
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Not big Kickstarter-type numbers or anything but still pretty personally
gratifying to me, because 1) it'a more copies than the first book sold on
its fi...
Praise for Songs of the Dying Earth
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Among my favourite works of fantasy fiction are the *Dying Earth* stories
and the *Lyonesse *trilogy by Jack Vance. I’ve read the *Lyonesse *trilogy
three ...
Gary Con XVII
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I attended Gary Con this year. Last year, I was supposed to go, but
something came up and I had to cancel. This year, I ran a scenario I
created called The...
On the Success of the VOTE
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You voted for it, and it's here!
All the prices on the books I sell on DTRPG will be rising in price, 40-50%
so I can maintain the same margin as now!
...
Fight On! number 16 is out.
-
The new issue of *Fight On!* has been out for a bit. You can get copies via
drivethru or lulu.
I haven't finished reading my copy, but I'd like to reco...
Wandering through the Majestic Fantasy Realms
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It's time for another Bat in the Attic update!
I am halfway through the first draft of my upcoming project, Into the
Majestic Fantasy Realms, the Northe...
The Hungering Dark
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Go into the earth, and reality will walk alongside you.
Walk further, and you will eventually be walking alone.
The world is plastic down there. Tar Lat...
Hobby Bingo 2025: January Progress
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Welcome back to the Vault! I've painted a few bits and pieces in January
and made a dent into my Hobby Bingo card! First up is a Chaplain in
Terminator ...
NTRPG Gaming Weekend
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[image: NTRPG Gaming Weekend]
This weekend was a "game day" for North Texas RPG Con, held at the same
hotel the con is held at. I haven't slung dice since...
Articulations
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Creating house rules, custom rules specific to a local group or campaign,
has been common throughout the history of D&D. What makes an effective
house rule...
A Fiftieth Anniversary Year
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The 50th anniversary year of *Dungeons & Dragons *is drawing to a close. A
number of projects I'd been planning for this year finally came out, and I
...
A Quick Look at The Wizard’s Scroll II
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October of this year saw the release of The Wizard’s Scroll II, the second
issue of a White Box Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game (FMAG) zine whose first ...
Writing playlists for all occasions
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Hello again! Going off the idea of inspiration elaborated on by the prior
post, I also have music playing while I write my various games and fiction
pieces...
The Tarot of Pips
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Somewhere in your dice collection is a die like this one, the humblest of
dice. Although you don't know it, this small white die carries with it a
secr...
Pirates and Necromancers, a Play Report
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Over the Thanksgiving weekend we did a lot of gaming ranging from
“off-table” domain level stuff to some solo adventures to spell and magic
item rese...
Welcome new Greyhawk Fans!
-
With the publication of the new Dungeon Master’s Guide, there are doubtless
going to be a lot of new D&D players interested in my favorite setting, the
Wor...
It's been a bit
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Hey everyone, I hope you are doing well! I've had a lot going on and
haven't had much time to blog lately. Heres a recap of gaming events and
other st...
*'s in SpaaaaaAaaaace
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A lot of SF (including a certain 2D6 RPG grandaddy) deal with ancient
aliens taking humans from Earth and dropping them, fleas and all, on one or
more w...
Last move - to self-hosting!
-
As my vote regarding Substack in the “marketplace of ideas”, I’m moving to
self-hosting.
I’m now at (and hopefully staying for a long time at)
Blog: ht...
This is an Important Game Mechanic
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*"That's the GM's Regional Map from my AOWG. And it's a damned good
regional map. It's not a good map for a Simple Homebrew Campaign. It does
some s$&...
Clean Your Room
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Looking back at my little blog here. That last post… wow, I was having fun
playing WOW Classic! That was August of 1999 and I was having a blast… it
was ...
Steve Jackson Interview
-
James Maliszewski recently did an interview with Steve Jackson over on his
Grognardia blog. Steve chats about the beginnings of The Fantasy Trip and
upcomi...
ToAD Monster of the Week: Crocoman
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Now that I'm back doing the blog thing I thought I would use Tome of
Adventure Design to create monsters for The Black Hack.
Using the monster tables in th...
Strange, Dangerous, and Inhuman: The Fey and Fairie
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When I was a boy I loved fairy tales. Jack and the Beanstalk, Puss in
Boots, Rumpelstiltskin - I devoured all of it. My fascination that there
was a strang...
New Map of the Elf Empire and Southern Isles
-
I’ve been having fun developing a new map-drawing style that I think is
finally reaching a certain level of maturity. And yeah, it owes a lot to Matthew
Ad...
Dungeons & Dragonmead Fall Schedule
-
*As you know, I run public classic Dungeons & Dragons games at **The Loaded
Die**/Metro Detroit Game Night's Board Game Nigh at **Dragonmead**, in
Warren...
Fiction in Airhde
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On a whim this weekend, I picked up some fiction off the TLG store. *A
Houseless God & Other Tales* and *The Mirrored Soul & Other Tales*, both by
the T...
Ravensburg Reboot: Streamlined City Map
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I mentioned in my last post how I was tweaking and reworking parts of my
Ravensburg setting. Today I streamlined the city map. The old map had lots
of redu...
And Now the News Draft Download on Patreon
-
It's self-styled Throwback Thursday and *having just released the 34-page
draft booklet of Hill Cantons news to my Patreon backers* I am going to
indulge m...
The Withered Crag available now
-
I just enabled the sale of the PDF version of The Withered Crag at
DriveThruRPG a few minutes ago, and the custom print version will be
available startin...
Annihilation Rising Goes live
-
The latest in Fail Squad Games’ Quick Kick projects has gone live and needs
your support!! This project is only running 11 days and ends on 5/28/2019!
...
James's Celebration of Life
-
We could not have asked for a prettier day for James's service. It was a
bit chilly and windy but gorgeous. A heartfelt thank you to all that joined
us tod...
Trap Tuesday: A step back
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I will get back to Tomb of Horrors soon. I found a topic that was
interesting enough to take a break. While interacting in a 5E group on
Facebook I talked ...
Let's Talk About Pacing!
-
The idea, I think, is that the RPG is ultimately about the long game. Even
rolling back to the early days of Basic & Expert, the goal of the player
was...
Profane and Profound Prep Part 2
-
This is part 2 of my work to edit my magic items for a DMsGuild release,
along with adding cursed items along the way. Here is part 1. Bone of a
Saint 8000...
Please, I don't do paid advertisements - don't ask.
-
A little note since people have asked me about this. My video channel's
*not* an advertising platform, so I'm not available for hire if you want to
promote...
New website!
-
Slowly but surely, all the content here will make its way — in updated
form! — to my new website: timbannock.com. For fairly obvious reasons, that
site wil...
Please Update Your Link!
-
If you're seeing this, it means your link to the Greyhawk Grognard blog is
out of date.
Please update your link to www.greyhawkgrognard.com (RSS feed is
h...
Total Sales for WB:FMAG
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Hi Folks,
It's been a long time since I provided an update for the sales of White
Box: Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game.
*LULU*
Print: 396
PDF: 433
*OBS*...
How can We Destroy this Campaign World?
-
d12
1. You must trick a bard into strumming the *Chords of Fate* on the *Lute
of Annihilation*
2. Legends tell of thermonuclear weapons beneath megadunge...
Mord Mar - Session 5
-
We had another successful delve into the dungeon yesterday. The delvers:
Moira, the Magic-User
Radovan - Human Cleric (of Odin?)
Khazgar Stonehand - Dwarf ...
Bundle of Fantasy Age
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Bundle of Holding: Dragon Age/Fantasy Age: Available until March 12. PA
Presents: Fantasy AGE Freeport live play Green Ronin in 2018 The Fantasy
Age RPG ma...
New Free PDF Module: The Hyqueous Vaults
-
A new dungeon module—written in celebration of OSRIC's 10th Birthday—by
Rebecca Dettmann, Allan T. Grohe, Jr., Jimm Johnson, Matthew Riedel, Alex
Zisch, a...
Swords & Wizardry Light: Session # 6
-
Two months after our last session (thanks to things like 8th grade finals,
a 4 year-old's birthday and party, Father's Day, etc.), we finally had our
next ...
