New Release - Greyhawk Campaign Guide (by Joesph Bloch)

As stated earlier, Greyhawk has opened up to third-party publishers via the DM's Guild, and one of the first releases is the Greyhawk Campaign Guide by the OSR's very own Joe Bloch.

The Greyhawk Campaign Guide hit "Copper" on DTRPG in six hours. When it hits Gold, it can be offered as a POD. The Greyhawk Campaign Guide is 14.95 in PDF.

Behold, Greyhawk!

A land of magic, mystery, and mayhem, where ancient dungeons contain vast treasures and infinite dangers, where great armies march across the land, and where bands of adventurers seek to maintain the balance, or help the innocent, but are never above making a quick profit.

This book gives the dungeon master a wealth of information to run a campaign in this venerable fantasy setting, with information on history, the calendar, weather, the inhabitants of the land, descriptions of the lands and wildernesses that make up the Flanaess, and more.

The accompanying Greyhawk Player's Guide will be published soon.

 

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Deal of the Day - Adventures Great and Glorious (OSR)

Just for a little perspective, I've known Joe Bloch for a number of years - probably a decade or more. The first time I met Joe in person, it was at the Gygax Magazine Launch Party, where we both remarked on the long line and the cold weather, if I recall correctly ;)

Joe is THE most knowledgeable person I know when it comes to the World of Greyhawk setting,  and he's shown his game designer abilities with the release of the AD&D 2e "What If?" game system, Adventures Dark and Deep.

Joe has the current DTRPG Deal of the Day, Adventures Great and Glorious, a sourcebook for higher-level play using the OSR ruleset of your choice. Normally 9.99 in PDF, Adventures Great, and Glorious is on sale for 4.97 until 11 AM Eastern, 2/21/22. I know this is a late notification of the deal, but its the best I could do with the day I had :)

What if there was something for high level characters to doother than kill bigger monsters? Now there is.

A continuation of the possibilities set forth in ADVENTURES DARK AND DEEP™and other fantasy role-playing games, ADVENTURES GREAT ANDGLORIOUS™ lets you take your game to the next level, letting your playersbecome lords of their own territories, courtiers at the royal court, scions oftheir own families, and even creators of their own demiplanes of existence.

Fully compatible with most old-school role-playing games, this book includessections on:

• Clearing territory and attracting followers and settlers in the wilderness

• Becoming functionaries and courtiers and sharing in the intrigues of a

royal court

• Governing territories, collecting taxes, creating mines, and dealing with

the unexpected events of rulership

• The Long Game, with campaign turns, events, and growing families

• Mass combat, with simple rules that let the players take center stage at

the critical moment and help decide the outcome of the battle

• New secondary skills, treasure, magic items, and spells

Please note this is a rules supplement, and is designed to be used with other rule systems. It is not a complete game unto itself. While it is written with the Adventures Dark and Deep game in particular, the references have equivalents in most other popular OSR games, with the exception of the new character classes in Adventures Dark and Deep. Unfortunately, due to limitations of the OGL regarding indications of compatibility, we cannot provide precise cross-references for other games. 

 

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or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. 

OSR Deep Tracks - A Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore (Greyhawk Grognard)

I've been meaning to do this for a while - start an irregular series of posts about influential yet often overlooked releases in the OSR. This is THAT first post for OSR Deep Tracks.

Joe Bloch, often known as the Greyhawk Grognard (and man behind the Greyhawk Grognard blog) is probably best known for his OSR megadungeon release: Castle of the Mad Archmage. In many ways, CotMA is Joe's imagining of what Gary Gygax's megadungeon would have looked like, assuming he hadn't been forced out of TSR back in the day. Its very much an Old School dungeon and I ran it for over a year with one of my groups to great success.

Therein lie's Joe's strength, the "What if Gary had...?" I was never a huge Marvel comics fan as a kid but I picked up every issue of What If? I could get my hands on. I enjoyed the alternate takes. They made me think.

Joe's other major project is Adventures Dark & Deep, very much a "What if Gary had gotten to do AD&D 2e as he had planned?" So, Joe dug deep with the hints Gary had published and later spoke about and he designed and published AD&D - The What If Edition ;) If I weren't neck deep in Swords & Wizardry Light its probably the OSR edition I'd pull out for my next campaign - it really does hit the notes that Gary hinted at back in Dragon Magazine.

Often overlooked is A Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore. The precursor to Adventures Dark & Deep, I often see it as an unofficial Unearthed Arcana II. These are the classes Gary hinted at. This is the book that led to Adventures Dark & Deep.

New and revised classes - the bard, jester, mystic, savant, and mountebank. I remember reading about plans for these in Dragon, but alas, it never would be until A Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore.

The book is modular too, so you can take parts that you want - classes, and maybe only one or two, and leave the spells. Pick and choose among the monsters. Want to use the alternative combat presented? Do so. If not, don't. Looking for seaborne adventuring rules? Got you covered. Whatever you need to do. Its a supplement, not a system, and its easy enough to use with the OSR system of your choice with minor conversions (and often not even that).

There you have it. Tenkar's Tavern's first OSR Deep Track Pick - A Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore. An OSR What If...

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