Bundle of Holding - Chthonstone Enemies - Monsters for Old-School RPGs

I'm always excited about more monsters for my campaign, so the Chthonstone Enemies Bundle should be awesome!

Adventurer! This all-new Chthonstone Essential Enemies Bundle presents dozens of bizarre monsters and artifacts from Chthonstone Games for Old-School Essentials and other old-school tabletop fantasy roleplaying games, all designed by Johnstone Metzger (The Nightmares Underneath) and illustrated in full color by Nathan Jones for the Monthly Monsters Patreon campaign. Threaten, frighten, bedevil, flummox, and weird-out your player characters of any level with 87 twisted creations like Alchemical Greenery, the Crawling Head, the Dark Elf Witch Cult, the Eyeball Syndicate, Ghoul Monastics, the Howling Helm, Kobolds of Saturn, the Light Collector, Living Psychopomp, Malmensvird, Meat Goliaths, the Mung Mung, Rat Golems, Rhinocorns, Satyrical Dramatists, Spawn Summoners, Vat Zombies, and Void Sharks, among many, many others.

For just US$17.95 you get all nine titles in our Enemies Collection (retail value $95) as DRM-free ebooks, including the first eight Essential Enemies monster manuals: Things From Beyond, The Outer Darkness, The Haunted Forest, Between Two Worlds, Creations of Chaos, In Darkening Woods, Far Beyond Death, and From Under Ground. We also include Chthonstone's standalone RPG Dungeon Robbers From Outer Space, about alien astronauts who travel to fantasy worlds to search for magical artifacts.

 

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.

DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.  You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Rumble or YouTube - Tenkar 

Kickstarter - Tome of Essential Horrors (OSE)

The Tome of Essential Horrors contains more than 100 monsters, as well as an OSE stat block, B&W art, and an encounter description.

I love monsters in my RPG games. It's why, when I first decided I was going to play around with self-publishing, I kicked it off with what was essentially, two mini monster zines. I've also designed and published many monsters under the OGL right here at The Tavern.

The Tome of Essential Horrors Kickstarter is simply more monsters for my old-school RPGs and that rocks. Written for OSE but easily usable with any of the retro-clones with little if any effort, it brings over 100 monsters from prior Swords & Wizardry (and likely Pathfinder) versions of the monsters up to OSE standards, with new art and layout.

It has been more than 20 years since Necromancer Games first unleashed the Tome of Horrors, and our philosophy has not changed: Everybody needs more monsters! Necromancer Games has always been known for its monsters, and with the Tome of Essential Horrors, we would like to introduce those unique and mysterious creatures to your Old-School Essentials' table.

This beast of a book contains more than 100 monsters and brings classic monsters from Frog God Games and Necromancer Games to OSE referees and players. Each entry includes a full OSE stat block, classic black-and-white art, and an interesting encounter that highlights the creature. The Tome has been designed with Advanced Fantasy Old-School Essentials in mind but is compatible with both Classic Fantasy and Advanced Fantasy OSE.

Personally, I love the encounters. Many of the encounters can be likely be fleshed out into full mini-adventures, so there's lots of gaming material within the pages. Frog God is offering a sneak peek at the contents, with the Naga section of the book available for free download at DTRPG.

Here's how the Print versions line up (note: PDF starts at $15)

Print Formats

The Tome of Essential Horrors has two formats available. The interior pages and trim sizes are identical (A5, approximately 5.8" x 8.3"). These will be printed via DriveThruRPG’s Print-on-Demand Service*.

1. Softcover: Tome of Essential Horrors Softcover ($28) and Tome of Essential Horrors SC + VTT ($43)

Full-color laminated cover pages and paperback covers are glued together at the spine.

2. Hardcover: Tome of Essential Horrors Hardcover ($48) and Tome of Essential Horrors HC + VTT ($63)

Hardcover (Case Laminate). Pages are glued to hardcover at the ends.

*A traditional, offset printed book is not planned, but if we exceed 750 physical hardcover book orders before project completion, we will assess and re-evaluate the offset printing option.

 

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. 

DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.  You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Anchor, YouTube,  or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar 

Deal of the Day - Creature Feature Quarterly vol. 3 (OSE)

More monsters are always more better. Creature Feature Quarterly vol 3 from Jeremy Hart (check his stock art) gives us more monsters at a discounted price. Normally 6 bucks in PDF, until 11 AM eastern tomorrow morning, Creature Feature Quarterly vol. 3 (OSE) is on sale for $1.26.

NOT JUST STATBLOCKS!

16 new monsters for your OLD SCHOOL ESSENTIALS game.

+ Extensive Fluff including Descriptions, Lore, Ecology, Adventure Seeds and some ideas for memorable Loot.

+ Paper Mini designs for EVERY monster! Designed for easy print and play so you can easily get them on your table quick!

+ VTT tokens for EVERY monster if you prefer to play your oldskool on Roll20, etc.

+ The PDF is formatted to be easily printed at home on A4 sheets as A5 facing pages. (DIY!)

 

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern. 

You can catch the daily Tavern Chat podcast on Anchor, YouTube, or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar  

Mini Review - Cartographer’s Guide to the Creatures of Eira (OSR Monster Book)

There is one thing I've found I can never get enough of - monsters and other creatures for my OSR games (alright, two things - as I can never seem to have enough dice). The Cartographer's Guide to the Creatures of Eira is another enjoyable addition to my monster book collection.

Many of the enclosed creatures have a Celtic feel, which is to be expected, for as the author states in his forward:

While originally meant to be about “OSR Gaming with a Celtic Twist” my blog, Genius Loci, has grown from there and the following pages will show you that.

That excellent blog is where many of these creatures were hatched and raised. Well done. Personally, I appreciate the Celtic flavor wherever it crops up in games, and it lends an air or authenticity - or, at least, it does for me ;)

The art is minimal, which is fine, as the monsters themselves are the content needed, not the pictures. Many of the entries start with a narrative paragraph to set the scene, like the following example for the Ancient Titan:

“I remember that day clearly. My raiding party was crossing the straits to the Isle of the Mist looking for some easy plunder. It was a good day, a day of song and good hard work at the oars. Then It rose from the waters. Like a man, but not, and made of stone and strange metals. With one fist it crushed our and sent my crew to their grave.”

The above tells me more about how to present an Iron Titan to my players than a stat block or explanation of it's powers. Not saying you don't need the latter, but the narrative sets it apart. Well done.

A buck fifty for 43 creatures. Hard to go wrong picking this up at that buy in. Compatible with the OSR system of your choice, with ascending and descending AC.

Slate, Gargoyle Wanderer and Guide of The Gut

Artwork by Bruno Balixa

Slate, Gargoyle Wanderer and Guide of The Gut

While it is true gargoyles by nature are some of the most vile, evil things about, there are always the exceptions that prove the rule. Such is "Slate". It's not that Slate isn't evil, but his own morbid curiosity tend to keep his evil nature in check.

Slate has found himself an unlikely occupation - guide to wandering adventurers in The Gut, the underground highway that connects different parts of Rappan Athuk. It wasn't always such for him, but he doesn't recall much of his early days after his creation. Blood and violence are the only images he has retained of those times.

He does not recall eating the young ranger named Eramus nearly 100 years ago, but the event changed him. Slate become self aware and found he had desires beyond killing. He desired to wander, to explore and strangely enough, to be around people. It didn't hurt that he understood the common tongue  and with some effort could even speak it.

Slate knows most of the factions operating in The Gut and can help parties negotiate safe passage in many cases. All he asks in return is to be allowed to observe the violence when negotiations fail or are impossible. Oh, and be allowed to eat the slain from either side.

When Slate talks, the words tend to be said slowly and enunciated clearly and distinctly.  If at all possibly, he keeps his sentences short and to the point.

(I think I'm going to go through many of the standard D&D monsters and write up some "unique" variants on the some ole' same ole'. Should be fun ;)

Fighting the Common Cold - OSR Style

I'm currently fighting some version of "The Common Cold", otherwise know as the "Coughing, Sneezing, Stuffy Head Fever and I Can't Rest" Illness. So, I've decided I want to kick it's ass, and for that I'll need to make it an OSR Styled monster.

Common Cold
Hit Dice: 1 to 4
AC: 4 [15]
Attacks: 1 attack per round / damage as HD 1HD 1-3 dam, 2HD 1-4 dam,
3HD 1-6 dam, 4HD 1-8 damage
Saving Throw: As HD
Special: Heat does double damage, Cure Disease is Save or Die, Successful
hit causes disorientation for 2-12 days (-1 Hit, -1 / 5% skill checks) unless save
Move: 6 Fly 12
Alignment: Chaotic Annoying

There's the common cold, and then there is The Common Cold. No one remembers which long dead wizard created The Common Cold while trying to find a cure for the common cold, but it no longer matters. His creations have been unleashed upon the world, and as they need host to breed they will be found everywhere from dungeons to rooftops and in between.

Smaller Common Colds (1 and 2 HD) barely reach a foot in height and are fairly translucent. As such, they have a 50% chance to surprise unwary prey. Larger Common Colds stand 2'+ and lack that ability, but have been known to split themselves into smaller HD creatures to achieve such an effect. A 3 HD Common Cold can split into 3 1HD Common Colds or 1 1HD Common Cold and 1 2 HD Common Cold.

Common Colds reproduce by "infecting" a host. A character struck by a Common Cold in combat must make a save vs. disease at the end of the combat (one save no matter how many hits). Failure means he is now incubating 2d6 Common Cold "babies". Over the course of the next 2d6 days, these babies will leave his system as droplets sneezed or coughed out. They can't be seen or harvested.. In approximately 2 weeks, these babies will become 1 HD Common colds