New Release - Escape from Miklagard (OSE)

I need to confess. My To Be Reviewed Pile continually grows, and with "life happening" all around me, I expect it to keep growing. It isn't just a physical pile either, it co-exists with the digital world of PDFs. There simply is a large amount of gaming material hitting the market and not enough time in my already busy days to do proper reviews.

Instead, I'm going to highlight some New Releases and put a small spotlight on some items that I feel deserve some attention.

The first title to be highlighted in this irregular series of posts is Escape from Miklagard for OSE. What I really like about Escape from Miklagard it is essentially a hex, or more accurately, point crawl in an urban environment. Urban hex crawls / point crawls are how I like to run urban adventure sessions, as they literally give your party free rein to explore and take initiative. There is nothing worse than an urban railroad of an adventure.

The fact that it is a low-level adventure - it actually states it is for beginning characters, is a blessing for me, as I usually run Swords & Wizardry Light at conventions. I will need to see if Escape from Miklagard is adaptable for convention use, as I don't recall ever playing in an urban environment in a convention game session, and it would make for a nice change of pace.

Alright, the more I look at this, the more I want to do more than just give it a quick glance and put it back in the To Be Reviewed pile. That's definitely a good thing.

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New OSR Release - Crown (ruleset)

Before anyone asks the question "why do we need another OSR ruleset" I'll answer the question - the OSR must continue to grow if it is to survive and thrive, and no one says you must enjoy every OSR ruleset - let alone own it. That being said, I enjoy reading new OSR rulesets as I almost always find a rule or three that I'm tempted to include in my own old school gaming. Crown certainly has its share of inspiration to give.

Crown itself is a hack of Whitehack, but skews more towards its old school roots than Whitehack does, in my humble opinion.

In a mere 60+ pages, Crown includes rules for sea travel, ship to ship combat, dehydration, foraging, and more. As I said, inspirational material I can use with other rulesets.

Crown is 6 bucks in PDF. There is not currently a print option.

Crown is an easy-to-learn, rules-lite old school fantasy roleplaying game. In a compact sixty pages it contains all the rules you need to set out on perilous adventures, dangerous journeys, and harrowing quests. This is a complete game based off of Whitehack and strongly influenced by games like Maze Rats and Whitebox: Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game. These rules are compatible with other OSR products with only a little conversion. The book is split into two parts, the first half is intended for both the players and the Game Master (you can find these rules for free in Crown - Player Rules https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/319366/Crown--Player-Rules?manufacturers_id=5958) and the second half is full of tools and advice for the Game Master. 

Player Rules: 

Roll-under d20 rules focused around a character's attribute scores. Three character classes (Fighters, Mages, and Rogues) and one optional class (Clerics). Slot based encumbrance with possible item destruction. Simple but extensive adventuring and combat rules centered around class statistics and character attribute scores. Rules for hiring retainers. Permanent injuries. Morale for monsters and retainers. Magic rules based on unique spells made by the Game Master. Optional rules for backgrounds and nonhuman (demihuman) characters. 

Game Master's Section:

Advice for running old school games. Rules for dungeon crawls. Rules for hex crawls. Stronghold and domain guidelines. Simple warfare rules based on traditional "handful-of-d6" wargames. Tools for making spells and dealing with the various arcane powers that can occur in old school games. Tools for making retainers and other nonplayer characters. Quick and concise tips for granting treasure. Basic rules for monsters and converting from other OSR products into Crown. A short bestiary containing 45 common fantasy monsters with easy-to-use explanations. 

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