New B/X Game Master Screens

I got my new B/X GM screens in the mail this week from +Richard LeBlanc and New Big Dragon Games Unlimited.  It is some good stuff.

Lots of cool add-ons too.

Those are some sturdy character sheets too.

And it compares favorably to the official BECMI screen from TSR.

I like that this also came with PDFs of everything.  So I printed out some of my own sheets.

Can't wait to give these a go!

Class Struggles: Mazes & Perils Deluxe Edition

Image courtesy of Tenkar

It has been a while since I have done a Class Struggles post.  I knew I wanted to do something with Basic-era D&D and had a couple of ideas, but nothing 100% yet.   I ended up talking to +Vincent Florio about the newest version of Mazes & Perils Deluxe Edition, due out June 3rd.
Now Vince knows me. He knows that I love new magic using classes as much as I love anything and a new "Holmes" Basic magic-using class is just too sweet to pass up.  So he sent a copy of the new book in exchange for an honest review.  Today I am only going to focus on the new classes, I'll say more about the book as a whole later on.

Mazes & Perils Deluxe Edition (M&PDE hereafter) introduces two new magic-using classes, the Enchanter and the Shaman.  They join the classic Cleric and Magic-User.   There is a design choice here to keep the Magic-User over the more widely accepted wizard and I am 100% cool with that.  If you know any version of Basic D&D (Holmes in particular) you know what the MU is all about.  The XP progression tables are lesser for this MU compared to their Holmes, B/X, AD&D counterparts. But they are more in line with what a MU actually should need (see this post on my analysis of the MU/Wizard class).   So for this alone your MU is going to have a slightly different vibe to him.  

The max spell level in 5th, but that is not a big deal since the max character level in most cases is 12th.  Again, just because of who I am I might make it 13th.  (Come to think of it this might make a good game for my War of the Witch Queens campaign.)

The first new class is the Enchanter.  The enchanter follows a similar level progression and the same spell progression as does the Magic-User.   The enchanter does have a different spell list than the Magic-User as seen below:

They also learn their spells differently from a MU with a chance of a non-enchanter going insane after reading their spell books.   I like the *idea* of the enchanter and I would certainly play one. I think though I would do something to make them a bit more different than the Magic-User.   Given the mental nature of their spells I might make their prime stat Charisma or even Wisdom.  They have some really interesting spells here and I think a lot can be done with this class.   Just give it a little more to separate it from the MU.

Next up is the Shaman.  Now the Shaman is a real treat.  First it is a "primitive" type of spell caster, so their spells reflect that.

They also have Atonement and Spirit Guardian abilities.  Atonement gives them the ability to spiritually link to a weapon.   I have to admit the first thought I had was of Rafiki the baboon shaman from The Lion King.  Trust me, this is a good thing.   My only "house rule" I would add to this is that the Shaman's weapon acts as a magical weapon for purposes of hiting undead creatures. Not a +1 but more like a "+0".
The spirit guardian is a very interesting ability.  I don't think it would be game breaking if the spirit animal could attack as a 1HD monster, but it is a guardian afterall.  As a DM I would love to do a lot of cool things with this animal. Hell, it would make for a great "patronus" like spell.  Also I would have the shaman need to go on a "vision quest" to find their spirit animal.  Get all new-agey with it.
The shaman fills the same niche as does the druid in other OSR/D&D games, but is not really 100% the same thing.  This is good, a game could be run that has both druids and shamen in it and still be plenty for them both to do.

Which class to play will often be determined I think by their spell lists. If I were to play the Enchanter I might want to supplement some of his spells.  Maybe grab a few illusionist spells some more Enchantment spells from the 3.x SRD. The Shaman works great out of the box.
I would play both to be honest.   Heck, I have a "Basic" game coming up that might be interesting to try out one or both of these.

A Treasure Trove! With Pics!

So no "real" post today.  I spent my writing time going through my latest treasure trove.

I joined a bunch of area online "Garge Sale" groups on Facebook and one panned out yesterday.  So cash in hand I drove to nearby Schaumburg, IL and picked up a couple of milk crates full of old-school goodness.   It was not till this morning that I discovered what I really had.

Lots of minis including a wizard's lab.

A D&D Electronic board game in working condition and from what I can tell all the parts.

Modules, Top Secret and even a few Marvel Super Heroes books and some Star Frontiers.

Two Greyhawk folios with maps.  They are in rough condition though, between the two I might be able to salvage one.

More character sheets!  Always need these.

No idea what these are.  But I can't wait to find out!

A lot of the books have water damage like this.  This was not a collector's collection, but a users and a player's one.  There are also a few duplicates.  This was because the husband and wife that sold them merged their collections.

The B/X boxes are empty but the books have been cut up and put into that brown binder.  See I KNEW someone had to have done this.  The BECMI Master's box has both the Master's set and the Immortals set inside. The hardbacks are in decent enough condition. The Monstrous Compendium is in fantastic shape.

I have NO idea what this is.  It is made by TSR and it is from 1974.  The product list on back doesn't even list D&D.

Their old Gen Con folder with the games they were going to choose for 1983.

Some JG stuff.

Cut out minis.  From 1984 I think.

And this was a surprise, a 6th printing of Swords & Spells in near perfect condition.

An absolute ton of modules and books.  Some duplicates within the group and some with my own collection, but still enough "new" stuff to make it worthwhile to me.

It's going to take me some time to sort through all of this stuff that is for sure. But I will have a blast doing it.

New Big Dragon B/X Screen Sheets

So a while back I backed the Classic Edition GM's Screen from New Big Dragon and +Richard LeBlanc.

Well, the files went out this week and they look great.  If the physical product is this cool (and it should be) then this was a great project to back.

As an added bonus (well to me because I forgot about it) were files for character sheets.
They also look fantastic.  Since I have been printing out sheets for various versions of D&D for my summer games I thought I should give these a go too.

The sheets look great if you ask me.  I love the class-specific ones and there is even a generic one.

Really looking forward to this one in the mail.

A to Z of Adventure! Z is for Zanzer's Dungeon

Z is for Zanzer's Dungeon.

Here we are once again at the end of the A to Z challenge.

Z, like some other letters here, does not signify a module code.  In this case there is an obvious choice.  Back in the early 90s the D&D brand was in transition.  There was the Dungeons & Dragons line, with rule-books named Basic, Expert, Companion, Masters, and Immortal (BECMI) and a single book Rules Cyclopedia that combined the first four.  Then there was the completely separate Advanced Dungeons & Dragons line which had rules-books named Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide and Monstrous Manual.  These books were in their 2nd Edition.
Confusing?  Yeah it was to us too.

In 1991 TSR, the then publisher of D&D released their newest, and what would be one of their last, in the "Basic" sets. The set was called "The New Easy-to-Master Dungeons & Dragons Game" but gamers often called it the "Black Box".  The adventure inside was a bit of preview of things to soon come.  Zanzer's Dungeon was laid out like a board game complete with little plastic minis for the characters and paper fold top minis for monsters.  This was compatible with the BECMI flavor of D&D and worked as a replacement for the Basic Set and an introduction to the Rules Cyclopedia.

While the game was highly praised for it ease of use and intuitiveness. I never bothered getting it at the time.  I picked up my copy (pictured here) many years later as a means to teach my kids how to play.  Turns out they learned like I did...just by playing.

The board-game like play area is welcoming to new players.  Now they can see what they are doing.
Persoanlly that annoyed me because for years my rule books would say that you don't need a board, only your imagination!  Though today I use tiles and maps just like this.

In fact Zanzer's Dungeon here is the same scale as the maps used in 3rd and 4th edition D&D (and 5th if you care to), so the minis we have been using will work here too.

This set would later be expanded with the Dragon's Den boxed set, which was also board game "shaped".

One day I'll use these as an intro game for something.  Better than them collecting dust on my shelves!

Werewolves For Basic Era Games

Tomorrow night is Walpurgis Night.  A night when witches, vampires, and werewolves are known to be out.
I have already given you Witches and Vampires so now I present Werewolves.

Werewolves: The Beast Within is a 10/20 level race-as-a-class class for your favorite Basic Era OSR game.

From the back cover:

Werewolves…
The fear to loose control and become a hungry, blood lusted
beast has haunted our nightmares since we clutched together
in the dark. It has also been the secret desire of others.

Lycanthropes been a staple of role-playing villains, monsters, and
anti-heroes since the dawn of the role-playing hobby.

Now you can play these fearsome monsters of horror tales and
movies in your Basic-Era style games.

Presented here is a full 20 level class with all the classic
werewolf powers.

Fully compatible with the werewolf monsters you have been
using for nearly 40 years.

Also fully compatible with my books for Witches and Vampires.

This one is a buck, but that is really just to pay for the art.

So celebrate "Half-aween" (half way to Halloween) with some classic monsters.

A to Z of Adventure! X is for Expert.

X is for Expert.

This is not some attempt to grift the Challenge.  The Expert Set adventures were given the code X.
Of course, the most famous of these is X1, The Isle of Dread.

I got this adventure along with my Expert set back in the early 80s.  It is an obvious King Kong homage, but it is a great one.  It is another one of those adventures that people keep coming back to time and time again.
Maybe second only to B2 and B1 in terms of numbers of players, but The Isle of Dread is one of the best Basic-era adventures out there.  In today's frame of mind the adventure is equal parts Pirates of the Caribean, King Kong, and Jurassic Park.  It is a heady cauldron of tropes, ideas and just plain crazy fun.  It was included in the original Expert set and it still had expanded maps and more creatures.  I never understood why the creatures where not just in the main book, but it did make the module special.
What was so nice about X1 over B2 is you had the feel it was more integrated into the Expert rules; it felt like a logical extension.

This is also the first published adventure I ever ran for my son.  Up to this point I had ran ones I had made up for him.  He was young (6 or 7) and adventures like "Cave of the Stinky Goblin" or "Trouble in West Haven" were more appropriate for him.  But X1 had the great big dinosaur on it and he loved dinosaurs.

We had a blast. To me, 20 some odd years later, it felt like a very different adventure.  There is a lot of untapped potential here. Enough for several adventures really.
Later on I bought my son his own copy to run sometime.  It was also the first time that my kids began to recognize Tom Moldvay's name on the covers of adventures.

X2: Castle Amber
Another one of my "holy grail" items. I managed to score a copy when I moved to Chicago.
There is so much to love about this adventure, but I have detailed it all before in these pages.

• Castle Amber by Candle Light
• Castle Amber, Butterbeer and the Order of the Platinum Dragon
• Averoigne via Ravenloft
• and I explore the Castle Amber / Ravenloft connection here. 

Again, this is another Tom Moldvay adventure and we all loved it.

The other X modules came out a bit later and were more tied to the newer Frank Mentzer-edited Expert Set, as opposed to the Cook-Marsh-edited set I had owned. (I guess these modules should have really been called "E" for expert then). Of these I only later owned Quagmire.  I got it cheap at a used book store in Carbondale, IL.  I completely gutted the module and only kept the tower and swamp.

X3 Curse of Xanathon
X4 Master of the Desert Nomads
X5 Temple of Death
X6 Quagmire!
X7 The War Rafts of Kron
X8: Drums on Fire Mountain
X9: The Savage Coast
X10 Red Arrow, Black Shield
X11 Saga of the Shadow Lord
X12 Skarda's Mirror

In particular, I would like to get print copies of X4 and X5 for my Second Campaign game.  Saga of the Shadow Lord also sounds like a lot of fun!

This is my problem...too many great games/adventures and so little time.

A to Z of Adventure! R is for RPGA Adventures.

R is for RPGA Adventures.

Growing up in the 80s I read about the RPGA, Role-Players Game Association, with great interest.  As a kid it was important to me then to be "Best at D&D" (whatever that meant) and the RPGA seemed like external validation of that.  I had heard there were some people in my small-ish town (22k at the time iifc) that were members, but I don't think I even knew for sure.  For me though being in the RPGA was like a badge of honor, like running a Call of Cthulhu game was.  Something only Real Roleplayers^TM did.

Well today I am not going to get into the details of the RPGA, past or present, instead, I want to talk about the adventures.  Now normally with this challenge I want to present some material that my normal readers will like and that new readers will also find approachable.   The adventures from the RPGA are, as you might expect from reading the above, not very common or easily accessed.

Back in the early days of eBay I hit the internet hard looking for copies of these adventures.   One of the first ones I grabbed were the first four I knew of.

R1 To the Aid of Falx 
R2 The Investigation of Hydell  
R3 The Egg of the Phoenix  
R4 Doc's Island

These were written in 1982-83 by Frank Mentzer.  I focused on these since they were the ones I knew about and I had a chance to go through them in the late 80s myself, but never finished them.
Unknown to me at the time they were all collected into a larger adventure and sold as I12 Egg of the Phoenix which I talked about on I Day.

Re-reading these now I am very curious about Frank Mentzer's own campaign setting of Aquaria.   I found these links that gave me a bit of a better idea what it is all about:

• http://blackmoormystara.blogspot.com/2010/08/frank-mentzers-aquaria.html
• http://www.thepiazza.org.uk/bb/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=4140

I am going to need to find out more about it to be honest.

The next set of RPGA adventures that got me interested were the RPGA series.

RPGA1 Rahasia
RPGA2 Black Opal Eye
These were written by Tracy and Laura Hickman and then later combined into the module B7 Rahasia.  Reading these earlier treatments is actually very interesting. I pulled them out when I was thinking about this challenge and after I got the new Tracy and Laura Hickman inspired Ravenloft.   I talked quite a bit about Rahasia and The Black Opal Eye.
http://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2016/03/rahasia-ravenloft-and-witches.html

RPGA3 The Forgotten King 
RPGA4 The Elixir of Life
Both of these were written by Bob Blake in 1983.  I have them, but I have not really gotten into them.

There are others, mostly featured in Polyhedron Magazine.

As publications, they are an interesting piece of D&D history especially from the so-called "Silver age" of D&D; that early/mid-80s time when D&D was at its cultural peak, but the best adventures were for the most part already published and behind it.

As adventures, many are forgettable save for the ones I mention here.  This, in particular, came as something of a blow to me.  I had expected the RPGA modules to be the cream of the crop, but that was not the case.  Rahasia and the Egg of the Phoenix caught my attentions, but that is about it.
Many of the best would be later reprinted under other module codes (like Rahasia and Egg of Phoenix).

Still. There is something uniquely nostalgic about picking up these duotone books and flipping through thinking of an age when Walkmen, pastels, Trapper Keepers, and Rubic's Cubes ruled the land.

A to Z of Adventure! M is for Masters Series

M is for Masters Series.

The Masters series of adventures were created for the BECMI version of D&D.  Typically around here I have BECMI as roughly synonymous with B/X D&D or "Basic D&D" well....the M or Master Series is around to remind me that this is not really the case.

So a bit history.
The first Basic Set was authored by John Eric Holmes in 1977.  Gamers often call this "Blue Book Basic".
The next Basic Set was written by Tom Moldvay and was followed by the Cook/Marsh Expert Set. These books are collectively known as B/X.
The next set would be the last "Basic D&D". It was written and edited by +Frank Mentzer and included the Basic, Expert, Companion, Masters and Immortal sets. Also known as BECMI.
Each set detailed more levels of the game; 1-3, 4-14, 15-25, 26-36, and Immortality, respectively.

The Masters set and M series of modules were designed for experienced players and characters of 26th level and higher.

Only five M series modules were made.

Code	Title	Levels	Author(s)	Published	Notes
M1	Into the Maelstrom	25–30	Bruce Heard, Beatrice Heard	1985
M2	Vengeance of Alphaks	28–32	Skip Williams	1986
M3	Twilight Calling	30–35	Tom Moldvay	1986
M4	Five Coins for a Kingdom	28–32	Allen Varney	1987
M5	Talons of Night	20–25	Jannell Jaquays	1987

Of these I only own M1, M3 and M5.

The simple matter is few characters get to this high of a level and often when they do the DM usually has their own adventures for them.

M1 Into the Maelstrom is a cool adventure with flying ships which became some of a fasination for +Bruce Heard.  If I were to play this one I would naturally have to include material from Bruce's own Calidar, In Stranger Skies setting.  Or set it in Calidar...hmmm this gives me some ideas.

M3 Twilight Calling is from the creative mind of the late Tom Moldvay.  Tom is something of a celebertiy in my home games. Every adventure I have run of his my family likes.  Likes enough to ask who wrote it. After saying Tom Moldvay for the third time (Castle Amber, Isle of Dread, Lost City, Secret of the Slavers Stockade...).   It is my favorite M series module and has the players go on a plane-hopping adventure to finally get to the Plane of Nightmares.  I have often thought it would make for a perfect "Final Adventure" for any party.

M5 Talons of Night by Jannell Jaquays is also fun, and really deadly adventure.  I grabbed it becuase of the dragon on the cover.  If M3 is the finale for my "Come Endless Darkness" game then M5 should be the finale of my "Dragonslayers" game.
Plus, it always reminds me of this song.



I mentioned H4 with it's 18-100 level range, and it is deadly.  But that adventure is just really a scaled up 20th level adventure.  These adventures are qualitatively different.

I am just disappointed that they are not available yet on DriveThruRPG as PDFs, though I am glad I have mine.

A to Z of Adventure! B is for Basic Adventures

B is for Basic Adventures.

The Dungeons and Dragons Basic set is a tried and true introduction to the D&D game.  Since the first Basic set, written by John Eric Holmes, was published there have been included adventures.  

The first was the aptly named, In Search of the Unknown, and had the code B1.  This was and still is my go to adventure for starting out a new campaign of first level characters.  The plot, as much as there can be one, is thin. There is a castle that has been abandoned. Let's go check it out!

The next Basic Set, and really the start of the whole Basic line of D&D was the one from Tom Moldvay.  This set introduced us all to the Caves of Chaos and the titular Keep on the Borderlands.  There are estimates that close to 1.5 Million copies of B2 Keep on the Borderlands were printed.  An entire generation of gamers visited those caves in search of glory, gold and experience points.

The B-series of modules would go one to produce some of the best and most memorable adventures ever printed.   There was the controversial first print (orange cover) of B3 Palace of the Silver Princess which had all copies destroyed and now fetches top dollar on eBay.  This was followed by the sublimely weird B4 The Lost City, which along with B2 made the list of the top 30 D&D adventures of all time.

I ran all these first four for my kids over the last few years and it was a blast.  I never played in or ran the remaining 8 (yes 8!) adventures.  But all are designed for starting level characters, levels 1 to 3 and most importantly starting Dungeon Masters learning their new craft.  I know own them all, and really want to play them sometime.  I am planning on running Rahasia (B7) as part of my "War of the Witch Queens" campaign someday.  I'd also like to run B5 Horror on the Hill and B8 Journey to the Rock as well.

Links

• Retro Review & Commentary On The OD&D Adventure Module B1 In Search of the Unknown
• Actual Play Of The OD&D Adventure - B3 Palace of the Silver Princess With The Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea Game
• Retro Review & Commentary On The OD&D Adventure Module - B4 - The Lost City
• The 30 Greatest D&D Adventures of All Time
• Grognardia Retrospective: In Search of the Unknown
• Grognardia Retrospective: The Keep on the Borderlands
• Grognardia Retrospective: Palace of the Silver Princess
• Grognardia Retrospective: The Lost City

The adventures at the Dungeon Masters' Guild:

• B1 In Search of the Unknown (1978)
• B2 The Keep on the Borderlands (1979)
• B3 Palace of the Silver Princess (1981)
• B4 The Lost City (1982)
• B5 Horror on the Hill (1983)
• B6 The Veiled Society (1984)
• B7 Rahasia (1984, 1979)
• B8 Journey to the Rock (1984)
• B9 Castle Caldwell and Beyond (1985)
• B10 Night's Dark Terror (1986)
• B11 King's Festival (1989)
• B12 Queen's Harvest (1989)

Koliada, The Winter Witch for D&D BECMI

Yesterday I wrote about Koliada the Winter Witch for D&D 5th Edition.  While I really enjoyed how she worked out I could not help but think how she might fare under the 36 levels of the Basic-era D&D BECMI.

I felt from the start of D&D 4 that is shared certain characteristics with BECMI.  Both go to really high levels (30 for 4e and 36 for BECMI) and both have immortality as a possible option for characters at their highest levels.
Early on, and I am not sure if I posted this or not. I remarked on how 4e characters start out fairly powerful. I said, at the time, that really a 1st level 4e character is closer in power to a 5th or 6th level classic character.  I have been wanting to put that idea to use (and I'll talk about this next month in fact), but I thought I would give it a go here first.

In D&D4 Koliada is a 26th level character.  Let's work under the assumption that the translation for D&D4 to BECMI is to add four levels.  So Koliada would be a 30th level Basic/BECMI D&D character.  But what kind?
In 4e she is called a "Solo Skirmisher".  When I translated her to D&D5 I opted for a Warlock with the Magic Initiate feat to give her some Sorcerer spells too.  BECMI is not as flexible in terms of class customization.  Magic-User is a choice.  But, and this should be no surprise, I am opting for Witch as her character class.

My 5e conversion made it pretty obvious that she is a Fey Pact. In my Witch book this would translate as a Faerie Tradition.  Though I think there is now ample evidence to me that there must be something like a Winter Witch Tradition too.   Not ready to debut that just yet though.
Also, in complete dumb luck, a 30th level witch in my Basic Witch book has the level title of "Winter Court Witch".  Witch it is then!

Now I Would have LOVED to convert this for Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. After all what can be more Hyperborean than an evil winter witch?  But the level caps would not give me the conversion I wanted.  Sure I could do a 13th level Koliada, but that would not give me a decent basis of comparison.  So instead I am going with the D&D Rules Cyclopedia.
I also went to the 4e book, Player's Option: Heroes of the Feywild for ideas on their witches and on the Feywild.

Koliada, The Winter Witch
30th level Witch (Faerie Tradition)
Female, Chaotic

Strength 16
Intelligence 17
Wisdom 15
Dexterity 20
Constitution 19
Charisma 20

Saving Throws
Death Ray/Poison 3
Magic Wands 4
Paralysis, Polymorph 3
Dragon Breath 6
Rods, Staffs, Spells 5

Hit Points: 80
AC: -3
(leather armor +4, Ring of Protection +3, Dex 20 -4)

THAC0: 8
(I know, THAC0 was not used in Basic D&D. You know what this means)

Occult Powers
Familiar: Iceling*
(like a frozen sprite. From Dungeon 162)
Lesser: Speak to Animals (not plants as well)
Minor: Fae Shape
Medial: Curse
Major: Shape Change

Spells
Cantrips (6): Alarm Ward, Chill, Daze, Ghost Sound, Inflict Minor Wounds, Spark
1st (9+3): Bewitch I, Black Fire, Cause Fear, Charm Person, Chill Touch, Endure Elements, Fey Sight, Ghostly Slashing, Glamour, Light/Darkness, Minor Fighting Prowess, Silver Tongue
2nd (8+3): Bewitch II, Defoliate, Discord, Enthrall, Freezing Gaze, Ghost Touch, Hold Person, Invisibility, Phantasmal Spirit, Spell Missile, Whispering Wind
3rd (8+2): Arctic Grasp, Bestow Curse, Bewitch III, Dispel Magic, Feral Spirit, Improved Faerie Fire, Lifeblood, Spirit of Hyperborea (Spirit of Avalon), Toad Mind, Witch Wail
4th (7+2): Analyze Magic, Bewitch IV, Charm Monster, Elemental Armor (Ice), Fluid Mastery, Intangible Cloak of Shadows, Phantom Lacerations, Spiritual Dagger, Withering Touch
5th (7): Bewitch V, Blade Dance, Death Curse, Dreadful Bloodletting, Hold Monster, Nightmare, Waves of Fatigue
6th (7): Bewitch VI, Death Blade, Evaporate Fluids, Eye Bite, Mass Agony, Mislead, True Seeing
7th (6): Bewitch VII, Death Aura, Greater Arcane Eye, Greater Blindness, Insanity, Wave of Mutilation
8th (6): Bewitch VIII, Destroy Life, Greater Mislead, Mystic Barrier, Wail of the Banshee, Imprisonment (Ritual)

Note: Koliada's spells will manifest with some wintery, cold, or icy aspect.  So Black Fire is cold, Defoliate will cause a freezing wind to blow and kill plants, Elemental Armor will be ice and so on.

She has a lot more spells here than either the 5e or 4e version.  But both 4e and 5e have a number of "at will" powers or other powers/spells that can be regained.  BECMI characters have to wait till the next day for their spells to return.  So she also has some spells that have similar effects to other spells.

I also think I need a Winter Witch tradition and some more cold based spells.

Books used in the conversion process.

• Dungeon #162
• The Witch: A sourcebook for Basic Edition fantasy games
• Player's Option: Heroes of the Feywild
• D&D Rules Cyclopedia
• Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea

Leprechauns: The PWYW Experiment Continues

Something I put together for St. Pat's day, but didn't get through the approval process in time.
Two options for adding Leprechauns to your games.

First up is a race as a class option for "Basic Era" games.
Leprechauns for Basic Era Games

While I working on that one +James Spahn released his very fun Hero's Journey, so I felt a Leprechaun race option might be fun for that.
Leprechauns for Hero's Journey

The PDFs cover the same essential materials, so having one will give 80% of what the other has.
Both are Pay What You Want.

If you have some spare change and what to try a new class/race might I suggest this.

Kickstart Your Weekend: Five for Friday

Lots to talk about today, so without further ado.

Classic Edition GM Screen
from +Richard LeBlanc and  New Big Dragon Games Unlimited.

I have been waiting for this one for some time now ever since Richard first teased it.


Sherwood: The Legend of Robin Hood
from +Jonathan Thompson and Battlefield Press

This one looks interesting. I enjoy the Robin Hood legends and this is multi-stated for 5th Ed, S&W and Pathfinder.


Baker Street RPG: Jack the Ripper and Missions from Mycroft
from +Bryce Whitacre

I played Baker Street at Gen Con and it was a fun time.  This looks like an excellent addition to the game.  Honestly with the way Baker Street works this could be an excellent addition to ANY Victorian-era game.


Sandy Petersen's Cthulhu Mythos for Pathfinder

Sandy Petersen knows Lovecraft.  To see this for Pathfinder is a real treat!  And this one looks so good.


Hollow Earth Expeditions: Perils of Mars
by +Jeff Combos

I enjoy the heck out of the HEX books.  This one looks like a ton of fun too!