Mail Call: Dragons from the Eric Harshbarger Collection

 I got another email from Eric Harshbarger recently offering to send me some more Dragon Magazines for my "This Old Dragon" reviews. I mean, how could I say no.

Well, the package I got was beyond my expectations!

I have not checked if I have duplicates yet, nor have I checked which ones already have posts. But I will say this, they are in far better shape than the one I know I have duplicates of.

Looking forward to getting these out to you all.

Thank you, Eric for sending these along! 

If you can, check out Eric's website.

Monstrous Monday: Typhon, the Thanatonic Titan

 I have mentioned it here many times, but Greek Mythology was my gateway to Dungeons & Dragons. I just finished watching The Blood of Zeus, formerly known as Gods & Heroes. It was great and I loved the 1st and 2nd seasons, much of the 3rd. I just didn't like how it ended. Though one of the things I loved was the Titans.  They reminded me of the Gargantua I had created back in 2013, and it was cool to see a similar idea animated.

While there were many great examples I could use as specific Gargantua, it was the depictions of the Titans and Tartarus that I really enjoyed. It did get me thinking about my Thanatonic Titans, most recently from The Left Hand Path.

In my Left Hand Path my Demonic classifications include the inhabitants prisoners of Tartarus are the Tartarians aka the Demondands and their lords the Titans.

I didn't detail the Thanatonic Titans, but they are pretty much the Greek Titans and the Norse Giants mixed together. One of my favorites was Typhon.

Typhon (Tartarian)
The Chthonic Titan, Father of Monsters

Armor Class: –5 [24]
Hit Dice: 24+24 (132 hp average)
Move: 180’ (60’), fly 120’ (40’)
To Hit AC 0: 6 [+13]
Attacks: 2 claws (2d12+6), bite (6d6) or breath (see below)
Special: Fire/poison breath, storm control, magic resistance 75%, spell-like abilities, telepathy 300’, see below
No. Appearing: 1 (Unique)
Saving Throws: Fighter 24
Morale: 12
Treasure Type: Hx2, I, N
Alignment: Chaotic (Chaotic Evil)
XP: 25,000

Genius intelligence

Typhon is a colossal, serpentine titan with a hundred dragon-heads writhing about his shoulders, each belching storms, fire, or venom. His vast wings blot out the sun, and his voice shakes the earth like thunder. Taller than any titan or storm giant, Typhon is said to have once challenged the very gods for dominion over creation, only to be chained in the deepest abyss of Tartarus. From there, he still thrashes in hatred, spawning demodands (the Tartarians) as extensions of his rage.

Typhon relishes combat and throws himself in with bloody, violent abandon. He attacks with claws and a bite but also horrible magical attacks.

Breath Weapon. Once every 3 rounds, Typhon can unleash one of two breath attacks:

• Fire: 100’ long cone, 60’ wide at end, 20d10 fire damage (save vs. dragon breath for half).
• Poison Gas: 50’ radius cloud, 12d10 poison damage (save vs. dragon breath for half).

Storm Control. At will, Typhon can summon hurricane winds, torrential rain, or lightning storms in a 2-mile radius. Within the storm, visibility drops to 10’, ranged weapons are useless, and creatures must save vs. Spells or be blown prone.

Spell-like Abilities (3/day each, as 24th-level caster): Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Call Lightning, Control Weather, Earthquake, Dispel Magic.

Typhon also has formidable defenses. 

• Magic Resistance: 75%, as demons.
• Weapons: Only artifacts or +3 or better weapons can harm Typhon.
• Aura of Dread: Any mortal within 120’ must save vs. Spells or flee in terror for 2d6 rounds.

Typhon is unique. He cannot be permanently slain -if reduced to 0 hp, his form dissolves into storm clouds and writhing serpents, reforming in Tartarus within 1d100 years. He is the father of countless monsters, including demodands, chimeras, and hydras. Some sages whisper that earthquakes and great volcanic eruptions mark the struggles of Typhon beneath the earth, forever trying to break his bonds.

Encountering Typhon on the mortal plane is a sign of great calamity or anger of the gods. 

Typhon and the Demodands

When Typhon roamed the mortal world, he was the father of monsters with his mate Echidna. When Typhon was imprisoned, Echidna was dead. Typhon set out to create a new set of offspring to destroy those who had imprisoned him and killed his mate. These new monsters were the demodands.

Forgotten Realms Reviews: Elminster's Ecologies (2e)

Last time I talked about my adventures in Forgotten Realms, which was all about the urban adventures of Waterdeep. This week, I’m going to flip that lens outward, into the wilds, and take a look at a supplement that’s equal parts field guide, lore dump, and DM toolbox: Elminster’s Ecologies (1994).

Now, a small caveat. I don’t own the original boxed set with all its booklets. What I do have is the DriveThruRPG PDF bundle and the print-on-demand softcover, which compiles the whole thing into one thick book. No box, no handouts, but all nine 32-page booklets are there, and honestly, the POD version is probably easier to read anyway since this is written like an in-universe resource.

Another small caveat, one that affected my perspective. I have known about this boxed set for years. But I thought it was a collection of the various Ecology of articles from Dragon Magazine. So if you hear a subtle bit of disappointment in my tone here, that is why. Look that is no fault at all of the product in front of me. It is my fault for not setting my expectations appropriately. It *IS* objectively a good Realms product. Just not the one I thought it was all these years. 

Elminster's Ecologies (2e)

1994. by Rick Swan, Monte Cook, Eric Haddock, Anthony Pryor.

Note: For an "Elminster" themed book, there is no Ed Greenwood in this as far as I can tell. 

Elminster’s Ecologies does something a little unusual for TSR at the time. Instead of another city box or adventure series, this one focuses entirely on environments. The conceit is that Elminster (and his “field correspondents”) are writing in-character about the natural world of the Realms. It’s like Volo’s Guides, but instead of inns and alehouses, you get trees, rivers, beasts, and bogs.

The box contained nine booklets:

Explorer’s Manual. The “master key” of the set, with Elminster’s musings, excerpts from his ongoing natural history of Faerûn, color-coded encounter tables, and the enigmatic “Rules of the Rabbit.”

Cormanthor. The ancient forest, its trees and mystical wildlife, and the rumors that still drift beneath the boughs.

Anauroch. A deep dive into the desert: the shifting sands, the High Ice, the Plain of Standing Stones, even the Underdark beneath it all. Survival, monsters, and lost secrets abound.

Coastal Aquatic Lands – The Sea of Fallen Stars. The largest inland sea in the Realms gets its due, from fish to krakens, with sea stories and notes on the cultures clinging to its shores.

The Cormyrean Marshes. Brother Twick’s journal paints the swamps as treacherous, full of dangerous monsters and stranger rumors.

The Stonelands and the Goblin Marches. Rugged terrain, fading wildlife, the ever-present goblin threat, and a few truly massive beasts.

The Thunder Peaks and the Storm Horns. Two mountain ranges, with their harsh climates, common life, monsters of the peaks, and local legends.

The Great Gray Land of Thar. A bleak, arid region with hard conditions and stranger mysteries—exactly the sort of place Elminster would call “unpleasantly educational.”

The Settled Lands. Farmlands, villages, and the borders of civilization. Here you get a look at the everyday ecologies that brush up against the wilderness.

Each booklet follows a familiar structure: a personal introduction, a survey of the land, detailed notes on monsters and natural life, and then “rumors and legends” that a DM can immediately use as hooks.

What makes this set shine is how it reframes monsters and encounters. You don’t just get “roll d8, 1-2 owlbear.” Instead, you get owlbears in context, how they live, what they eat, how other monsters avoid them, and how a random traveler might actually run into one. A marsh isn’t just a backdrop for lizard men, it’s a dangerous, interconnected ecosystem where the lizard men, the crocodiles, and the giant frogs are all part of the same web.

The encounter tables in the Explorer’s Manual really drive this home. They’re organized by biome and color-coded to match the booklets, making it easy to swap in details wherever your PCs happen to wander.

One thing though. There are no Monstrous Compendium pages. Not only there isn't even a good section to "cut out" and put into my Monstrous Compendium binders. Yes, this has much more to do about me and what I *thought* this product was rather than what it actually is.

The Realms in ’94

The timing of this release is also worth noting. TSR was really leaning into “in-character writing” in the early ’90s: Volo’s Guides, Pages from the Mages, and now Elminster’s Ecologies. Cormyr was getting lots of love, with its own sourcebook, adventures, and now half this box dedicated to its borders and neighbors. The in-character style is fun and gives a lot of Realms flavor. But sometimes the “in-character” voice gets in the way of practical DM info. Still, it is what I want from the Realms; it is what separates it from other fantasy worlds. 

Sinéad, Nida, and Company

And what of my characters in the Realms? Well, Sinéad and Nida are still lingering in Waterdeep, but the pull eastward grows stronger. The road through the Heartlands is long, and as I flip through Elminster’s Ecologies, I can’t help but see it as a ready-made travelogue for their journey.

If they leave the City of Splendors behind, their path east will naturally thread through the Dalelands and into Cormanthor. That’s one of the booklets covered in the Ecologies, and it’s a perfect setting for a side trek. Sinéad, with her pagan background, would be spellbound by the great trees and the old magic of the forest, an echo of her homeland, but deeper and stranger. Nida, more practical, might be the one keeping her eyes on the monsters lurking in those woods.

From there, they could skirt Anauroch. I don’t know if I want them to cross the desert outright, but even brushing its borders could provide some fantastic challenges. The Ecologies gives me survival notes, monsters adapted to the sands, and whispers of the Underdark beneath, just the kind of flavor that could delay their progress, or tempt them off the road with legends of buried secrets.

The Sea of Fallen Stars booklet also feels useful. Even if the party doesn’t cross the sea directly, they’ll certainly pass along its shores. Tales of the Dragonmere or the Dragon Reach could add both color and danger, pirates, sahuagin, or worse. It’s a reminder that not all travel is overland.

And then there are the mountains. The Thunder Peaks and the Storm Horns sit along possible eastward routes, and both regions are detailed here. Jaromir, whom I keep playing less as a “barbarian” and more like a warrior of the Fianna, would feel at home in the high places, testing his strength against mountain predators. I could easily see a ranger path opening up for him here, with the ecology booklets giving me just the right kinds of encounters. The book is fun, and it gives me a lot to think about. While I have said that Fighter with the Barbarian kit is a good choice for him, I might see if I can change him to Ranger. And I need to see if I have a copy of the Complete Ranger's Handbook OR I might cheat and look ahead to see what the Spellbound boxed set has for me. 

Finally, Rhiannon. If she is to embrace her Rashemi witch heritage, then a long journey through these liminal, witch-haunted spaces seems exactly right. The Cormyrean Marshes, with their strange monsters and whispered rumors, would be a fine testing ground for her. She may not yet be home, but the marshes, with their witches’ whispers, could foreshadow what awaits her in Rashemen. More ideas for my Witches' Secret Journey.

So the question remains, will Sinéad and Nida follow Rhiannon and Jaromir eastward? That was always my idea, but Waterdeep’s siren call is strong. And I have so many ideas for Waterdeep.

The Ecologies gives me the scaffolding for either path. If they stay west, they linger in the greatest city of the Sword Coast. If they go east, they’ll wander through forests, deserts, swamps, and mountains that feel alive, thanks to this odd little box set from 1994.

This is their travel guide, their road map, and the background in which the characters grow. 

DriveThruRPG PDF and PoD

The scans of this product are top notch. The PDFs are very clear and very sharp. This translates well into the Print on Demand copy as well. Maybe one of the best I have seen in a while to be honest.

There is a lot of color throughout. It does make me wish I had grabbed this as a boxed set when I had the chance. My opinions of it when from high, to low, back to high now.

Final Thoughts

Elminster’s Ecologies is one of those quirky TSR experiments that I’m glad exists. It’s not essential Realms material, but it makes the wilderness feel alive in a way few supplements ever try to do. If Forgotten Realms Adventures was about the cities, this is about everything in between: the swamps, forests, deserts, mountains, and seas that adventurers must cross to get from one tavern to the next.

This is not a game product you sit down and use in one session. It is a game product you grab in game sessions when the characters are in the right places. It is used throughout your stay in the 2nd Ed Realms. Ok, it can be used in every edition to be honest. Ignore the minor edition-specific material and go with it.

For DMs running wilderness-heavy campaigns, this is a goldmine of ideas. For Realms fans, it’s a snapshot of TSR in the ’90s, trying something a little different. And for me, even just in POD form, it’s another reminder that the Realms isn’t just kings and wizards, it’s owls in the trees, frogs in the marshes, and strange rules about rabbits.

Witches of Appendix N: Fritz Leiber

When we talk about the foundations of Dungeons & Dragons, the names that come up most often are the obvious ones: Robert E. Howard, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Jack Vance, among others. But alongside Conan and hobbits stands another set of icons, the roguish duo of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, born from the imagination of Fritz Leiber.

In Appendix N, Leiber's entry is "Leiber, Fritz. 'Fafhrd & Gray Mouser' series; et al." So that leaves me a lot of room to explore his works. 

Leiber’s tales of Lankhmar gave us thieves’ guilds, a decadent city, and sword-and-sorcery camaraderie that would become staples of the game. And a couple of tales where witchcraft plays an important role.

The Snow Women (1970)

Before he became a hero of Lankhmar, Fafhrd was a youth of the cold North, raised among the Snow Women. This community of women was led by Mor, Fafhrd’s mother, who dominates both him and the other men of their tribe through will, manipulation, and a kind of communal witchcraft.

The Snow Women are not cackling hags with bubbling cauldrons; their magic is subtler. It lies in the power of custom, ritual, and fear. Their witchcraft is not just spellwork but social control, and it casts a frost over every relationship in the story. For young Fafhrd, escaping their grip is as much an act of rebellion against sorcery as it is against his mother’s authority.

This tale shows witchcraft not as something learned in a grimoire, but as an inheritance and an atmospher a cold wind that shapes destinies.  In many ways they remind me of tales of Finnish witchcraft. I have a hard time reading about these women and not think of Louhi, the Crone (and Maiden too) of Pohjola. This leads us to Iggwilv, the "spiritual daughter" of Louhi and Mor.

In the Witch’s Tent (1968)

Later, in the story In the Witch’s Tent (collected in "Swords Against Wizardry"), Leiber presents us with another kind of witch. Here, Fafhrd and the Mouser find themselves consulting a prophetess. The scene is thick with atmosphere: the tent filled with smoke, the seeress exhaling her visions like opium haze, the sense that knowledge comes at a cost.

This witch is less about domination and more about liminality. She occupies that familiar role of the oracle, standing at the threshold between worlds. But in true Leiber fashion, she is not a benign guide. Her words are dangerous, her presence uncanny, and the tent itself feels like a trap. The scene could be dropped whole into any RPG session as the archetypal fortune-teller who reveals just enough truth to get the characters into trouble.

Conjure Wife (1943)

If Leiber’s Fafhrd and Mouser stories gave us witches in the context of sword-and-sorcery, it was his first novel, Conjure Wife, that put witchcraft at the center of the narrative.

Or as I have said in the past, “Between Bewitched and Rosemary’s Baby lies Leiber’s Tansy.”

Norman Saylor, a rational-minded professor, discovers that his wife, Tansy, has been secretly practicing protective magic. When he convinces her to stop, he learns the hard way that witchcraft is not merely superstition, and that rival witches have been circling all along.

As I wrote in my earlier review:

Conjure Wife has been held up as sort of a prototype of the modern American Witch tale.  Seemingly normal wives in a small East Coast town married to normal, rational men of science and academia turn out to be powerful witches engaged in a silent secret war of magic.

... They were intelligent (more so than their husbands), clever and some down right evil and all were powerful. By the end of the book, you are left feeling that the men in this tale are really no more than children, a bit dim ones at that.

This is what makes Conjure Wife powerful: the way it sets witchcraft not in ancient forests or ruined temples, but in the kitchens and parlors of mid-century America. The witches here are faculty wives, the battleground is tenure politics, and the weapons are hexes whispered between cocktail parties. It is both psychological horror and social commentary, and it remains one of the most influential witchcraft novels of the 20th century.

It has also been made into three different movies, Weird Woman (1944), Burn, Witch, Burn aka "Night of the Eagle" (1962), and Witches' Brew (1980).

Our Lady of Darkness (1977)

Decades later, Leiber returned to occult horror with Our Lady of Darkness, a novel steeped in the landscapes of San Francisco and the esoteric science of “megapolisomancy,” a fictional occult science that focuses on harnessing the supernatural forces present in large cities. There is even a connection to Clark Aston Smith.

This isn’t a witch story in the conventional sense, but it resonates with the same archetypal power. Its date allows me to make a claim for it as "sliding into home" just barely.

At its heart, Our Lady of Darkness is about the anima, that Jungian figure of the feminine that exists within the male psyche. She is muse and terror, desire and destruction, and in Leiber’s hands, she becomes a literal haunting presence. The Lady of the title is both a psychological construct and a supernatural force, a liminal witch of the soul.

This is a theme I’ve explored myself in the character of Larina Nix. Larina, too, is not just a witch but an embodiment of anima at once familiar, archetypal, and unsettling. She represents how the witch figure can exist in both myth and the inner landscape of the imagination.

While Our Lady of Drakness may not have influenced D&D at all, there are a lot of things here you can find in the RPG Kult. Sadly, this book is nowhere near as good as Leiber's other works, especially Conjure Wife. 

Closing Thoughts

When it comes to witches, Leiber made one significant contribution: Conjure Wife. The Snow Women and the prophetess of In the Witch’s Tent add atmosphere to Fafhrd’s world, but they are more color than core. Our Lady of Darkness circles the same archetypal ground from a Jungian angle, but it isn’t witchcraft in the usual sense.

Yet even if these stories didn’t leave much of a mark on D&D, they left a mark on me. Conjure Wife remains one of the best examples of modern witchcraft horror, and its faculty wives locked in a secret magical war still resonate. The others, Mor’s cold grip, the seeress in her smoky tent, and the anima-haunted towers of San Francisco, add layers to Leiber’s legacy and to my own sense of how witches live in story: sometimes social, sometimes symbolic, sometimes spectral, but always there. 

25 Years Dungeons & Dragons 3.0

It was Monday, September 11, 2000.

I actually remember it pretty well. I went to my Favorite Local Game Store and I picked up the new Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition. I grabbed the Player's Handbook, the Dungeon Master's Guide and the Creature Collection, the first OGL monster book released. I had to wait a bit longer for the official Monster Manual.

That was 25 years ago this week.

 When D&D 3.0 hit the game stores in 2000, I was ready for it. I had been away from D&D for several years and was eager to get back into it. So, D&D 3.0 was the right game for me at the right time. In truth, there is still a lot I love about D&D 3.x, and significant advances were made in terms of game design and lore.  

This edition was new. So new that, unlike the past editions, this one was not very backward compatible. This was fine since Wizards of the Coast (now dropping the TSR logo) had provided a conversion guide. The books were solid. All full color and the rules had expanded to fix some of the issues of previous versions of D&D. Armor class numbers got larger as the armor got stronger, as opposed to lower numbers being better. Charts for combat were largely eliminated, the number on the sheet was what you had to roll against. Everyone could multiclass, all the species (races) could be any class without restrictions, though some were better at it than others, and everyone had skills. 

But the most amazing thing about 3rd Edition D&D was that, aside from a few protected monsters and names, Wizards of the Coast gave the whole thing away for free! Yes, the books with art cost money. But the rules, just a text dump, were free for everyone to download. It was called the System Reference Document or SRD. It was all the rules so that 3rd-party publishers could produce their own D&D compatible material. With these rules, you could play D&D without the books. There was no art and no "fluff" text, but everything was there.

D&D 3rd edition had an good run from 2000 to about 2008. 

I played it quite a bit to be honest and there is a lot about it I still love. It was the game system I used to teach my kids how to play and one I still enjoy going back to. It is also one of the few editions of D&D I never really played much. I was always a DM. So other than a version of Larina and Johan Werper IV, I don't have a lot of characters for 3e. The only time I ever got to play it was at conventions, mostly Gen Con.

I loved the 3rd Edition's multiclassing and, honestly, I loved Prestige Classes. But things got ridiculous at high levels. Ever try stating up a high level character from scratch? But I would still play it if given the chance. 

So here is to 25 years of D&D 3.0. You were not the perfect game, but your were perfect for me at the time.

Monstrous Mondays: Brindlekin

 Small folk have always found a place at the edges of fantasy worlds, halflings and hobbits in their holes, gnomes tinkering in their burrows, kender poking their noses where they don’t belong. The Brindlekin are cut from the same cloth but stitched in different patterns.

The Brindlekin populate my new world of Iriandor. Overtly, this world is for D&D 5e or Daggerheart; a bright new world where I can create something new. Brindlekin come from the question I had of "do we really need gnomes AND halflings?"

Brindlekin

The Brindlekin are little wanderers with fur-tufted ears, wide curious eyes, and a knack for mischief that borders on magical. They’re storytellers, fire-keepers, and uncanny survivors who seem to slip through the cracks of history. Villagers often dismiss them as fairy-touched cousins of halflings or gnomes, but anyone who’s traveled with a Brindlekin knows there’s something more at work, an old magic that lingers in their blood.

Brindlekin delight in new friends, good food, and dangerous dares. They’re the first to strike a bargain with the fae and the last to abandon a doomed quest. Some whisper that they are the children of forgotten gods, sent to keep laughter alive when the world grows dark.

Brindlekin (AD&D 1st Edition)

Frequency: Rare
No. Appearing: 2–20
Armor Class: 6
Move: 9"
Hit Dice: 1+1
% in Lair: 20%
Treasure Type: Individuals J, in lair U, S, T
No. of Attacks: 1
Damage/Attack: By weapon (1–6)
Special Attacks: Mischief (see below)
Special Defenses: +1 to saves vs Spells, +10% to find/remove traps.
Magic Resistance: Standard
Intelligence: Very to Exceptional
Alignment: Neutral (tend toward Good)
Size: S (3–3½ ft. tall)
Psionic Ability: Nil
Level/XP Value: II/25 + 2/hp

Description: Brindlekin resemble halflings with a wilder cast: brindled fur-patches on their arms and faces, sharp eyes that gleam gold or green, and a tendency to twitch their noses when excited. They live in tight-knit clans but roam widely.

Brindlekin avoid combat when they can, preferring trickery. Once per day, a Brindlekin may use Confusion (single target, 1 round) or Faerie Fire as if cast by a 2nd-level druid.

These folk gather in clans of a dozen families, traveling in painted wagons or settling in hidden glades. Their culture prizes stories, songs, and dares, reckless challenges that often lead them into adventures.

Some scholars believe that Brindlekin are the rare offspring of halflings and gnomes. Other though point to a oft quoted saying among the Brindlekin that they are "children of the earth." Believing that the Brindlekin are the remaining children of long-forgotten gods. 

Brindlekin (D&D 5e)

Small Humanoid (Brindlekin), Neutral (Good)

Armor Class: 13 (leather)
Hit Points: 11 (2d6+4)
Speed: 30 ft.

STR 8 (–1)
DEX 15 (+2)
CON 14 (+2)
INT 11 (+0)
WIS 12 (+1)
CHA 13 (+1)

Skills: Stealth +4, Performance +3
Senses: Darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 11

Languages: Common, Sylvan

Challenge: 1/4 (50 XP)

Mischief Magic (Recharge 5–6). As a bonus action, the Brindlekin casts faerie fire or forces one creature within 30 ft. to make a DC 12 Wisdom saving throw or become confused (as the spell, 1 round).

Nimble Escape. The Brindlekin can take the Disengage or Hide action as a bonus action.

Actions

Short Sword. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6+2) piercing damage.

Sling. Ranged Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, range 30/120 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d4+2) bludgeoning damage.

Description: Brindlekin are curious wanderers, often mistaken for halflings at a glance. They sport brindled fur along their arms and cheeks, and their eyes glitter with mischief.

Brindlekin (Daggerheart Ancestry)

Brindlekin are small folk with wide, bright eyes and patches of brindled fur along their arms, cheeks, or temples. Their ears are fur-tufted, their voices lilting, and their laughter quick to come. Standing about 3 to 3½ feet tall, Brindlekin resemble a mix of human and fae, with a wild spark in their features. Their appearance often hints at animalistic ancestry: a striped lock of hair, whisker-like markings, or a nose that twitches when they’re excited.

Brindlekin are wanderers at heart. They travel in painted wagons or form temporary camps in forests and hidden glades, always eager to share stories, tricks, and dares. Their clans value daring and humor as much as hospitality, and they see risk-taking as a way to court fate. Many outsiders consider them reckless, but the Brindlekin say that courage is just laughter held a little closer to the heart.

They live slightly longer than humans, often reaching 120 years, though most spend their lives chasing trouble and adventure rather than comfort or longevity.

ANCESTRY FEATURES

Mischief Spark. Once per rest, mark a Stress to impose disadvantage on an enemy’s roll within Near range, or grant an ally advantage on a roll within the same range.

Nimble Step. You ignore movement penalties from difficult terrain, and you may always Hide if it is even slightly possible to do so.

--

I have been sitting on this post for a while. I really want to move these guys over to AD&D, but they cover some of the same roles as my Glade Gnomes (more on them later) and gnomi. Do I need another species of small folk? Well...yes, because they are always fun and make the best sort of adventurers. But is there a niche for them? Maybe they will stay on Iriandor. Maybe even they are linked to that world in subtle and magical ways. 

Fantasy Fridays: Adventurer Conqueror King System

 Getting back to the real purpose behind the Fantasy Friday posts, helping you to find that perfect Fantasy RPG and showing that there is more than just D&D out there. Though today's post doesn't stray very far from D&D.

Adventurer Conqueror King System

The Adventurer Conqueror King System, or more often ACKS, was released in 2012. It was one of the biggest OSR titles released and met with a lot of critical acclaim. I have already talked about it quite a lot here, so instead of treading over well-trodden ground, I'll link out those posts here. 

• A is for Adventurer Conqueror King System
• Tale of Two Games
• ACKS B/XC Or How I commit heresy with Adventurer Conqueror King
• Review: ACKS Player's Companion
• Skylla: Adventurer Conqueror King & Players Companion

I like ACKs. The system is B/X with some add-ons to give me some of the things I miss from AD&D. Plus the Witch class from the Player's Companion is based on my OGC and material I shared with the authors/designers back in their early days. 

Adventurer Conqueror King - Imperial Imprint (ACKS II)

by Alexander Macris, Autarch 2025

The WotC/Hasbro OGL scandal caused a lot of folks, myself included, to re-think their reliance on the OGL. So Autarch opted to revise their core rules into three new books they are calling Adventurer Conqueror King - Imperial Imprint AKA ACKS II.

The books feel familiar:

• ACKS II Revised Rulebook
• ACKS II Monstrous Manual
• ACKS II Judges Journal

I like how the new Revised Rulebook looks like the next scene of the original rulebook.

This system is largely the same, with some of the OGC removed and revised. We are still not deviating far from the D&D B/X standard of 14 levels and some "race as class" ideas, but all in all it is still a very playable system. Converts from OSE or D&D B/X will drop right in, maybe even using the same characters they already were. Converts from D&D 5 or Pathfinder might find themselves wonder where all their "kewl powerz" are.

Where ACKS II shines is in its scope and depth. Autarch has taken what was already a very crunchy, very ambitious game and doubled down. The Revised Rulebook is a beast of nearly 550 pages, the Judges Journal piles on another 350k words of domain rules, economic systems, alchemy, and advice. If ACKS I was about building dungeons and kingdoms, ACKS II is about running empires.

The proficiency system deserves a call-out. It’s the same idea as before, but cleaned up and standardized to cover a wide variety of “skills.” In my opinion, this is one of the better OSR takes on non-combat abilities, and something I’d happily import into other B/X-derived games.  The systems here feels like the feats of 5e (but not 3e if that makes sense) so there is a solid rhyme and reason to them all. Plus the need to spend money and time for training keeps it solidly in the old-school camp. 

The GM's book is filled with great advice. With the vast majority of if compatible with whatever OSR or old-school game you are currently playing. 

The monster book is well organized with one monster per page, art, and plenty of information on each monster. Again, compatible with most OSR games, but especially anything with B/X DNA. Even if you don't play ACKS or ACKS II, this book would be useful. Note, there are no demons or devils in this book so if you need demons, devils or creatures from the "lower planes," may I recommend my own The Left Hand Path - The Diabolic & Demonic Witchcraft Traditions.  Given ACKS compatibility, you could add this as another type of witch tradition.

The overall vibe? If Hyperborea is AD&D wearing a B/X mask, ACKS has always been B/X pretending to be AD&D. ACKS II leans further into that identity. It’s a game that lets you start with kobolds in a hole and end with fleets, armies, and dynasties, something most OSR titles only sketch at. 

A note about AI art. There is a lot of art in this book, and unlike the previous edition, it is all color art. The vast majority is human made, but some of it is AI art. This is according to Autarch themselves. I am not going to moralize on this at all. But you will need to figure out for yourself it this is a deal-breaker or not.

Larina Nix for ACKS II

So a D&D-like system with a native witch, based on my own witch materials? Of course, I am going to try out Larina. In ACKS Witches are a type of Divine Caster, so they use the same spells as do Priests/Clerics.

Larina Nix
Witch (Antiquarian), Level 14 Witch Queen
Human (Rorn) Female, Neutral (Lawful Neutral)

STR 9 +0, Witches are a type of Divine Caster, so they use the same spells as do Priests
INT 18 +3
DEX 11 +0
WIL 18 +3
CON 11 +0
CHA 18 +3

Hit Points: 30
Initiative +0
AC: 1 (Bracers of Defense AC 1)

To Hit AC 0: 16

Paralysis 9
Death 9
Blast 11
Implements 7
Spells 8

Movement
Exploration 120 Feet/Turn
Combat 40 Feet/Round
Charge/Run 120 Feet/Round
Expedition 24 miles/day

Class Features
Traditional Medicine, Brew Potions, Minor Magical Research, Second Sight, Scribe Scrolls, Magic Mirror, Major Magical Research

Proficiencies
 Lore Mastery, Knowledge Occult (x2), Healing, Familiar, Arcane Dabbling, Alchemy, Mystic Aura, Adventuringt 

Spells (Divine)
First Level: Allure, Counterspell, Cure Light Injury, Kindle Flame, Sanctuary, Word of Command
Second Level: Augury, Dark Whisper, Halt Humanoids, Magic Lock, Righteous Wrath, Spiritual Weapon
Third Level: Bewitch Humanoid, Clairvoyance, Dispel Magic, Lightning Strike, Remove Cure, Winged Flight
Fourth Level: Divination, Inspire Awe, Lightless Vision, Skinchange, Smite Undead, Spirit of Healing
Fifth Level: Boil Blood, Communion, Fiery Pillar, Healing Circle, True Seeing
Sixth Level: Arrows of the Sun, Bewitch Monster, Home Ward, Phoenix Armor, Spellwarded Zone

Rituals Known: 7

All in all, not a bad version of Larina. Reminds me a bit of her AD&D 2nd Edition counterpart from my Complete Netbook of Witches & Warlocks. I would like to have pumped up her language skills a bit more. 

Who Should Play This Game?

ACKS is a fine game, it does some things rather well, but it only brings a few new things to the table already crowded with Hyperborea, Old-School Essentials, and original B/X D&D. Mind you, the things it does bring are really great. The organization is wonderful as is the presentation. The monster book is worth grabbing if you play any OSR game, just because it has a great presentation and some new monsters. The new classes are a great addition and I am certain someone out there is using the new classes here in their OSE game or even in B/X. I admit I would roll up a Bladedancer or Elven Nigthblade in a heartbeat. Come to think of it, Taryn, Larina's Half-elf daughter, would also make for a good Elven Nightblade.

Reading the rules will not help you decide if this game is for you over some other OSR game. You will need to play.

What makes ACKS II unique in the OSR landscape is that it doesn’t stop at the dungeon door. It’s not just about slaying dragons or clearing hexes, it’s about what happens next. You claim land, raise armies, chart trade routes, and maybe even crown yourself emperor. The rules don’t just hand-wave these things; they give you the numbers, the systems, and the tools to run them at the table.

I don't think ACKS or ACKS II will replace D&D 5e at someone's table, but who knows, I could be wrong. There is enough here to make it someone's perfect game.

The physical books, especially the limited edition black covers, look fantastic. I am content with my PDFs for now.

For me, it will be a game I reference a lot, but one I likely won't actually play. Though I think I would like to come up with the three Witch Queens (one for each tradition) of the Auran Empire on the continent of Aurëpos on the world of Cybele.