Showing posts with label 5e. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 5e. Show all posts

Thursday, May 18, 2023

Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space from Cubicle 7

 I am now coming up on the next wave of Doctor Who RPGs. All from Cubicle 7

Doctor Who RPGs

While there are technically three RPGs, they are all related.

First is the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space. This is the one I have talked about here a lot already.

Second is the new Second Edition of the RPG, now just The Doctor Who Roleplaying Game.

And finally, we have Doctors & Daleks, a game based on the previous two, but using the 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons OGC rules.

One thing that strikes me is despite all I have said about this game line over the years I have never really given it a proper full review.  Well I will change that next week.

In the meantime, here are some characters I have stated up for the Doctor Who RPG (1st Edition so far).

I'll spend the rest of May with this system.

Friday, May 5, 2023

Kickstart Your Weekend: Mini-Dungeon Tome II

Late one today, but I still want to get it out to you all.

I am always in need of a quick adventure or two, so  120+ sounds like a good deal to me!

Mini-Dungeon Tome II

Mini-Dungeon Tome II
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/adventureaweek/mini-dungeon-tome-ii?ref=theotherside

Form the Kickstarter:

Mini-Dungeon Tome II contains a wealth of one-shots and side quests for 5th Edition. It is the standalone sequel to the best-selling Mini-Dungeon Tome published by AAW Games in 2018, and continues the collection with over 121 new mini-dungeons.

The Mini-Dungeons in this book are designed to be grab-and-go, easy to run adventures with minimum preparation required, covering levels 1–20.

Looks great and even if just a few of them are good (and it looks like more than just a few) then this is a bargain.

Indeed the sample pack is great and worth clicking on just to get that. So give this one a look. It should be great.

Friday, February 10, 2023

Kickstart Your Weekend: Demons! Classes! Adventure! and Mice!

Lots for you this week. All worth your time to look into.

Demonology For Old-School Essentials - Zinequest 5

Demonology For Old-School Essentials - Zinequest 5

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gamersandgrognards/demonology-for-old-school-essentials-zinequest-5?ref=theotherside

We always need more demons.  While I do have my own I have been using for a while now this will be a welcome addition to my OSE library.

Kibbles' Compendium of Legends and Legacies

Kibbles' Compendium of Legends and Legacies
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kibblestasty/kibbles-compendium-of-legends-and-legacies?ref=theotherside

I am still supporting third-party 5e folk. I am sure they panicked when the OGL fiasco broke, so I am here to boost their signal.  Still looks like a lot of fun.

After Winter Dark: Aihrde A Fantasy Campaign Setting

After Winter Dark: Aihrde A Fantasy Campaign Setting

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ckg/after-winter-dark-aihrde-a-fantasy-campaign-setting?ref=theotherside

How do I love thee Castles & Crusades? Let me count the ways. Wait, that will take too long. Instead I'll just back this new book!

I mean this just looks so cool, and I have been dying to do something that I have been calling "endless Winter" in my mind.  Maybe this is it? 

Escape from Undergarden - RPG Adventure for 5e D&D

Escape from Undergarden - RPG Adventure for 5e D&D

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jvcparry/escape-from-undergarden-rpg-adventure-for-5e?ref=theotherside

Another adventure and it looks like a lot of fun. I will admit a certain level of dissatisfaction with some of the D&D 5 adventures of late. This one looks like it could turn that trend around.  Of course I would run it under Castles & Crusades now.

Feathertail Falls

Feathertail Falls

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/peterelroy/feathertail-falls?ref=theotherside

Ok now this one looks like a lot of fun.  From the creator:

This adventure collection is a mouse-fantasy tabletop role playing game that builds on the free Mausritter rules, a deceptively simple system perfectly suited for mouse-sized expeditions. The collection’s adventurous yet melancholy tone is inspired by Over the Garden Wall, Hilda and Studio Ghibli’s Arrietty, as well as the art of Júlia Sardà.

The adventures take place in Feathertail Forest, a place little mice pups may know from bedtime stories, about mice that dream to fly. When you start to explore it, you will find that the unwelcoming forest has been petrified in time. It is up to you to decide if and how to reawaken it, and how to deal with the consequences as you discover more of the forest's secrets.

This would be great for the right group!

--

So much great stuff and so little time and money.

Friday, February 3, 2023

Kickstart Your Weekend: Monsters and More!

More Kickstarters this week, and it is a good batch.

Dark Wizard Games: Fantasy Folder #1 - Dungeon Demon

Dark Wizard Games: Fantasy Folder #1 - Dungeon Demon

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/marktaormino/dark-wizard-games-fantasy-folder-1-dungeon-demon?ref=theotherside

A new one from Dark Wizard Games and Mark Taormino.  Mark always runs a great Kickstarter and this one looks no different. 

This time he gives us some folders that remind me of the old St Regis folders.  This would be great for nearly any purpose for your games, and I hope these are the first of many more. Yeah, a cheap folder from Mead is cheaper but nowhere near as cool.


Monster Rangers RPG

Monster Rangers RPG

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/steamcrow/monster-rangers-rpg?ref=theotherside

This one looks fun. From the Kickstarter:

Occult Pulp Adventure set in 1913!

Join the cause (CAWS) as a Monster Ranger who takes on Monsterologists who exploit monsters for their majik in a veiled world of weird; Obscuria.


'La Notte Eterna': Horror-Gothic Setting for 5E

'La Notte Eterna': Horror-Gothic Setting for 5E

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/aliribelli/la-notte-eterna?ref=theotherside

This is a dark fantasy setting for 5e with new sub-classes and monsters and it looks rather cool.

There is a LOT here too. Three books, minis, DM's Screen, PDFs. Just a lot of stuff to be honest and it looks great.  There is even a quickstart to get a feel for the game. 

The setting is right up my alley too. Something I was doing with my own "Come Endless Darkness" campaign.  THIS could be a world where the heroes failed and darkness took over. It is worth me getting it just for that!

Lots of great stuff out there in this one. More than I can post now, but check it out. My enthusiasm for 5e might be at an all time low, but this looks like a ton of fun.

Monday, January 30, 2023

Monstrous Mondays: The Future (???) of my Monster Projects

Wow. The OGL drama has been enough to give you whiplash

open dnd

Where are we today? Have to ask because the situation has changed so much and so rapidly. While I have been following this on all sorts of social media outlets, I have to shout out to Robert Conley over at Bat in the Attic for constantly updating his blog with the details and expert commentary.  I like to be able to read what is going on, follow the links, and not have to wade through a ton of videos.

In fact, to get the latest run-down of what is (or at least was as of Saturday, January 28, 2023) going on, I am not going to repost it, I am just going to have you read his breakdown.  Go there. Come back here.

Back? Good! Let's talk Monsters. Or, more to the point, how these new revelations will affect me and my various monster projects for this year.

Here are my three current projects.

  • Monster Mash. This one was released last week and the reactions have been great. It is getting downloaded at a steady rate and I'll have the hardcover version proof in my hands soon.  I have two others all mapped out with a lot of material ready to go for them. I am slowing down the process for now since the OGL 1.0a seems safe for the time being. 

  • Basic Bestiary. This one was the biggest causality of the OGL change back at the start of the year. Now with the OGL 1.0a a little safer I want to get this one back on.  I have spent way too much time on it to let it languish on my hard drive any longer.

  • Monstrous Maleficarum. Ah. I was so looking forward to this one too. While the newly uploaded 5.1 SRD to Creative Commons means I have even MORE freedom to do this one, my motivation for it is not really there anymore. Maybe I'll come back to this one. But for now a lot of my art for this one will be going to the other two projects.

There are also lots of new opportunities with the other licenses coming out.  There is the Paizo-led Open RPG Content License (ORC), there is Kobold Press and Black Flag, and the Creative Commons is now an option, not to mention whatever Troll Lords does with Castles & Crusades, what will happen with Labyrinth Lord 2, and what Bill Barsh does with his BX RPG (just three on my mind this week).

I will freely admit this latest change has reduced my ire against Hasbro/WotC. I will still play D&D5, but I am less enthusiastic about supporting it with my time and intellectual capital. Plus I have seen what happens when people start to support more 3rd party publishers and independent publishers. I'd like to see that continue.

So this week we have more options than we did last week and even more than last month. Let's use those options to make better games.

Thursday, January 19, 2023

More Updates: Home Games

Frantically working on a lot of updates behind the scenes here. But one I want to address that I am looking forward too is what am I doing with the games I run.

The Games I Play

Presently I am still in the middle of three different D&D 5e games. They are all part of my Come Endless Darkness mega-campaign:

All are presently 5e.

My plan is to convert one to Castles & Crusades and the other to Pathfinder 2e.

The obvious choice here is to convert The Second Campaign to Castles & Crusades since it has a lot of old-school 1st material. The next obvious choice is to convert my Into the Nentir Vale to PF2 since it is a broader mix, and I think it is funny that D&D 4 is once again losing out to Pathfinder.

I am not sure how much I'll talk about them online. BUT I do want to talk about how the conversions go.

So in each case, I will grab a PC or NPC from them and see how they convert. I will post that since that is something people will be interested in. In fact, as I am writing this, I am thinking of two PCs in particular that would really make good examples of conversions.

I also might post the Big Bad for each in their new stats. The Second Campaign is overtly about Demogorgon, but I had always thought they would not actually encounter him.  The Nentir Vale is all about Orcus.

In any case, it should be a lot of fun.

Monday, December 19, 2022

Monstrous Monday: Álfar Skalds

We are almost at the Winter Solstice, and Christmas is less than a week away.  

My thoughts this month have been coming back to D&D 5e and what the future for that might be.  At least for the next year or so, 5e will be largely the same, so I will be getting some 5e content out here to enjoy it.  I also just finished reading the Finnish epic poem, the Kalevala. Really one of the foundational stories of D&D to be honest. You can see where so much of D&D came from; Gygax's interpretation of this tale, and Tolkien's use of it in the formation of Middle Earth and his Legendarium. 

So my thoughts on all of these are rummaging around and I was thinking I need more types of cold creatures, bards, and more magic.  Some of that I showed off last week with my Jötunn Troll

So here is some 5e content from the frozen lands of the far North.

Elf, Álfar Skald
Elf, Álfar Skald
Medium humanoid (elf), Chaotic Neutral

Armor Class 13 (Hide armor)

Hit Points 17 (3d8 +3)

Speed 30 ft

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

Saving Throws Con +3, Cha +5

Skills Performance +5, Persuasion +5, Perception +3, Survival +3

Damage Resistances Cold

Condition Immunities Blinded

Senses darkvision 120 ft., passive perception 13

Languages Common, Elvish, Giant

Fey Ancestry. The Álfar has advantage on saving throws against being charmed and can't be put to sleep.

Innate Spellcasting. The Álfar’s innate spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 13). The Álfar can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:

At will: minor illusion
1/day each: animal friendship, healing word

Fleet of foot. Like all elves, the Álfar are fleet of foot and can travel over snow and ice with no restrictions.They are immune to difficult terrain caused by ice and snow.

Protected eyes. Álfar have a protective membrane over their eyes. They do not suffer disadvantage from blizzards or poor weather.

Actions

Shortsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5ft. one target. Hit: 6 (1d6 +3) piercing damage.

Sling. Ranged Weapon Attack. +3 to hit, range 30/120 ft., one target, Hit: 5 (1d4 +3) bludgeoning damage.

Description

Álfar are the elves of the coldest reaches. Also known as “snow elves” they are tall (6’ to 6½’), with long straight white or light blond hair. Some, though, have long black hair. Their skin is pale and their eyes are so pale that they appear nearly white or light bluish-white. This is due to a protective membrane over the eye that allows them to see even in the coldest of temperatures or the blowing of snow.

Álfar are typically encountered in roaming bands of hunters or in warmer climes, herders of goats and sheep. They will typically be armed with a shortsword and sling with up to 20 sling stones handy.

Like all elves, they produce beautiful works of art, though they lack the raw materials of their forest-born brothers and sisters. They are a nomadic species, often following large game in their frozen territories. For this reason, their chief artistic expressions are saga songs.  These tales of ancient times, gods, and heroes can last from a few minutes to several days to perform, often with other singers (Skalds) joining in and taking over for others. Álfar skalds are revered by their communities.

Álfar bards are known as skalds. Their role in the Álfar community is to memorize the saga songs of these nomadic elves, some which take days to completely sing. Skalds advance as bards.

Monday, December 5, 2022

Monstrous Monday: OSE and 5e books and Gruß vom Krampus

Quick one today. Feeling a bit under the weather still.

Last week I got my Folklore Bestiary from the Merry Mushmen Kickstarter.  

A Folklore Bestiary

The books are really nice and I got the Old-School Essentials and 5e D&D versions.

They compare very well to the the earlier Twilight Fables monster books for OSR and 5e I have that kickstarted around the same time.

Fabled Monsters

Both sets cover similar ground but have different approaches to what they are doing. So all four have a home now on my shelves and game table. I discussed their similarities and differences in regard to a monster I also did (but not the only one we all share) the Basajaun.

The Basajaun

OSR/OSE versions for me, 5e versions for my kids.  It all works out great.  For me a monster book should come in 5e and OSR flavors from now on.  Or like Frog God Games is doing now in their Terrible Yule Cat with 5e, OSE and Castles & Crusades.

OSE sized too!

Gruß vom Krampus!

Greeting from Krampus!

I have a new project I am working on, something that is actually ready now, but I want to wait to get it out since it will be a big part of my 2023 Year of Monsters.

Here is a sneak peek at my new Monstrous Maleficarum.

Krampus Layout

This is not a replacement for my Basic Bestiary. It is designed to complement it and to serve a different audience.  Basic Bestiary is for the Old-School crowd and Monstrous Maleficarum is for fans of 5th edition. There will be overlap in the monsters, but each will be designed to serve what their respective audiences will like the most. The two projects will have very different looks and feel. 

Both the Basic Bestiary and Monstrous Maleficarum grew out my Monstrous Mondays, but also out of my One Man's God and certainly out of all my books and readings about Witches and Witchcraft.

Also, all profits from Monstrous Maledicarum will go to buy more art for Basic Bestiary.

I have a lot to do over Christmas break (ah...the life of an academic), so I better get on it.

Monday, October 17, 2022

100 Days of Halloween: Tomb of the Witch Queen

Tomb of the Witch Queen (5e)

I obviously had to buy this one as well. Though if you have been following me all week you know we have gone to many tombs of many witch queens.

This one has the unenviable task of following up on all of those. 

As always I will be following my rules for these reviews.

Tomb of the Witch Queen (5e)

PDF. 13 pages. Color cover and interior art. 

Truthfully it is not fair to compare this one to ones done by professional teams with Kickstarter money. This is just one guy, Jon Paget, doing things on his own.  The adventure is for 5e and claims to be for characters 1st to 12th level. Ok.

We start this one like so many of the other witch queen tomb adventures. The PCs hear of about the tomb and the riches within. Officials have gone to seek it out but never returned. So it decided that expendable experts are needed. That's the PCs. 

The adventure can be scaled to three different levels Low (levels 1-4), Mid (levels 4-8), and High (9-12). The adventure is divided into four separate "layers." Each follows the last and increases in difficulty. Until you reach the tomb of Sassaya herself.

I can see this being a good Convention style game when people could bring their own characters. 

But I am not sure if even this idea overcomes some of the shortcomings of this adventure. The adventure is as linear as it can get. While I am ok ignoring this in some older adventures, this is a 5e one published in 2021. The rewards at the end are uninspired. Sure there is a table to scale the rewards, but this sort of thing comes right out of the DMG of many editions. I don't need an adventure for that. Give me some new magic or something interesting. NOW there are some here. There is a d12 table of interesting additional rewards. THAT should have been the model for the main rewards. Again I have said it many times, if I am going to plunder a witch's tomb I better find some cool spell books.

I mentioned the adventure was linear. Well it is so much so that there are no proper maps. The Labyrinth, Level (or Layer previous) 3 has a kind of a flow-charty color-coded thing that the author obviously is proud of AND it is a neat idea in theory. I am not sure how it acts in practice though. Maybe I am getting hung up on the word "Labyrinth". This piece does look like it scales well. 

The list price is just under $5. Even by my revised guidelines of 25 cents a page for content (this has 10 pages of content for 13 overall pages) that only gets us to $2.50. There is not much in the way of art; no imagery of what the characters might see for example. Only one newish monster with a stat block. Mostly skill checks really. If it had been at or under $2.50 I could have merited giving it another star.


The Other Side - 100 Days of Halloween



Saturday, October 15, 2022

100 Days of Halloween: The Baleful Coven (5E)

The Baleful Coven (5E)
Let's do a 5e adventure tonight. Unlike the others I have reviewed so far I do not have a spot for this one figured out. So maybe something will come to me while I type.

The Baleful Coven (5E)

Print and PDF. 24 pages. Color cover and interior art.

For five to seven characters of 6th to 7th level. 

It is described as bringing standard fantasy characters into contact with threats of the "Far East." Which is cool, to be honest. Not sure if it will fit into my game just yet, but I like the promise of it so far. It does have one of my favorite archetypes, the white-haired witch, and there is a coven made up of a hag and two warlocks. 

I am going to pause here to note that this was originally a Pathfinder adventure. I bought the PDF of it a while back but I now notice it is gone from both DriveThru's and Paizo's websites. I mention this because I feel some of the fingerprints of Pathfinder, and in particular how they handled witches and hags, can be seen in the 5e version here. For example, while a warlock here, Masami Onishi is very much a "White Haired Witch" from Pathfinder. This is not a complaint mind you. Save in only I wish the Pathfinder version was still available. Granted it was released 10 years ago.

The bulk of the adventure takes place on the demi-plane of The Dream of Vengeful Reckoning. Ok, I do rather like that too.  The adventure then becomes a search for how to leave this demi-plane. Naturally defeating this coven of "witches" is one of the ways to do it. 

The adventure is actually rather well put together and I can see it being run over a long afternoon-evening or a could of smaller sessions. This is exactly what it was designed for. There are memorable NPCs which is the real hook for me. 

So yeah a fun adventure with some great ideas. 

Use with my War of the Witch Queens

There is a solid idea here, but not the one I think Legendary Games wants me to hook into. I mentioned the NPCs were memorable, and they are interesting, but you know what would be better? If I took three witches from three different adventures the characters had "defeated" and used them. I have seen enough movies this month where witches come back to some form of life to get vengeance on those who killed them.  Set them up into a demi-plane, or for my purposes, a Liminal Plane, where the dead witches can get their vengeance on the still-living PCs.

This is for 6th to 7th level so it would need to be part of an earlier adventure. My top choices right now are Trilena (Rahasia), Llorona (The Witch of the Tarriswoods), Kyleth (Saga of the Witch Queen), and Morfa (The Witch Queen of Cair Urnahc). I just need to pick three. Though Morfa and Trilena have both come back from the dead once already. I do admit that Kyleth on the top of the list to replace Masami Onishi.  While I know a couple are supposed to be hags I feel that is a hold-over from the Pathfinder adventure where only witches with hags can make covens. Also no need for me to add more winter witches, my cup is over flowing with them!

A new Trilogy of Terror with sequel?

But what good is killing a villain if you can't bring them back from the dead to terrorize your players? I mean characters. Yeah. Characters.


The Other Side - 100 Days of Halloween



Monday, September 26, 2022

Monstrous Mondays: Twilight Fables (5e & OSR)

Taking a break from Pathfinder for a bit on this first Monstrous Monday of Fall 2022 to do something a little darker.  There is a chill in the air here in Chicago. I have a flannel shirt on and my mood ever shifts more and more to Halloween.  A Halloween bestiary would be nice and thankfully Izegrim Creations has just the thing I need.

Twilight Fables

Twilight Fables

I swear the Kickstarter for this had just ended and I got my DriveThruRPG notification that the hardcovers were available. 

So for this I Monstrous Monday, I want to talk about both the 5e and OSR versions of this book, the Print on Demand and PDF versions, plus all the other material that makes up this line. 

OSR and 5e

Overview

Both books are huge volumes at 336 pages (5e) and 326 pages (OSR) each. The covers are full color as is all the interior art.  And the art is fantastic.  

Twilight Fables books

Twilight Fables books

Both books have a solid 5e aesthetic to them; colorful art and backgrounds, text describing the creature and its place in the environment/land/myths, and followed by a stat block.

art

The 5e book features a standard-looking 5e stat block, the OSR one is largely a modified Basic-era stat block. It includes everything you would expect along with descending and ascending AC, an entry for THAC0, and XP. The art for both books is the same.  There is a good reason for this, the OSR version was added on a little bit later in the Kickstarter.  The 5e version, with art, was done before the kickstart began (minus some edits I am told) so adding on the OSR version was a matter of adding the new stat blocks.  One nitpick there are listings for "DCs" in the OSR version for magic item creation (more on that later). I would have preferred something that felt a little more pre-2000.

Now in most situations, I would fear translation errors, but the author Roderic Waibel had already developed that very successful Chromatic Dungeons RPG (reviewed here) which is solid OSR.  So I know he knows OSR.  My only gripe is kinda wanted the OSR stat blocks to look as nice as the 5e ones!  But that is only a gripe for people that own both.

Like many of Waibel's publications we get nice sidebar discussions from the intelligent and rather civilized Gnoll "Fleabag." It is a very nice touch (I have done something similar with my 'From the Journal of Larina Nix') and it gives these (and his other books) character. 

Regardless of which one you get (get both!) you are in for a treat.

I grabbed both and will be using the OSR version in my Old-School Essentials game. My oldest grabbed the 5e version and is using it in his weekly 5e game. So far he says it is great and he loves all the different sorts of monsters it offers.

The Fables

The name of the book is Twilight Fables.  So you can expect that these are monsters from various myths, legends, and tales. And you would be 100% correct. Waibel has done his reading and there are a lot of great creatures here.  Even ones that might be familiar get new life and feel "new."  

For example, I mentioned one of my favorites, the Basajaun who appears in three different monster books. 

statblocks

Each one is a little different and yet each one 'feels' right. Perfect for DMs that want a familiar, yet different creature.

The creatures largely come from the myths, legends, and folklore of Europe. This is also what is advertised and leads to the logical assumption of Twilight Fables of other lands for future volumes. One for Africa, one for Asia, one for the Americas, all are possible.

In addition to the monsters, there are various legendary NPCs like Baba Yaga, Beowulf, Cailleach Beira, Cú Chulainn, Guy of Warwick, King Arthur, Little Red Riding Hood, Merlin, Morgan Le Fay, Robin Hood, Scáthach, Queen Úna of Faerie, and Väinämöinen. So yeah. Lots.

Cú Chulainn

There is a section on Mythological Treasures and Magic items. This includes some rules on how to make magic items as well. It is a very nice value add.  You saw this sort of thing with the old Mayfair "Fantastic Treasures" and something you see Troll Lord Games do with their Monster and Treasure books.

Both books also have rules for new character species (wanna play a Pech? You can!) and for 5e there are class options such as Warlock patrons and cleric domains.

There is even a small adventure (20 pages) to introduce these new monsters. 

The Monsters

All that is gravy.  The real meat here are the monsters.

In both cases, the monsters take up full pages. This includes the background and descriptions, the stat blocks, and whatever else is involved with this particular creature such as "Lore & Rumors", any special treasures, habitat, behaviors, and more.  In some cases, the material bleeds over to another entry, but not so much as to be an issue. 

There are, by my count, nearly 220 monsters here ranging in HD from 1-1 to 30+ (OSR) and CR 1/8 to 30 (5e).  So plenty of creatures to challenge any level of characters.

I have to say these are great books and well worth grabbing for your games, 5e or OSR, or both.  There is a lot of material here and plenty to keep many groups engaged for some time.

Extras

When you get the digital copy from DriveThruRPG you also get a bunch of tokens that can be printed and used in f2f table games or digitally online. It is another value add this game offers. There is also an RTF version of the book, a printer-friendly/no background version, and maps for the included adventure.

If you love monsters like I do then this is a must-buy.

Twilight Fables 5eTwilight Fables OSR


100 Days of Halloween: Runewild Preview 1: Missus Switch, Swine Witch

Runewild Preview 1: Missus Switch, Swine Witch
A couple of nights ago I reviewed a Worm Witch. Tonight, why not a swine witch?

This preview for the Runewild Setting is worth the time to download.

As always I will be following my rules for these reviews.

Runewild Preview 1: Missus Switch, Swine Witch

PDF. 8 pages. Color cover and interior art. Price: Free.

This small 8-page book (1 cover, 1 ad, 1 page of OGL) introduces us to the Ruenwild setting I reviewed last year

We are given a little bit of background on the Runewild (coming soon to Kickstarter!) and the witches of the Runewild. 

We are also introduced to the titular Missus Switch, something known as a "Swine Hag" (yes there are stats) and a small background "Adventure," actually an adventure location. Runewild is a hex crawl-friendly setting for 5e.

For free we get a good introduction to the Runewild and Missus Switch. 

It would play well with the Worm Witch and Wickerpunk books.


The Other Side - 100 Days of Halloween




Sunday, September 25, 2022

100 Days of Halloween: Wickerpunk

Wickerpunk
Time to move to 5e for something a little more flavorful.  One of my favorite themes is the struggle of paganism vs the rise of monotheism.  The dark twisted child of this struggle is Folk Horror. This new book looks like covers a little bit of all the above.

As always I will be following my rules for these reviews.

Wickerpunk

PDF. 276 pages. Color cover. Black & White (as appropriate) interior art.

First things first. I love this name. I am kicking myself for not coming up with it first.

We get an introduction that, "Wickerpunk is where heroic fantasy and folk horror meet."  Interesting premise.

Chapter 1: What is Wickerpunk

Here we learn how a "Wickerpunk" game differs from your normal heroic fantasy.  It is not grim-dark, but it is dark. Nature is more dangerous, strange pagan gods still roam the land, and the locals still practice forgotten rites and ceremonies. 

The author also lets us know that "wickerpunk" could be called "wyrdpunk" due to horror elements added to the game. This is not quite a gothic horror, but we can see that genre from here. The author is careful to let us know this is not horror and that horror-fiction and wickerpunk are cousins, not siblings. But kissing cousins to be sure.

Like my fascination with Pagans vs. Monotheists, this book covers the Wyld vs. Industry. The extension of this is Arcane vs. Divine magic. Where one is wrong and the other is a gift. My "old-faith vs. new-faith" is even covered later on.

There is a lot here, more than I will detail in this review, but suffice to say there is a lot of great ideas here on setting up your games. 

Just under 25 pages I am now wanting to rip out the roots of my "War of the Witch Queens" campaign to add more of these ideas. 

Chapter 2: Campaign Elements

This chapter details how a wickerpunk campaign affects your rules.  up first is alignment. Law and Chaos are replaced by Industry and Wyld. Good and evil are replaced by Benevolence and Malice.  Again...I want to use this instead of what I am using now.

Planes of existence have little use here since all that matters is the struggle of Industry and Wyld in the world of humans. 

This chapter also covers various time periods from Stone Age to Victorian. And adventures from Mysteries, Treasure Seeking, and exploration among the eight presented.

There are some encounter tables which include types, places and motivations. 

Chapter 3: Players and Characters

This chapter covers the 5e base classes and how they are altered in a wickerpunk game; both in terms of Wyld and Industry.  These changes are not really mechanical, but rather thematic. They also include player hooks, example adventures, enemy hooks and NPC hooks. Throughout the book, inspirational reading or viewing is presented in a sidebar.

The same is done for the main PC species. 

Chapter 4: Monsters

This chapter takes the types of monsters and discusses how they can be used in a wickerpunk game. There are more details on fey, fiends and undead as expected, but nearly every type of monster is considered. It is very flavorful. There is not much or anything in the way of "crunch" or game mechanics, but honestly, it is not needed here since the material is so good. It reminds me a bit of the old Ravenloft materials.

Chapter 5: Enemy Organisations

What is "The Wicker Man" without Lord Summerisle and his cult? Or "Children of the Corn" without the children? Not much really. This chapter covers the various organizations, or Cults and Cult Hunters.  The PCs find themselves between the Wyld Cults (and Gods) and the Industry Inquisition. 

Yes, this chapter also includes ideas for witches (even though 5e does not have a real witch class). 

Chapter 6: Magic and Technology

The tools of the Wyld and Industry.  There are some new ideas for magic items and spells, but only one spell is presented, "The Evil Eye."

Chapter 7: Sample Campaigns

There is a sample campaign here, the Island of Eye. Which looks a lot like England. Detailed here are what the humans and the older inhabitants of the land are doing.  Plenty of locations and adventure hooks are detailed here. As well as plenty of interesting NPCs 

Chapter 8: Appendix N

A nod to the famous Appendix N in the 1st Ed AD&D DMG. This covers various campaign periods. Each section includes movies, novels, television, comics, and video games. With commentary. 

--

There is very, very little game-specific information here. If you are looking for mechanics or "crunch" then you are likely to be disappointed.  But if you are looking for something more thematic or "fluff" then this is fantastic.

This is also this book's greatest unadvertised strength. It can be used with any version of D&D you like. While reading I kept thinking about how can I use this with say Old-School Essentials or even B/X D&D and the answer is "Easy."   In fact one of the few actual bits of game material, the Evil Eye spell, is something I did years ago in my first witch book.  But even then the conversion is super simple. 

There are a lot of things I can use here for my War of the Witch Queens campaign, but I would also suspect that any D&D 5e DM could use these ideas for their Ravenloft or the Wild Beyond the Witchlight campaigns.

In any case, there is so much here to love.


The Other Side - 100 Days of Halloween



Tuesday, September 13, 2022

100 Days of Halloween: Book of Lost Spells (PF1 & D&D5)

Frog God Games has long been producing great gaming products for a variety of systems. Their dedication to old-school style play comes from their earliest years when they were associated with Necromancer Games. So to see a couple of new spell books (and you know I love spells!)  for D&D 5e AND Pathfinder featuring all sorts of old-school spells?  Yeah. Put me down for one of each, please.

Book of Lost Spells (Pathfinder) Book of Lost Spells (5e)

Book of Lost Spells (Pathfinder) and Book of Lost Spells (5e)

PDF. 201 pages (PF) and 137 pages (5e).  Color covers. Black & white interior art.

The content of these two books is largely the same. The 5e smaller page count comes from the rules ability to cast spells at higher levels for increased effects, while Pathfinder (like the games that came before it) needs a different spell at higher levels.  Also, Pathfinder has more spell-using classes, so their spell lists take up more page count.

There are other minor differences depending on what spells each of their respective core rules already has, but the focus of both books is to provide classic "1st Edition" era spells to the new editions.

In both cases, the books have the spell lists by class and level first then followed by the spells and descriptions in alphabetical order.  

The spells are largely SRD derived and are certainly like the feel of 1st edition spells. Frog God is very, very good at doing this. I have not yet found any specifically from 1st ed AD&D that is not in the SRD but is also here.  There are a few that have new names that essentially do the same thing, which is fine by the OGL really.  

If you are a Pathfinder or 5e player and you want/need more spells then these books are a treasure trove, whether you played AD&D 1st or not. If you did then you will find something that feels familiar and new at the same time. 

Unless you play both games (or level spell books) then you don't need both, but I am happy to have them both to be honest.

In both cases, I have found them incredibly useful. 


The Other Side - 100 Days of Halloween


Friday, September 2, 2022

Kickstart Your Weekend: Amethyst (5E) - Magic & Technology Collide (Collection)

A new Kickstarter this week for a 5e sci-fi magic and tech RPG that you might be familiar with.

Amethyst (5E) - Magic & Technology Collide (Collection)

Amethyst (5E) - Magic & Technology Collide (Collection)


I have been looking for a good 5e Sci-fi RPG for a while and I am familiar with Amethyst from previous editions.

This one looks like it has everything. It has already blown past its funding goal and knocking out the stretch goals in record time.

There is so much here too, DEM from Chris Dias seems to be pulling out all the stops for this and it is working well for him.

I just now have to figure out what level I want to get in on!


Friday, August 26, 2022

100 Days of Halloween: Wayne Robert's O5E Classes

Wayne Robert's O5E Warlock
Going a little bit old-school and a little bit new-school tonight.

Earlier in the year Wayne Robert released what he was calling O5E classes. His first batch includes the Warlock and Sorcerer for Old School Essentials.

Wayne Robert's O5E Warlock

PDF. 8 pages. 1 cover, 1 title, 2 blank, 1 back page. 3 pages of content. $1.50.

Presently this version does not have art. There was a version before this that did have art, but the author made the choice to remove it for now.

The class is done up in OSE style. There are obvious nods to the 5e Warlock, which is by design.  The warlock does have spells and which spell list you use will depend on the warlock's pact.  Four Patrons are detailed, The Archfiend, The Faerie Regent, The Whisperer, and the Primordial. 

In truth a very serviceable class. Though some new, Warlock-only spells, would have been a nice add.


Wayne Robert's O5E Sorcerer
Wayne Robert's O5E Sorcerer

PDF. 8 pages. 1 cover, 1 title, 2 blank, 1 back page. 3 pages of content. $1.50.

Presently this version does not have art. There was a version before this that did have art, but the author made the choice to remove it for now.

The class is done up in OSE style. Much like his warlock book this one borrows from the OGC Sorcerer (though there is no OGL page here). 

Sorcerer's gain their magic via their sorcerous bloodlines. These are Celestial, Chaos, Dragon, and Serpent. So a nice little switch-up. 

They cast magic-user spells and gain access to meta-magic powers.  Each bloodline also gains some powers.

A really neat application of the Sorcerer for OSE or B/X.


Of the two I rather like the Sorcerer a little bit more.


The Other Side - 100 Days of Halloween




 

Sunday, August 21, 2022

100 Days of Halloween: Lilith, Demonqueen of Vampires Boss Stats (5E)

Lilith, Demonqueen of Vampires Boss Stats (5E)
Now for something a little different. You can't spend all the time researching witches like I have and not run into to Lilith.  I have always been fascinated with the character, so much so that she is on the cover of two of my witch books; Eldritch Witchery and Daughters of Darkness.

So yes. I am a fan.

I thought I would look into some products that feature Lilith in one form or another. Tonight I will start with a 5e version of her. 

Lilith, Demonqueen of Vampires Boss Stats (5E)

PDF. 7 pages. 1 cover. 1 OGL. 5 pages of content.

This is pretty much what it says on the cover.  We get some background on Lilith, altered to fit D&D. 

Included are a CR 5 monster, Spawn of Lilith, and Lilith herself a CR 25 Medium Undead Fiend.

There are details about her lair and tactics. There are some adventure hooks added as well.

For just under $2 not a bad deal at all. 

The OGL statement does not indicate how much of this document is Open or PI. 

Not at all bad if you want/need a quick Boss-Level demon to fight.


The Other Side - 100 Days of Halloween

Thursday, August 18, 2022

The Launch of One D&D

Today Wizards of the Coast announced the next phase of D&D with the code name "One D&D."

One D&D

The playtest is being run out of the D&D Beyond Environment, so you will need a Twitch account to get access.

https://www.dndbeyond.com/one-dnd

The first playtest packet covers Character Backgrounds/Origins

What do we know so far?

The new core rules will be backward compatible with D&D 5 to the point of all existing D&D 5 materials work with the new rules.  This fits my prediction that rules were going to be closer to something D&D 5R or Edition 5.5.

They will be taking feedback, giving people time to playtest first. 

The new edition/revision will have new core rule books.  There will be a closer tie to the books and D&D Beyond as well as their own new digital service.   [source]

Wizards will also be including more features for inclusivity, so among other things I expect more species options as PCs and dropping the default alignment for characters, but maybe not necessarily so for monsters.  I think we have seen some of these changes for monsters in the Spelljammer Monstrous Compendium and Monsters of the Multiverse.

So to me, this feels like the changes 2nd ed did to 2nd ed revised, 3.0 did to 3.5, or 4e did to Essentials. 

Beth Rimmels over at ENWorld has a complete coverage of what is going on.
https://www.enworld.org/threads/one-d-d-takes-5e-to-new-digital-places.690754/

In any case, it is going to be fun to see where this new D&D goes.

Grabbed the playtest. Looks like we get a "Primal" spell source for Druids now. No Goblins though as a playable species!

Friday, August 5, 2022

Kickstart Your Weekend: Twilight Fables Goes OSR

So this was posted earlier this week.

Twilight Fables OSR

So I guess that makes it official. You can get Twilight Fables in 5e AND OSE/OSR flavors.

There are new OSR tiers to choose from. I just updated mine to include both the OSE and 5e versions of the book.

--

Twilight Fables

Twilight Fables OSR

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1693797308/twilight-fables?ref=theotherside

Really looking forward to this one. It is for 5e and it looks AMAZING.  Rod was the mastermind behind Chromatic Dungeons, so you know the quality is good, but he has upped his game to the next level on this one. In addition to a Print on Demand version, there will be the ubiquitous PDF and Print-friendly PDF, and there will also be an accessible RTF file.  There is also an option for a glossy offset print if the stretch goal is made.

Additionally, you get a zip file containing tokens and markdown files of every creature, as well as dozens of printable images of the monsters. To be used at your table or virtual table. 

The book has a ton of monsters from myth and legend and more to the point the book is already done. That's correct, there might be some minor edits here and there, but the book is done, art is in place, and you will get your digital rewards (PDF, RTF, tokens) as soon as the funding is done.

That's the way to do it honestly.

And NOW an OSR option too!

Saturday, July 23, 2022

100 Days of Halloween: Lady of the Soil Warlock Patron

Lady of the Soil
Kicking this off with a very summery sort of "Witch." And this one is a bit different than most of my fare here.  It is a Warlock Patron for 5e warlocks and it is on Itch.io, a platform I really don't use much.

The Lady of the Soil - a 5e Warlock Patron

This warlock Patron was written by Harlen Eherenman and based on the patron of Ginny Di's warlock character Aisling.  I like Ginny Di. She is super enthusiastic about all things D&D and she is a joy to watch.  Likewise, Aisling is also a very enjoyable character. I can see Aisling and Morelia the Wood Witch both making guest appearances in my War of the Witch Queens campaign as "celebrity NPCs." 

How is this product though?

Again it is on Itch.io and I typically see prices much higher than I see for similar content on DriveThruRPG.  If I am using a rule of thumb of 10 cents per page at DriveThru then I should likely expect 25 cents per page here.  Sill, I am going to follow my rules for these reviews. 

This is $3.50 for four pages.  One page is for the cover and the last page is a half-page, so here we are doing $1.00 per page.  The PDF is full color.

What is included here is some background on the Lady of the Soil. What spells she grants her warlocks and what powers they gain at various levels.  There are four new invocations, but no new spells.

The cover mentions that this uses the OGL, but there is no copy of the OGL included (as required) and while there is a notice of Product Identity, there is no explicit declaration of what is being claimed.  The assumption I guess is the whole document.

Ok, it is fun, but there isn't really enough here.  This really is for the Ginny Di fans out there. Without Aisling to make this interesting there is not enough here to justify the price tag.  

Sorry. I really, really wanted to like it a lot more. 

The Other Side - 100 Days of Halloween