An Unboxing (In which I coin the term 'Dolmenesque')

I got a couple of parcels today, which is always fun.

First up was The Second Book of Lanhmar.  I really shouldn't be buying new books at the moment as I'm supposed to be in the process of downsizing in advance of a house move.  But someone recommended Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories and I've really enjoyed the ones I've read so far.  Their light tone and understated humour mixes well with the darkness of some of the story matter.

More excitingly perhaps was a draft of the new Dolmenwood Player's Book by Necrotic Gnome., creators of Old-School Essentials.  I've mentioned it before, but Dolmenwood is their weird, fairy-tale  campaign setting.

I've signed up to provide playtesting and feedback, so received the pdf last week.  I sent it to be printed off and spiral-bound by doxdirect.  This was a bit of an experiment for me, and I'm pleased with the results.  It was reasonably priced and only took two days to get to me from placement of the order.  It's certainly better that I could have produced at home.  The spiral binding will allow for some flexible use at the table.  I must say that I always prefer hard-copies over pdfs, which I find almost impossible to concentrate on.

I would say that I'll give you my impressions when I've read it, but as this is a pre-publication version, I'm not supposed to!  Let's just leave it with the overwhelming impression of clear lines and good lay-out (which is something of a trademark of Necrotic Gnome's).  This is more than cosmetic:  having recently had a very frustrating session with some other rulebooks, I do appreciate the utility of having a reference that can be used at the table.

Some of you may remember that before Christmas I ran a couple of sessions of the Hole in the Oak module for what I called 'The Home Group' (I also ran a less successful session for my regular RPG group).  Anyway, Christmas, New Year and diaries intervened and we haven't played since: I was a little surprised when at our last meeting (for board-games) people were keen to pick up where we left off and even to carry on after the module.  Hole in the Oak isn't set in Dolmenwood, but it's as near as damn!  It will only take little tweeking to insert Dolmenesque elements.  I will digest the Player's Book and then decide how many to put into our game and whether we will go whole-hog into the 'Wood.

As a final aside, all of doxdirect's packing material was recyclable.  Very good to see.

Fruit of the Kickstarter: Old School Essentials

Regular readers may realise that my regular RPG group's system of choice is Old School Essentials (formerly B/X Essentials) by Necrotic Gnome.  OSE is a retro-clone and restatement of the 1981 Basic/Expert rules for D&D.  People who know better than I do have said that it's the best expression of B/X.

Our group were involved in the play-testing of various new bits of the rules-set (readers of my Butcher's Bill posts will appreciate I've had the chance to try out several of the Advanced Classes!) for an edition that went to Kickstarter back in April to great sucess: it funded withing two hours, and finally was over 1000% subscribed.  So this is more than just an unboxing review:  I'm fairly familiar with the contents, and am enthusiastic in my recommendation of them!

Well fulfilment is underway on schedule and my rewards arrived today.  In fact they would have arrived on Wednesday: instead I received the Red Card of Frustration.  The OSE group on Facebook has been full of tantalising photos from across the world while I've been twiddling my thumbs!

Up to now OSE has been published in module form: a series of softback books of 40-60 pages.   This is quite handy as it allows people to buy which bits they need, but not the others.  So for example, as we've been playing over the last year and a half, as a rule only the GM has have the booklets covering monster stats and allocation of treasures but there might have been three copies of the core rules and the character classes volumes at the table.  Another advantage is that the intention is to bring out additional modules covering additional genre rules or other specialisations (word on the street is that Post-Apoc is being planned).

In putting together the new issue, Gavin Norman has continued with this modular system (but now in hardback with new-and-better illustrations).  These are available in a Black Box version, with the five core volumes.

Having said all that, I chose to go for the Rules Tome option, in which these five core volumes are presented in one 296pp hardback volume.  As you'll see from the photos below, the volume has very high production values and great artwork.  From the cover options I chose the Peter Mullen varient, an image I love (and is expanded on the new GM's screen).

The front- and end-papers of all the volumes have quick reference table relevant to the contents.  The Rules Tome has a couple of ribbon markers, a nice touch.

Layout is a module of clarity and well thought-out artwork.  Where possible, Gavin has worked hard to have all the relevant info on a single double-spread - as can be seen with the decriptions of character classes.

And the art-work can speak for itself...  Over two-dozen artists are represented in the Rules Tome.

There were two modules in the Kickstarter aditional to the Core Set or Rules Tome:  Advance Fantasy Genre Rules and a list of Druid and Illusionist Spells.  The major part of the Advance Rules is that addition of another 15 character clases and the option of character races (because this is B/X of course, and the default is race-as-class).  Druid and Illusionist are two of the new classes, so they needed a spell list.   I've played from both these volumes in various drafts, and they work well.  

The small volumes have the same production values as the Tome (without the special colour spreads) and will work well on the table - we all know the problem of POD or other volumes that lose pages after very little use.

Finally, one of the stretch goals for the Kickstarter was the inclusing of an introductionary adventure: The Hole In the Oak.  This was described as "a classic (and quirky!) old-school adventure for 1st level characters, set in the Mythic Underworld that lies beyond the hole in an old oak tree. This odd realm will be mapped by the mycologically inclined Karl Stjernberg and illustrated by the phantasmagoric James West".

Unlike the other volumes in the Kickstarter, this is a softback (staple bound of 32 pages), but the same care has gone into the layout and choice of illustrations.

I'll be immersing myself in this module over the next week, as in an excess of enthusiasm I've offered to GM the module.  My first experience of GM-ing!  I'm going to do a dry run on some close friends and then break it out for the more discerning RPG group.

Necrotic Gnome's next project is a Kickstarter in 2020 for the production of a Campaign Book for the weird and wonderful Dolmonwood setting.  I've played in that setting, and I hope to be be able to sign up for that one too!

Old-School Essentials Kickstarter

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/necroticgnome/old-school-essentials

Readers of my recent posts on the RPG campaign I've been taking part in, will see that we've been using the B/X Essentials system (now renamed Old-School Essentials to make it less niche) produced by Necrotic Gnome - and indeed have been lucky enough to be involved in the play-testing of new material.

Well on Friday evening Necrotic Gnome (otherwise Gavin Norman) launched its Kickstarter for funding to produce the revised rules in high-quality hardback format (previously they were sold as print-on-demand).  And it was fully funded in the first two hours.

I owe four of the five current modules, but I've signed up to upgrade - these are lovely products and worth having.  The stretch-goals already reached include the  publication two more rules modules - Advanced Fantasy: Genre Rules and Druid and Illusionist Spells, both of which I've used in draft form and would also recommend.

The rest in the words of Necrotic Gnome...

Rewards
We'll be producing two things for this Kickstarter:

1. The Black Box: A luxury box set containing 5 slim hardcover rules modules covering all aspects of the game: Core Rules, Classic Fantasy Genre Rules (your classes, equipment, strongholds, etc), Cleric and Magic-User Spells, Classic Fantasy Monsters, Classic Fantasy Treasures.

1. The Rules Tome: All the Old-School Essentials rules in a single, fat hardcover. 

Details:

• Quality: All books will be produced as luxury, sewn-binding hardcovers.

• Covers: Book and box covers by Andrew Walter and Peter Mullen.

• Complete B/X clone: Both products form a complete retro-clone of the beloved Basic / Expert rules from 1981!

• Limited edition Rules Tome: A leatherette-bound, foil-stamped edition of the Rules Tome, only available in this Kickstarter!

• High-level rewards: Very limited rewards include your name in the credits on the title page of the books, and your face in an illustration!

Barrowmaze #3: My Player Characters

In which I try to remember and enumerate the various characters I've played over the last year...

Forgotten

I have actually forgotten both the name and class of the the first character I took to the Barrowmoors (we didn't get as far as the Barrowmaze!).  This session was almost a TPK - the only survivor was a Halfling who was knocked out early in the fight.

Fate: Killed by Living Statues.

B'Loxi (Elf)

B'Loxi was a bit Old Skool

B'Loxi was my longest surviving character.  He made more than half a dozen delves before being killed.  He was famous for his mapping in those crazy early days when scale didn't matter, and for brokering a truce-like arrangement with the Mutant Men after mending a statue for them.

For some reason he is fondly regarded by the other players and is still occasionally mentioned by NPCs.

Fate: Killed by Spectral Hound.

An honorable mention should go to B'Loxi's hireling, Merg the Dwarf.  Merg survived and actually got as far as retiring on the proceeds of his delves.  In my mind, he went off and opened an inn called the Loxi Arms.  However, our GM says were might not have seen the last of him.  If I was ever to GM a one-off it would start in the Loxi Arms.

Fate: Retired.

Good Old Merg!

Ranwald the Strong (Knight)

Ranwald WIP (RIP)

Our group has been lucky enough to play-test various bits and pieces for Necrotic Gnome.  One of these was the Advance Classes for their Old School Essentials range.  Fortunately, the high death-rate meant that we got through quite a few of these!  In hindsight I wish I hadn't decided that Ranwald was a Knight.

I  went as far as giving him a back-story, intending him to be an old comrade-in-arms of B'Loxi's, a captain of the guard appointed an Esquire of House Loxi through merit.  However, my interpretation of the Knight class as written was that he would always choose to be in the front-line of a melee and would attack the strongest opponent.  Unsurprisingly this resulted in the grizzled old veteran dying on his first outing.

Fate: Killed by Ghouls.

Rugg (Barbarian)

Rugg had a lot of scope and I was looking forward to playing him (normally I need a few sessions before I get on with a character, but I liked Rugg from the beginning).  He managed three or four delves over one gaming session.

Fate: Killed by Rot Grubs

Stolen from Deviant Art

Elezier (Druid)

Not to mention his companion, Robbie the Robber Fly.

Another character I really liked.  He was a devotee of King 'Shroom, which was quite fun - I had him rubbing mushroom spore into any suitable medium he found in the dungeon.  He had a special session when he went into the woods (on Midsummer Night) and found Robbie - his first encounter was with a Blue Dragon, but he made his excuses and left.

Fate: Killed by Giant Scorpions.  Robbie had earlier tried to sting a Grey Ooze (which didn't go well).

Gerran (Ranger)

Another enjoyable character (and another follower of King 'Shroom).  He was hardly ever surprised and used his wilderness skills to great advantage.  When Galmar the Dwarf built his house, Gerran pitched his tent by a mushroom ring in the grounds.  He donated most of his acquired loot to the underground followers of the Old Gods.

Fate:  MIA on a mission to Ironguard Keep (I lost his character sheet!).

C'Loxi (Elf)

Not another F**king Elf!

Some sort of relative of B'Loxi.  Killed on his first delve.

Fate: Killed by Skeletons

Last Elf Standing

Kindroleth (Elf)

Though not of House Loxi, Kindroleth bears an uncanny resemblance to B'Loxi.

He has Previous.  Before delving in the Barrowmaze, he ventured to the Lost City with others of the party.

Fate: To be determined...

Update

Nine hours later and not only has Kindoleth been killed, but so has his successor.