I relatively recently backed/bought
3 new OSR zines and I was waiting to get all of them in so that I could do one
review for all of them. That day has come, and I can say from the get-go that I
enjoy all three of them and I do not regret getting any of them. Let’s not bury
the lead and just get straight into it.
#1 – Delver
This
zine was created by James Floyd Kelly and it is specific to support the “random”
Dungeon Master. The zine is a collection of random chart, tables, and other
little goodies that can add flavor to your game or help with specific circumstances.
Charts like, “Keeping Watch”, “Ixra’s Wondrous Tomes”, and “The Auction House” are
arrayed throughout the book. Each listing has multiple charts underneath it for
added detail. James also has a section in the zine for DM advice called, “The
Referee Roundtable” where he passes out some knowledge from his years of
gaming. Lastly, you get an entire low-level adventure called “Secret of the
Shattered Fist Monastery.” This adventure is designed to be played with
Old-School Essentials for 4 to 8 1st level characters. It is a
small-ish 3 level dungeon that seems perfect for a one-night starter adventure
or a 4-hour convention game. It has an illustrated map and some handouts for
the players. All-in-all this “zine” comes in at almost 50 pages and was more
than worth the price I paid for it.
If you are interested in purchasing this item, please click HERE.
#2 – Carcass Crawler Issue #1
Carcass
Crawler, if you do not know, is the official zine of Old-School Essentials.
With issue #1 Gavin Norman (and team) come up with a variety of useful add-ons
to the base OSE game. All of these are completely optional but do add a lot of
cool flavors to the game. So, what do you get inside? You get six new Character
Classes, of which 3 are new Race-as-Class. These include some of the following,
Acolyte, Goblin, and Gargantua. You also get the Character Race adjustments for
the new Race-as-Class if that is your style of game. We get an entire section
on adding black powder firearms to your game. Lastly, you get an option rules
section that has some expanded Fighter options, a new method for using thief
skills, and some advice on adjudicating thief skills. To me this is a great edition
to any OSE collection, and I have already put some of these rules into play for
my Tuesday night game.
If you are interested in purchasing this item, please click HERE.
#3 – Back to BasiX Compilation (1-10)
This is
both a new and old product to the scene dating back to 2017. Back to Basix was
created by ThrowiGames and is in the vein of old Dragon Magazines. Each issue
has a smattering of different material in it. There are always new monsters, new
items, a small dungeon, and an interview with a figure from the community.
People like Frank Mentzer, David Cook, and Erol Otus all offer some insights
into the creation of the hobby along with some interesting stories. I admit
that I really enjoyed reading these again because it made me feel like I was
young again. Getting a copy of Dragon going home and cracking it open to see
all the different stuff this month. As the issues increase so does the page
count and the issues get longer and longer. The dungeons tend to get a bit larger,
and I have already incorporated them into a sandbox I am planning on running
soon. There is really something in there for everyone and it gets my highest recommendation.
If you are interested in purchasing this item, please click HERE.
I run Old School Essentials weekly and post our games to YouTube, click HERE to see.
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