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Saturday, April 5, 2025

Free OSR - The Doom-Cave of the Crystal-Headed Children (LotFP)



The Doom-Cave of the Crystal-Headed Children was the Free RPG Day offering from LotFP in 2014, written by James Raggi. To call the adventure "quirky" would be an understatement - and a disservice. 

It claims to be for "any level" of characters, but I'd guess from browsing the adventure that levels 2-3 would work fine. It is pure Raggi, but it is solvable. Oh, and disturbing. Very disturbing.

Lamentations' stuff is not for everyone, but if you enjoy the various LotFP releases and this isn't in your collection, the pricing should be very tempting ;)

LotFP’s 2013 Free RPG Day adventure, Better Than Any Man, was banned by many game stores around the world. The adventure was even accused by one participating store as being about “killing children.”

It wasn’t; but people see what they want to see, and because LotFP wants to work with retailers and be a publisher that produces what retailers want to see, we have decided that per that store's wishes, this year's Free RPG Day adventure should be about the killing of children.

Not to worry though—they are freaky crystal-headed children. Inhuman RPG cannon-fodder. ‘Monsters.’ So it’s okay. They deserve it. So you can have fun carving them up. Right?

A LotFP Weird Fantasy Role-Playing adventure for characters of any level. As the title indicates, it is a dungeon crawl.

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Free OSR - Megadungeon #3 (Hack & Slash)



At some point, Courtney priced Megadungeon #3 as PWYW. If you haven't sampled any of Hack & Slash's Megadungeons, you should, as the amount of immediately usable game material is ridiculously high.

You can pay what you want for Megadungeon #3grab it for free or leave Courtney a tip; it's up to you. As a way to try before you buy other releases from Hack & Slash, it's another one of those no-brainers!

Dungeon adventures, NPC's, and resources suitable for any campaign! Dual-statted for Basic Dungeons & Dragons and 5e. Come explore the upper and lower crypts of Hierax. Visit the sadlark mine, get lost in non-euclidean space. Meet interesting people and kill them!

Articles on actual play in the gaming renaissance, as well as disscussing dungeon restocking, and the Cannitie faction in Numenhalla.

Heavily illustrated by the talented OSR artists, Todd McGowan, Kent Miller, Sean McCoy, Evlyn Monroe, with a cover by Luka Rejec!

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Friday, April 4, 2025

Bundle of Holding - Wyrd and Wild (OSR Sourcebooks)

I was surprised to see an OSR Bundle at Bundle of Holding where I didn't recognize the titles. Such is the case with the Wyrd and Wild bundle. But then I looked at the titles on DTRPG:

Into the Wyrd and Wild Revised Edition - 19.95 - Mithral Best Seller - 4.9 out of 5 for 79 ratings

Into the Cess and Citadel - 19.95 - Gold Best Seller - 5 out of 5 for 24 ratings

Ave Nox - 20.00 - Silver Best Seller - 4.7 out of 5 for 7 ratings

The Vast in the Dark: Expanded - 20.00 - Electrum Best Seller - 5 out of 5 for 10 ratings

Take my money. I'm all in. :)

Adventurer! This all-new Wyrd and Wild Bundle presents Into the Wyrd and Wild and other tabletop weird-fantasy roleplaying sourcebooks from designer-artist Charles Ferguson-Avery at Feral Indie Studio and Wet Ink Games. Easily adaptable to any Old-School Revival system such as Old-School Essentials, Shadowdark, or The Black Hack – or, with a little work, to Dungeon Crawl Classics, Pathfinder, and D&D 5E and compatible systems – these vivid and atmospheric system-neutral supplements give gamemasters the tools to create forbidding forests, exotic cities, Witcher-style monster hunts, and more. And the 200-room Ave Nox dungeon and the brutalist alien megastructures in The Vast in the Dark keep any group busy exploring for months. Send your players into these dark and dangerous landscapes and let them get their Wyrd on.

For just US$19.95 you get all six complete Old-School supplements in our Feral Collection (retail value $87) as DRM-free ebooks, including the acclaimed Into the Wyrd and Wild (Revised Edition) (often described as "Veins of the Earth for forests") and its urban counterpart, Into the Cess and Citadel; the 208-page megadungeon Ave Nox; the alien exploration setting The Vast in the Dark - Expanded; and two zine-size mini-sourcebooks, As the Gods Demand and They Cried Monster.


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Thursday, April 3, 2025

Free OSR - CC1 Creature Compendium (New Big Dragon Games)



Somehow, I missed Rich LeBlanc's (New Big Dragon Games) Creature Compendium being priced at PWYW. At this price, it should be in every GM's toolkit for old-school / OSR gaming. Written for B/X AND 1e, it's a perfect fit for OSE, DragonSlayer, OSRIC, Swords & Wizardry, the original rules, and beyond.

Sample creature with stat block:


Remember those flashes of inspiration that electrified your brain when you first picked up that hardback volume of monsters all those years ago?

The countless nights you sat up thinking of how to use those monsters, where to put them, and when your players would meet them? Those unceasing waves of joy that swam over you and your players as you unleashed those creatures, critters, beasts, and behemoths upon their characters?

Collected herein are over 200 monsters from Abysmal to Zathoa, instilled with that same spirit, presented in a “dual-stat” format, and designed to be used with most early editions of the world’s original role-playing game and comparable retro-clones.


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Wednesday, April 2, 2025

Backerkit - WHPA-13 The Demon Curd of St Uguzo


When I was first exposed to WHPA-13 at TotalCon in 2024, I wondered what this quirky little zine of an RPG was. After reading the rules and flashing back to my youth of black and white TVs, rabbit ears, and public access, I wanted to know where WHPA-13 had been for much of my earlier life. (Note: WHPA-13 is 5 bucks in PDF at DTRPG - you owe it to your younger self to buy a copy)

It's a very special RPG, and Silver Bulette is publishing The Demon Curd of St Uguzo. Rocky and Ian are dear friends of mine, and I expect their entry will be a huge success. Oh, and funny as hell!

This 'zine came together as an adventure and some bonus material you can use at your WHPA table. The adventure contains numerous player handouts and aps to make the investigation of this mystery a breeze. Can your Hosts figure out what is plaguing the town of Fairhaven before Demonic Manifestations overrun the entire place. 

This project is a 20 page zine that will be printed on 80 pound paper with a 100 pound cover. The zine is production ready and files have been uploaded to the printer and are awaiting the go ahead. 

The current estimated printing and shipping time was 4-6 weeks and mailing would happen immediately upon arrival.

"This melts my mozzarella heart, Ian. I love this so much and the experience section is really interesting. Thanks for putting so much personality into this. This has my top-tier blessing. You really get this whole project. WELL DONE" - Rev. Joey Royale

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Tuesday, April 1, 2025

Deal of the Day - FlexTale Hexcrawl Toolkit (multisystem: Pathfinder, P2E, 5E, OSR, DCC)



Hexcrawls. Nothing but hexcrawls :)

I've only heard good things about the FlexTale series of releases, and I've picked up the odd one here or there. I believe I have their Solo FlexTale supplement, and it was full of useful tables.

Today's Deal of the Day is the FlexTale Hexcrawl Toolkit. Normally, it is 19.99 in PDF format, but until tomorrow morning, the FlexTale Hexcrawl Toolkit is on sale for 4 bucks.

This book was designed to be the most complete, most comprehensive, most innovative authority on hexcrawl roleplaying game adventuring ever produced.

After more than 35 years of gaming, both old-school through to today's most popular systems, the Hexcrawl Toolkit takes one of the hobby's oldest and most enduring concepts, and provides a passionate and well-organized guide for running hexcrawls, either as part of your campaign, or as the focus of them.  Designed to be used by new players, veteran G/DMs, those entirely new to hexcrawls, and solo players alike, this book will be immediately useful to any gaming group, in any context, using any rules system, for campaigns of any length--even those already in progress!

The goal of the book is to guide readers through the concepts at the reader's own pace and preference.  

If you've ever seen a module or other book with a hex map, and thought to yourself, how do I make one of those?  How do I make the one that's there better?  This book is for you.

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Monday, March 31, 2025

Deal of the Day - The Hole in the Oak (OSE Adventure)

Today's Deal of the Day is A Hole in the Oak for OSE. Usually priced at 7.50 in PDF, this 40-page adventure A Hole in the Oak is marked down to 3.75 until tomorrow morning.

A hole in an old oak tree leads characters down to a maze of twisting, root-riddled passageways, the chambers of an ancient wizard-complex, and the banks of an underground river where once a reptile cult built their temples.

A classic expedition into the Mythic Underworld for characters of 1st to 2nd level.

60 keyed areas, rumour table, loot summary, dungeon background info, suggestions for expanding the dungeon.

Keyed in a quick-reference, bullet point format.

Statted for Old-School Essentials (B/X), usable with any vintage adventure game.

Unlabelled map included for VTT use.

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Sunday, March 30, 2025

Kickstarter - Ryecroft: A Dangerous Cemetery Crawl for OSE and B/X TTRPGs (Midderlands)

I've said this before, and I'll say it again - Gylnn Seal (AKA Monkeyblood) is one of the most skilled RPG professional creators in the business. Writing, artwork, mapping, layout, you name it - he's one of the best.

Ryecroft: A Dangerous Cemetery Crawl is Glynn's latest Kickstarter. While not explicitly set in the Midderlands, it will fit right in (or likely fit most any old-school setting.)

Print plus PDF is about $52 US plus shipping.


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