Tuesday 15 October 2013

Post Shopping Roundup

Been Shopping online and scoring a few products of late. Some to see what the OSR is up to before I start designing my own. Some Cthulhu as my mid era collection has been played too often and even read by some players. Running Cthulhu Britannia game for a while but some time travel could slip in.

The Witch by Timothy Brannan
A bit cheaper now so I had to snarfle this one down. Fits in well with BX and usable with lots of interesting spells. I am still a fan of the one in Dragon with Elmore art but ths one is nice. May be a role for witch in my games. Spells, creatures and magic loot bonanza.

Void Core
Ok but i prefered cthonian stars and cthulhutech and eclipse phaze but this good value very good looking game. The fiction interludes dont do it for me.

Tomb of Rakoss the Undying
Another cheap adventure the entrance is pretty cool. As a sampler for a ompany it does a good job of providing a taste,

The Manor 1-4
Good clean zine fun that makes me wanna get zine going. Have thought of a A5 book of hexes for hexcrawls myself. Mini adventures feel understated (meant to be a compliment) and can be fitted in anywhere easily.

Ruins of the Undercity
This is similar to my own redbrick dungeon zone project and im glad i didnt see it earlier. Pretty good and has given me ideas. Made me realize some of my random table stuff good for solo crawling. Tried solo Psychon hex crawling after reading this.

Protodimension no16
Online horror game magazine free here. Fairly nice production standards but has not sucked me in enough to get rest yet.

Cess Pit of the bog mother
 A short oldschool module with lotsa treasure (id cut a zero off most rewards in game). Cheap oldschool fun and playable in one go. Once again Im temped to make a 12 page oldschool 2 colour module


Frontier Explorer and Star Frotiersman
Great mag for star frontiers which i am still fond of and still follow. I steal from many SF games but this one was pretty good in its day - fast and simple compared to traveller and space master. Lotsa ideas to steal. Links in titles of mags above.

Mongoose RQ Empires
Mongoose RQ stuff easy to get now even my gameshop has books cheap (i may grab clanking city). The basic mechanic of stats for empires fails for me. Id rather try plot it on civilization or use a 70s wargame. Has some ideas but at one dollar i cant complain.

Book of Quests for RQ6
A new RQ world with runes and chaos which they have needed. A little bit dull compared to questworld or glorantha. This is a big book with lots of content which could take months of play. Too big to digest but seems good quality. I will try more RQ6 stuff.

Basic Arcana
Looked appealing but i have done most of this stuff myself as have peers on blogger. Still its cheap and has some ideas.

Anomalous subsurface environment 1&2
I might have mentioned this before but this is best modules i have ever read. Actually the setting is more interesting and would fit in Psychon without much effort (id be willing to wing it). Maybe Im just scared of clowns and should go with the evil bastards. I live in a house split among clown lovers and haters. This causes problems.

Talisainia
Great stuff from 80s and beyond all free here - months of reading the world with no elves!

Machete Girl Magazine
Free here proclaimed cyberpunk magazine - aint exactly mondo2000 and seems more about rave freaks - not a gamer product intentionally

Liberation_of_the_Demon_Slayer

One of best yet - table for unhappy backgrounds is great, interesting setting, would work on my Psychon setting too. This feels more like a deliberate new wave oldschool adventure and not just a clone product. I hope to see more. Adult subject matter appreciated too.


BRP Mecha
 Pretty good stuff - feels a bit strapped on but simple and walkable. I like it - well designed and might be able to use for cthulhu mecha sf fun. Cthulhu king of Kaiju here I come with a tac-nuke for you!


Call of Cthulhu Britania Folklore
Decided im gonna get cubicle7 cthulhu britain books. This one has stats and ideas for any BRP horror or fantasy game with lots stats on folklore beasties. Very well done. Also another company done adventures set in new york, i think by the lovecraft county guys so i should get it.

Atomic Age Cthulhu
Has not set me on fire really. some art flawed and would like world book section in front like most time setting books. To be fair I need to try harder to like this book. Gurps atomic horror seemed easier to love and fun. I would rather have seen more 50 dover book copyright free images than illustrations that seem modern and slightly unintentionally humorous.

Terror in the skies
Another Cthulhu book im having trouble loving. Id like to see more less complicated plots and crypt crawls like 80s adventures. Investigative games I find more linear and many end with a discovery followed by helplessness. BRP stuff seems very inconsistent in layouts nowadays. New gaslight looks better than original - most fould detailed old version Sherlock Holmes adventure daunting.

Other BRP Stuff
Will get pulp book. Was tempted by Amber coast book but i cant help but choke on glorifying invading my ancestors. For some reason I no longer want to play crusaders, samurai or nazi ss deathcamp guards. New BRP fantasy world book looked tempting but it is basically old school stormbringer system and I think I could do better myself. Fonts seem bigger and I have spotted typos which a dyslexic person notices then you editing is flawed. Iceland and Rome stuff all looks good. I was put off by roman cthulhu by the back story about gods which just didn't seem very Lovecraftian (but blavatsky maybe). Viking monographs for cthulhu dark ages look good. Cthulhu vikings looks viable. BRP Clasic fantasy quite good shame chaosium went another direction but I hear author will do a new product elsewhere. Good mash up of dnd and RQ.

Some of these things just made me think i need to publish more stuff faster.

5 comments:

  1. That's quite a haul you've got there.

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  2. Funny what you say about putting ASE into Psychon. I run ASE here in Brisbane and I'm looking at squeezing in some Psychon into the Lanthanide Wastes and going all Virconium on their sanity. In fairness though, I should probably call it the Denethix game because we're not using the megadungeon, but are making heavy use of Gus' stuff at Dungeon of Signs. I should thank him some time.

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    Replies
    1. Liberation_of_the_Demon_Slayer would fit in too - interesting DnD variant rules

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  3. I picked up Liberation_of_the_Demon_Slayer yesterday on your recommendation and it looks fantastic. I'm really impressed. I've had the concept of a sentient neutron star tucked away for use where applicable and now it falls into my lap ready made. Thanks for the heads up on that.

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  4. Thanks for spreading the word, Konsumterra. I really appreciate it. And I'm glad that Liberation of the Demon Slayer resonated with you, Calum. That's awesome! Let us know how your game turns out.

    VS

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