A review I read indicated this may have some Minoan stuff in it. So I bought it with an eye towards running it for Mazes & Minotaurs. (But I would not work for M&M)

It's very beautiful, with full colour pages including full colour pics of the monsters. That's all I have to say good about it. The Pages don't even look as good printed out as they did on the computer.

There is no introduction for the module at all. The PC's enter a pool for no reason at all and are transported into a pool on the first level of the dungeon.

There are three levels of dungeon with almost no spaces between rooms. The wall of one room is the wall of another. (at least it's Old School) Each room has a name, like: "Elder Mural" and a key, like "T5" that you have to look up on one of several lists. There are lists of: Legends, Gloops, Glops and Gobs, Treasures, Weird Locations, Chimeric Creatures, Humans, and Animated Animals. Each entry on the list is keyed to a particular room and they are keyed in random order on the maps. So 1st level has: "T11" then "W6" then C5 then W2, then H1 then T9 then C3 then W7 then C6 then T 12 then H2, in that order on the key.

As a result the DM will have to flip back and forth between the maps and tables constantly. And if you didn't print it out, that would be really hard. The Treasures are not only not that valuable, they are not that interesting either. The best one is the new spell. But it is not so useful and I can't see why anyone would cast that spell. The Weird things, are not that weird.

And there is a missing blank page. So when I printed it out the corner with the page numbers appeared with the page numbers on the inner side of the page. (by the spine)

All and all. I did not like this module.

Just before bed, I looked on drivethrough RPG, I don’t know why . . . But I found this gem. I may have been one of the first people to buy it. I like Deep Carbon Observatory and thought I might like this too. I downloaded the pdf and read late into the night. . . .

. . . Reading it for the first time moved me deeply! It was something akin to a religious experience! I will never look at the Underdark the same way again!

It starts with a monster manual of 52 new monsters. The first few a really liked! And the next section is on Underdark societies. But after reading a few monsters, I skipped over these sections and dove into the rules.

Veins of the Earth portrays a world very different from most people’s vision of the Underdark. It’s not a series of 10 foot high tunnels that your party can have a Marching Order for. It’s Caves that have to be navigated three-dimensionally. You have to climb and repel and squeeze through spaces so small that you have to stick one arm in front of you and tilt your shoulders to fit. Food is so scarce that your body is worth its’ weight in silver as a source of meat. (LoFP is on a silver standard) And over shadowing it all is the Dark . . . the Deep, Deep, terrible Darkness . . . “Dungeons are puddles of darkness. This is the sea.” Down here infravision/darkvision doesn’t work very well. There are several ways given in the book to adjucate this. Down here, Light is initiative, Light is the ability to navigate, Light is money. The amount of Light you have left is a measurement of time. The amount of Light you have to consume to get there is a measurement of distance. There are twenty new kinds of lamps offered in the book. And rules about what happens when you get lost in the dark.

There is a new character sheet with an easier system of encumbrance than the LoFP standard. It also has a section for the starvation rules. How long has it been since you ate? 4 days? Then you have to either buy/steal 600 light hours worth of food or eat one of your companions.

Also, climbing in the caves is a very important skill. And non-specialized (non-thieves) only have a 16.66% chance of making that climb. Fortunately, you can improve you chance of climbing by studying the route of your climb. The longer you study, the better your odds, with a 82% chance if you spend more than an hour studying the route. (but you are burning Light while you do so!) Or, if the DM doesn’t want to roll for every climb, there is a way to roll for exploring and the time it takes. And if you fall from a climb there is a highly varriable chart to roll damage with the maximum roll of 1-600 hp. (so you might get lucky a survive that extreme fall. Or up to 5 of your friends might catch you, sharing the damage amongst them and you.

There is a new way of making caves, a sort of 3D line drawing that allows you to cover lots of rooms quickly. I’m currently using it as a player to map Maze of the Blue Medusa. There is also a method to use this to quickly generate random caves. There is also a section of mapping larger scale features like rivers and mines. There is also 100 described caves that you can use on the fly.

There is also a random name generator, 100 works of art, and twelve kinds of darkness.

After reading the rules I went back and read the sections on Cultures in the Veins and monsters. The tone on Cultures and monsters was highly variable. Some of the Monsters I like a lot and would want to use whole cultures of them. Others, were described too poetically for me to use.

I am an older person. I find small print hard to read and electronic format hard to use as I like to flip back and forth when using a book like this at the table. So I usually print out my pdf’s. Also there is the art. I am not a fan of Scrap Princess. But her art on Deep Carbon Observatory is starting to grow on me . . . it sets a certain mood. The art in this book is mostly black and white with little splashes of colour. It looks much better on the tablet than the art in Deep Carbon Observatory and I can tell that on glossy pages it would look much better. And there is a lot of this art throughout the book. Also the book has many many large sections of white text on black background. I could tell that it would use a lot of ink to print this out, all 368 pages! So I ordered the actual book. . . . . . . . When it arrived, It was extremely high quality, with a glossy cover that shows off Scrap Princess’ the way it was meant to be seen! The cover looks much better than the one of Maze of the Blue Medusa! There are not one, but, two ribbons attached to the book, a red one and a black one to mark two different spots. And the most commonly used charts are on the inside covers. And the pages are thick . . . almost thick as card stock! . . . . . . but the book is smaller than expected . . . half-page sized. . . . even smaller than Maze of the Blue Medusa! It doesn’t fit with all my other RPGing books. Smaller pages means smaller print. Hard to read small print. The pages are not white, but grey and I have to turn on the lights brightly in order to read the book. Many of the White (gray) print on black background are hard to read. Also, there is a faint pattern on the pages that I initially thought was bleed-over of print from other pages. Also the pages are flat, not glossy. So Scrap Princess art (except the cover) does not look as good as the electronic version.

After I had had time to digest the book, I realized that there is a lot missing in the content. Several peoples are covered in the Cultures section. But there are no descriptions about what individual members of that race are like. Using this book will take a lot of extra work on my part. There is a table of 100 random encounters. But, to use the table, I will have to flesh out most of them. There is no equipment list telling how much do things cost. It is stated that meat is worth its’ weight in hours of Light. (silver equivalent) But how much are mushrooms? Are there extra big mushrooms that can be used to make things as a subsitute for wood? Or do you have to use large bone? How much is real wood worth as jewelry? How much are things from the surface worth, especially highly addictive things, like tobacco? If Light is money, how long does a candle last. How much oil will fit in a lantern? There are 20 different lamps listed. But no costs. Some of them are permanent or semi-permanent sources of Light. How much do they cost? How long do the various fuels last? And with 350+ pages, you would think they would be at least a sample village in a cave or mini-adventure.

In closing . . . I highly recommend this book as a reference. But not as book at the table. I plan to print out the tables and character sheets for use at the table though.

I downloaded LoFP Referee Book for Drivethrough RPG

I read some of it and became intrigued enough to print it out. (I am old and find reading text on the computer tedious. So I often print out my PDF's) So I put in some high quality paper and told the printer to print pages 2-98. . . .

. . . When I looked at it, there were lines of text missing on every page! These lines are randomly interspersed throughout the text. Sometimes the headings are missing. But none of the text is missing from the pdf.

So I downloaded it again. Printed out a page, and the exact same lines were missing from the new dowload!

It's a great adventure full of useful advice on running games in the OSR stile. The art is awesome

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This book is 64 pages long, with one page credits...and we actually get MORE out of the book than its 64 pages. How does that work? Well, let me elaborate.

This pdf is based on the second edition, primarily the print edition. It has received pretty much a selection of awards. So why review this now? Because all reviews I found did not really prepare me for what this book actually brings to the table.

So let's start with the obvious: This book is radically and systematically designed to make use of the features of the physicality of the medium book. The hardcover comes with a sleeve and on the inside of the sleeve, you get a massive full-color map that can be found via a secret link if you get the pdf version. The map , much like the cover image and interior artwork, all adhere to author Zak Sabbath's unique and distinct style - a style that may polarize, but personally, I enjoy the somewhat post-punk/post-gothic, fantastic anachronism that the depictions of the city as black claws rising from the world conveyed - my immediate association would be the BLAME manga-series and its sprawling, cruel structures...but this is no mere quote, it is an aesthetic vision and, as all good art does, it will not be to everyone's liking.

The book's structure. Well, on the inside of the sleeves and yes, throughout the book, would be instructions for charts: The front and back cover, on the inside and outside, provide charts, with representations of the claw-like sprawling city structures framed by numbers; by for example dropping dice on these artworks, you can, among other things, determine quick and dirty damage and attacks versus body parts or use it to jumpstart your imagination in a variety of other ways. One page away from the inside of the back cover (which btw. contains a gigantic table), we have a vast selection of professions - similarly, relations between them can thus be quickly determined. And indeed, while not all such functions championed by the book can be perfectly translated to all the different systems out there, I should not be remiss to mention that a significant section of this pdf is devoted to being basically one of the most amazing GM-aids I have ever read, regardless of the system you're using.

If you have ever read a fantasy book like China Miéville's brilliant Bas-Lag novels and wondered how to ever depict a sprawling metropolis like that in your game without resorting to copious levels of handwaving or gigantic tomes of prepared material - this book is the answer. the urbancrawling rules are meta and brilliant: The book sports a vast array of so-called urbancrawling rules and tricks that allow you to almost instantly generate whole neighborhoods, street webs, etc. - beyond the fantasy metropolis, these methods can easily be employed in pretty much any roleplaying context, whether you're going for the fantastic hive, a sprawling science-fiction station, non-Euclidean ruins... generating chaotic street-networks within a few minutes has been a boon for my own campaign ever since I read the ideas here. They may be deceptively simple, yes - but oh so effective. And no, I am not going to spoil the details here. Why? Because I really want you to get this book.

Now, these urbancrawling rules obviously can only provide the framework for an enterprising GM to use, but in conjunction with aforementioned graphs and tables, the book becomes more interesting. And if you require a vast array of detail, fret not, for a significant portion of the book is devoted to gigantic table upon table of names, professions, goals, names - and tying the NPCs together in social webs is similarly covered. I tried it. Within 30 minutes with this book, I can make a moderately detailed series of very professional feeling villages, neighborhoods and similar settlements. And I suck at drawing maps and am damn picky. And yes, from looted bodies to fortunes and magical effects, the strange and uncommon all tap into this massive dressing collection herein.

Now, the dressing here does depict the Vornheim setting; the Grey Maze, its sprawling spires rising from the arctic plane, a city near a forest that should not exist, of which scholars claim that the trees may be phlegmatic undead; a city wondrous and vile, near the city of goblins, situated on a hive of stone, ostensibly the result of legendary medusas once petrifying the flesh of whatever once was...the world?. Here, the church of the god of Iron, Rust and Rain and the church of the goddess of all flesh exist. It is within this city that the decadent upper class has taken to the fad of purchasing slow pets, highlighting their copious surfeit of spare time; it is here that sometimes, there are masquerades; sometimes, the gates are opened to the wolves. It is common knowledge that the skin of snakes and serpentine creatures are books that contain ancient secrets and that here, the wyvern of the well can be found - who will unerringly answer ONE question for any interlocutor. From the granary cats to the grub nagas and thornchildren, a selection of truly imaginative creatures inhabits this place...and a selection of superstitions can provide a vast array of different adventure hooks.

Which brings me to yet another aspect of the book: You see, Vornheim is ALSO a book containing three modules.

I'll be brief, but potential players should still jump to the conclusion. There are some SPOILERS to be found here.

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The most common would be the House of the Medusa, wherein the PCs have to infiltrate the house of one of the fabled medusas...oh, and if they kill her, they may inadvertently de-petrify a significant part of the world, making it flesh once again...with far-reaching consequences.

The second module deals with the Immortal Zoo of Ping Feng, a menagerie of strange creatures gone totally rogue, where the primary antagonist of the book, the mastermind takes on a form most peculiar - and if the PCs don't want to brave all those lethal and unique creatures, they should be up to their A-game.

Thirdly, we have the labyrinthine puzzle-dungeon also known as the library of Zorlac, basically an interesting infiltration/espionage-scenario at your fingertips...or a truly strange place to visit and work in.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are top-notch, I noticed no glitches. Layout adheres to a very buy one-column or two-column standard, with a ton of information on every single page. The layout is obviously made for the A5-booklet (6'' by 9'') size, though I'd strongly suggest not printing out multiple pages on one sheet of paper here - the sheer information density means that the font becomes too small if you try that here. The pdf-version comes fully bookmarked with nested bookmarks. The book is incredibly aesthetically pleasing if you enjoy Zak Sabbath's style of art, with layout using black frames on the pages - so yeah, this is not the most printer-friendly of books. And while the pdf does an admirable job at maintaining the raw functionality of the physical dead-tree hardcover, the sheer switching of sheets of paper takes a bit away from the immediate functionality when comparing the printed version or screen-version with the physical hardcover. The hardcover is the preferred version - with nice binding, sleeves and even the covers having a function...so yeah. If you can afford it, go for print.

Zak Sabbath's Vornheim is a piece of art that captured my interest to a higher extent that many, many books of ten times their page-count and more. As a GM-aid, this provides some phenomenally-innovative tools of the trade that even veteran GMs may not necessarily know yet - I learned more from this book's tricks than from any comparable GM-book, which is a feat in and of itself, considering the experience I have. While the quick-and-dirty attack-charts or any chart really, may not be for everyone, I'd be seriously surprised if any GM went into this book without some seriously cool new tool of the trade.

The city Vornheim itself represents one of the most evocative settlements I have read in a long time: Beyond the truly fantastic setting, its unconventional premises and unfettered, raw collection of absolutely inspired tidbits, the influences of contemporary weird fiction and the writings of Borges are readily apparent on every page. The city manages to evoke a sense of wonder only all too rarely still found among the settings out there - it is phenomenal and I would not have minded a 500-page tome on the city; it's brevity is almost painful, it's excellence achingly pronounced, particularly if you've found yourself bored with standard settlements and most so-called "fantastic" cities and customs.

The 3 modules contained herein all have different, interesting angles and while I explicitly remained brief in their descriptions, they similarly...well, are brief. They are interesting, evocative, inspired...but brief. Oh so brief.

You're probably seeing where this is going. Vornheim is, in all components of its content, whether as a GM-aid, as a sourcebook or regarding the modules included, a truly phenomenal offering; each component shines brightly like a cruel Northern star - but at the same time, while the components are interconnected, I could not help but feel like it was buckling under its own ambition - the book is so jam-packed, it strains at the seams and universally leaves the reader inspired and wiser, yes - but also wanting more. You will not finish reading this book and feel saturated. When I came to the end of the setting-section, I was disappointed I did not get more; the same held true for all other sections. This book represents a perfect kit to create a glorious city, a sprawling moloch. It perfectly depicts one of the most unique, fantastic cities I've read...but it may be, at times, too good, too inspired for its own sake.

I can absolutely see someone expecting a campaign setting/city-setting wanting more; I can see those craving adventures wanting more detail; I can see those that looked for the GM-aid components wanting to receive more dressing, more details, more tricks...but ultimately, all of these criticisms are not fair. Do I believe that this, at double the page count, would have been even better? Heck yes. Do I want a full-blown, massive sourcebook on Vornheim, perhaps a whole mega-campaign or AP set in it? OH YES. Yes, please. But the thing is - the book does not try to be just a city sourcebook; just some modules, just some game-aids - while the amalgamation of these components may put a strain on the reader, they also force the GM's hand.

Vornheim says: "This is what you can do with the book. Want more? Then strain your creativity, use your own brain. CREATE." This book, in short, forces the GM to act, to create. It strips away the pretensions, the excuses we make time and again and tells us to make its contents our own, make this grey maze our grey maze. Sure, we may crave just consumption - but this does not try to be simply consumed - it forces you to create, by virtue of its own brilliance.

All the accolades heaped upon this book are justified. While the pdf loses a bit of the impact of its physicality in the electronic version, I still consider this to be one truly amazing, unique book that should grace the shelves of any self-respecting GM. It is a brilliant exercise in inspiration, a rallying call to flex one's own creative muscles - it is, in short, an intoxicating vision. Get this.

My final verdict will be 5 stars + seal of approval. And yes, this receives the EZG-Essential-tag. This belongs into the library of any advanced GM.

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This module/sandbox clocks in at 62 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, leaving us with 60 pages of content, though these pages are formatted for the A5 (6'' by 9'' booklet)-size, which means you can pretty easily fit 4 pages of content on one sheet of paper when you're printing this out.

All right, so this represents pretty much one of the experiences where I got a book merely for completion's sake. The title "Weird New World" did not appeal to me and neither did the cover...but I am very much happy that I did get this book.

So, what is this? In short, it is a depiction of a fantastic version of Antarctica or a similarly icy environment - and I mean "beyond Norse sphere of culture"-level icy environment. As in polar nights and days. And while I was reading through this book, I realized...that I had never seen this angle attempted in an RPG-supplement. Basically, this adventure's goal, if you want to put it that bluntly, is for the PCs to chart a kind of Northwest Passage. Wait!

I know, it sounds dull.

Believe me when I'm telling you that it's anything but dull!

So the premise is pretty simple, yes - there are tiny civilization outposts represented by stations and their soldiers, but what exactly you do with the set-up that's provided is wide open - a sandbox in the truest sense of the word. But a sandbox that is more than just basics: First of all, I should note the grand scale - the final page of the pdf is devoted to a gigantic map of the hex-crawling environment that can be found within these pages; this area is so big that it also comes with quadrant-versions for printing out.

Thing is also- cold does not equal cold in the arctic; everyone who even has spent one winter in a Northern climate will know the massive differences - and hence, the pdf introduces basically 6 different climate zones, with varying degrees of winter severity, codified also by the respective months of the year - and they are brutal. If you thought going into the arctic with metal weapons and armor...well, not a good idea. The different effects on the player characters can be harsh. Of course, random encounter tables, by sea, land and ice, are included in the deal, with brief descriptions of the respective encounters. This extreme cold weather system alone may be well worth the scavenging potential, but it is, by far, not the central draw of this supplement/module.

You see, the draw of this toolkit/setting to throw your PCs in lies, to a vast degree, in the question of what you do with it: The pdf is littered with story seeds. Of course, there would be the local Inuit stand-ins, the Eskuit tribes and the less than amicable treatment they receive at the hands of the agents of the "civilized" world; but that is only the tip of the ice-berg. (Haha - okay, I'll punch myself later for this!)

Anyways, in order to give you a closer idea of what to expect herein, I'll have to resort to going into SPOILERS. Potential players should definitely jump to the conclusion.

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All right, so let's start with the obvious: There are elves. But not some kind, friendly Santa's Little Helpers. And no cliché ice-elves...but the bane of the frickin' Eskuit. You see, the elves in these climates once believed that they'd set sail to their undying lands...and landed here, believing that basically their afterlife had been compromised, that this bleak, icy hellscape was their purgatory. Obviously, the only way to solve this is and get to the proper undying lands... is to KILL EVERYONE that taints these elven lands. Yeah, they are not nice.

Beyond these, there would be an adversary straight out of a simulationalist survival story - the Beast. A super-strong, hyper-deadly and aggressive, preternaturally cunning white bear that will do its best to hunt down the PCs. It should be almost taken for granted that, yes, there also is a Carpenter-Thing waiting to be encountered (and woe to those that carry its seeds to civilization!) and there is a living aurora that makes what people believe it to be true - so listen well to the PC's speculations! A Rushmore-esque representation of dread Ymir carved in the ice, a shuttered village full of vampires (30 days of night, anyone?), remnants of ancient civilizations and strange obelisks can be found in the white wasteland.

If you don't get devoured by the white worm, you can even meet bird-people, a man who exerts mental control over caribou...and worse. Beyond these copious seeds, each of which can potentially carry a whole adventure, there also are detailed mini-dungeons.

One of them would be the cavern used by pirates to hide their treasures - where body-invading fireflies can be found alongside caves that make you believe you're among anthropomorphized candy can be found. (Okay second one with that theme in 2 weeks...sometimes, my life is weird...though, admittedly, here, it is a hallucinogenic fungus' work...) Beyond that, remnants of super-science and vending machines can be found as well as puzzles solved - it is intriguing to see the execution managing to make modern elements fantastic. The description helps the GM drive home the strange dynamics that happen when medieval/early modern characters meet modern objects.

Have I btw. mentioned the references to reptilian people and the insane weirdos that believe they're Norse gods?

The first of these mini-dungeons, though, would pale in direct comparison of the second of the more detailed locales: The great shipwreck #2: The ship has been impaled on a column of coral, with mast and sail under water, with only the rear of the ship rising from the water: The exploration of the mapped ship adds an amazing sense of verticality to the exploration, one rarely seen...and there would be strange survivors...and there are undead (including invisible ones) that operate on subjective gravity. Yes, this can be one of the most amazing scenes...but things get cooler. You see, the coral shaft is hollow and leads to even stranger, subterranean caves...and crawling it down may see the PCs attacked by a squid, as it's ripping apart the column, its tentacles potentially sealing the shaft in a truly claustrophobic and cinematic encounter. And have I mentioned the strange spine-fish men down below?

Oh, and there would be, outside of these locales, the plateaus that contain ancient cities, now haunted by the abomination that wiped out the culture...or frozen mammoths....and no, I have not touched on everything herein.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good, I noticed no serious glitches. Layout adheres to a 1-column b/w-standard and the pdf is pretty printer-friendly. The interior b/w-artworks are sparse, but evocative and act as nice handouts, if you want to. The pdf comes fully bookmarked with nested bookmarks. The cartography is solid and does its job.

James Edward Raggi IV's Weird New World is a fantastic supplement that contains a ton of gorgeous adventure hooks and seeds. Incredibly dense, the book can conceivably provide at least a month or even up to half a year of more of gaming if you really want to squeeze this gem dry. Chock-full with a massive array of glorious seeds, inspiration and potential, this represents one of the best exploration modules I have ever read - while there is ample of weirdness and a plethora of deadly creatures to be found in these pages, that is not what makes this supplement exceptional.

What makes this supplement/module shine is that, more than the collective sum of the weirdness-toting things you can encounter, it is always the icy eternity of the area that represents the true adversary here, that makes the module/environment work. This is inspired, evocative and a sandbox in the truest sense - and no, if you're sensitive - while challenging and yes, lethal, this book is never unfair, never dickish or sadistic for its own sake. Relentless and brutal like the environment it depicts, yeah - but gloriously so. In short: To me, this represents one of the most amazing of the early LotFP-offerings, a book that should be considered to be a must-own. Now can we please get a revised and expanded option that I can get in print, preferably with a poster map?

Forgot the verdict? Oh yeah, obviously 5 stars + seal of approval. A must-have offering, even if you're playing another system. This is definitely good enough to convert...and if you're an OSR-gamer, then what are you waiting for? Get this now!

Endzeitgeist out.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This module clocks in at 34 pages, 1 page front cover, 2 pages of editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page b/w-version of the cover, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 28 pages of content, though these pages are A5-booklet-sized (6'' by 9''), which means you can fit about 4 of them on a given sheet of paper, provided your eyesight is good enough.

This review is based primarily on the print-version with new layout from 2014, though I took the electronic version for reference purposes.

So, first things first: This is intended as an introductory module...perhaps not necessarily for gaming as such (more on that later),but for LotFP's distinct style of design. What do I mean by this? Well, this module is suffused with numerous designer's notes that elaborate on specific design decisions and rationales, helping the referee understand why and how certain things are the way they are. At the same time, if you're expecting copious read-aloud text or the like, you're at the wrong place here. If you expect mercy or a gradual learning curve, then you'd be similarly in the wrong place. This module is pretty much sink or swim for referee and players alike.

The hook is as simple as it gets, intentionally so, and the dungeon is very much a contained and relatively static environment, making that aspect "easy" - but only that aspect. The story's simple: There was a wizard known to gaze at the stars; his tower remote and removed from the nearest civilization. People talked about him in hushed whispers and his only lackey took care of most things pertaining paltry mortals. It's been a long, long while since anyone saw the wizard. The intrepid group of victi...ehrr, I mean murderhob...ehrr, I mean "valiant adventurers" has decided that the tower's rife for the plucking.

....and this is about as far as I can go without going into SPOILER-territory. Potential players should jump to the conclusion.

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Only referees left? Okay. So...know how I consider both "Grinding Gear" and "Hammers of the God" hard but fair? This one...makes sense in a similar manner, but is mean. Logical and methodical in its meanness, but yeah. We begin in the field before the tower: Iron spikes rise from the ground equidistantly, ringing it and the open ground between the spikes and the tower is a blasted ruin, where lightning bolts keep striking. Do the PCs carry long poles? Metal armor? Then they should hurry and get inside. Between the spikes and the tower, there is a percentile chance to be hit by lightning...something a level 1 character is not likely to survive. In order to get in the tower, two options present themselves: A knocker and a handle. The knocker makes the doors open themselves. The handles are shaped like serpents...and touching them makes them come alive. Bite the touching character. Save vs. poison or DIE.

That may sound harsh, but when you think about it, it makes sense in-game: Guests should knock when visiting an evil wizard...and the handles are serpent-shaped. The detail is there...and this is a level 1-module in a relatively rules-lite system. It also serves a purpose of establishing a design-paradigm: Details matter and internal consistency is important. In fact, the whole module can be seen as a conditioning, a teaching experience if you will...one that is gleeful in some of its more sadistic moments...but never one that can be considered to be thoroughly haphazard. There are some moments that are nasty, though: There would be wine as treasure, for example: Well, one bottle has gone bad: Drinking it will cause...bingo. Death. The wine's worth something, so with some ill luck, either a PC or a client may die there...which can spark further adventures, sure...but considering the lack of options to detect the spoiled one, it feels cruel.

Speaking of cruel: You see, the aforementioned lackey of the wizard's been gone for many a year, frustrated by the constant misuse by his cruel master...whose spell he sabotaged, trapping the wizard in a circle of salt. The PCs can find the old stargazer. He's been standing, upright and still, confined in the circle, for more than 50 years and his mood is foul...but he does try to put on a benevolent Dumbledore-act...and if the PCs buy it, he asks them to go. If they refuse, he drops his act and becomes threatening. But as long as the PCs don't do anything, he can't do jack. It's the choice and consequence paradigm.

At the same time, the wizard tower depicted here feels very much magical: Within these halls, one can find a levitation shaft used to navigate it, a frozen storage containing vials of blood (which animates and becomes aggressive) and a ghost custodian of the eldritch section of the wizard's library. This ghost challenges the PCs to a game: Select chess, darts, anything you have that can engage your players and potentially is over quick to not stall the game...if you're too good at chess, for example, and doubt that your players could beat you...well, then don't play chess. Why? Well, if the PC fails, the ghost is freed and the PC dies, taking its place. There is no salvation for the eternal guardian here.

One highlight of the exploration of the dungeon would certainly be the wizard's workshop, where an acidic pool of liquid contains strange fish and a complex telescope-like device allows for the opening of the tower's roof...and perhaps the most hilarious, amazing and mean part of the module: All this arcane machinery pertains the wizard's studies: He's been obsessed with other planets and wanted to learn to get there.

Unless the PCs were VERY thorough with their research, they may be in for a surprise: Looking through the telescope, they can see strange entities on another planet. With some serious experimentation, item-use and the like, they can use the device to fire a transport-beam t the planet...but unless they have VERY carefully done their research (unlikely), any PC foolish enough to try to use this beam will be transported to that planet...his molecular consistence changed to something that is considered a delicacy there...and he'll be eaten/drunk/slurped up. (And yes, there is an artwork of a view of the entities...) This whole procedure requires A LOT of effort on part of the PCs, is mean and memorable and pretty unlikely to happen...but it exemplifies to a degree the philosophy of magic being very dangerous, demanding respect.

Oh, and regarding internal logic: It makes sense. Traps and dangers are where intruders shouldn't be. When the PCs find a corpse, sewn up with gold thread in the basements and loot the thread, they'll be attacked by the animated organs inside - deservedly so, I might add! Another aspect I'd consider haphazard in its design: Several magic mirrors provide either significant benefits...or suck in a character, consuming his soul after 3 days, with no means of saving him: Breaking the mirror kills the PC. Sure, anyone who's read Kull-stories knows that gazing into wizard mirrors is a bad idea...but still. Somewhat akin to a deck of many things in its randomness, without the warning the item carries. There is no way to determine the function of mirrors before, btw. - no reward for being smart or observant. Such unfair sections are what tarnish this module in my book, which is a pity, for the atmosphere evoked is cool indeed: In which other module can the PCs find a 16-armed skeleton in a cell...complete with artwork...and have it have no function apart from sparking the player's imagination? The dressing and details are great and evocative.

Heck, the module even has a puzzle - a simple one, but yeah: The treasure chests are contained beyond damaging force fields and the PCs will have to manipulate a console and try to find the right combination to lower the force-fields and gain access to the significant treasures contained in the wizard's vault...provided they don't panic and run into them when they're separated by them...you see, if your PCs believe they can smash their problems away, they'll be in for a rude awakening that is bound to be pretty terminal: There is a very real possibility of the whole tower blowing up in a devastating nova if the PCs try to use brute force to solve the problems of e.g. the workshop. I get it. The angle here is to cultivate a consciousness for when to tamper with something and when not to...but, at least in my opinion, Grinding Gear and Hammers of the God did that job much, much better.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are top-notch, I noticed no glitches. Layout adheres to a nice and easy to read two-column b/w-standard. The b/w-artworks provided herein are amazing, particularly for showing weirdness rather than the usual suspects of monsters, rooms, etc. - they show stuff when it matters that it has an artwork. The pdf version comes fully bookmarked for your convenience. The softcover booklet is printed darker than the pdf, being mostly grey-black...which, ironically, enhances rather than detracts from the artworks...though the cover is pretty much a mush of black, the stairs nearly imperceptible. Cartography is detailed and functional b/w, with furniture etc. included. there are no player-friendly maps included as a cut-up handouts or the like.

James Edward Raggi IV's "Tower of the Stargazer" is actually a well-written crawl through a wizard's tower - as in: The ideas and environments are amazing, the things that can be found are interesting and the emphasis on player choice refreshing: The more greedy the PCs are, the higher is the chance they'll die horribly. And, for the most part, the module is fair in its risk-reward-ratios. For the most part, for there are a couple of scenes, some save-or-die-sections, that can only be described as dickish and completely out of left field.

Where Hammers of the God rewarded deliberate exploration and meticulous respect for the environment and its story, where Grinding Gear's whole set-up required care, precision and a keen mind, this one has this tint of haphazardness not only within the roll of the dice, but within its underlying structure. It feels a bit like an "You must be this tough to play here."-sign that exaggerates subjective flaws (or merits, depending on your perspective) and clichés some folks attribute to old-school gaming. In short: This was obviously written, at least in parts, as a kind of proving ground highlighting some of the best, but also some of the worst aspects of old-school gaming. As a whole, this feels, at least to me, like the weakest of the early LotFP-modules. It showcases the aspects that made the other modules stand out and has the very distinct narrative identity, but, both in comment and design, it also requires you to buy into a certain mindset of capriciousness when it comes to the lives of PCs that contradicts the paradigm of successfully letting PCs dig their own graves, so perfectly exemplified by the telescope, the animated organs, etc..

I like this module, but as a whole, I do feel like it undermines its own point regarding the way to game it tries to teach. Then again, perhaps I'm overanalyzing this and the module's playtest ran too smooth, requiring a couple of middle-finger save-or-sucks. I don't know. If you enjoy HARD, brutal and unforgiving modules, if you don't mind a very real potential for a sudden, not entirely deserved PC-death, then this makes for a great, challenging and atmospheric dungeon. If you firmly adhere to the "reap what you've sown"-school of GMing, I'd suggest getting Grinding Gear or Hammers of the God instead. How to rate this, then? Well, this is not a bad module, but neither did it blow me away. For groups that like the dark and weird that consider themselves to be hardcore...this is worth checking out. As for my final verdict...well, while for me as a person, this is closer to 4 stars than 3, as a reviewer, I can't round up from my final verdict of 3.5 stars.

Endzeitgeist out.

Great short adventure. It was very easy to set up, and my players had a blast. I recommend it strongly.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This massive module clocks in at 86 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, leaving us with 84 pages - these are A5-sized (6'' by 9'') and thus, you can fit up to 4 on a given sheet of paper when printing them out. The font-size is appropriate when doing so, mind you, so no undue straining of the eyes.

All right, it's a trope as old as fantasy gaming (older, in fact!) - the dwarven empire/civilization that crumbles. We've seen that before, right? Well, as it happens to be, the PCs have come into the possession of a map, which will lead them straight to one of the lost places where dwarves once dwelt. Now, as you may have gleaned by this, the module thus requires a dwarven civilization, yes...but as a whole, any referee worth their salt can add this into LotFP's pseudo-17th-century setting with minimal tweaking/emphasis of the mythological nature of these beings. The module is intended for characters level 3 - 5, though even stronger characters should still be sufficiently challenged by this. In case you're wondering, btw. - this is pretty much PG-13. While certainly not the most light-hearted of romps, it is not a grimdark or particularly gory/depressing module.

Anyways, the module does not take any prisoners and begins pretty swiftly and with a resounding drone...From here on reign the SPOILERS, so potential players should skip to the conclusion.

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All right, only referees around? Great! So, there are some common characteristics we ascribe to dwarves: They are stoic and pragmatic conservatives that carry grudges. So, what if the collapse of their empire was not one brought about by external threats, but by a series of well-intended decisions that ultimately brought down the culture...you know, like empires are wont to. To a certain extent, this reflects a downfall that was a whimper, not a bang. The dungeon the PCs are about to explore represents the very final death-throes, where the propensity for devastating grudges and shame turned towards self-destructive behavior on a massive scale. Below cascading purple mists, the PCs will find the remnants of an ancient massacre between humans and dwarves, undisturbed for ages untold.

When mankind entered the dungeon, the dwarven high-priest reacted to the failings of his clansmen in holding the intruders at bay with the spiteful, grudging finality of the ancient religion of the old miner, crushing specially prepared seeds which created the ever-present purple mist, its toxicity negated by the aeons, the mist may now only be cosmetic...but that does not mean that stupid PCs may not dig themselves a horrid grave here.

Now, I mentioned how the complex had rested undisturbed for ages and indeed, the module manages to convey a stunning and evocative sense of antiquity via its prose and internal consistency - combat-wise, there is not that much to defeat but animated dwarven spirits, more automatons than free-willed undead, as the PCs explore these ancient halls...but there doesn't have to be that much in this regard. The module reaches a level of detail that eclipses that provided for most dwarven sourcebooks I've read and evokes an overall sense of truly evocative consistency that is mirrored, time and again, in the varioustidbits and dressings provided - in some cases, literally.

There would, for example, be the tradition that EVERYTHING about an important dwarf's life should be chronicled...and thus, there are halls, where rune filigree-layer lies upon layer, with the intricacies of various layers and their exploration yielding new knowledge. There is also the library, which best exemplifies the truly impressive attention to detail this module sports: The library, you see, contains no less than 100 books. Here's the thing: There is a cliff-notes version provided for EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. I am so not kidding you.

Players and PCs interested in lore will have a true field day here and, more importantly, the books will provide actual benefits to the party, should they exert the due diligence and properly do their legwork. There is, for example, one trap, aptly called juggernaut, which is one of the two bottlenecks of this dungeon's exploration - a gigantic mechanism that may very well squash the whole party...but if they have taken care, it won't just boil down to quick wits to escape this doom. Much like all good modules, this rewards smart players and not just good rolls of the dice.

If you're into lore-rich modules, I will have probably sold you on this already, but it's important to mention that the religious doctrine and principles of the Old Miner's faith is mirrored in the challenges faced and that it is lore and attention to detail and player participation that will yield the true treasures of this module...while greed and the mindless plundering of tombs may well see the PCs stranded with cursed items and an immortal nemesis at their heels. Both are by no means mutually exclusive, mind you...though the true treasure as such lies in a portion of the complex the PCs may well never get to see.

You see, the monumental sense of antiquity evoked is constantly underlined not only by the grandeur of ancient dwarven designs and monumental pomp, but also by the subterranean nature of the complex: In the instances where the PCs reach "open ground", the sheer vastness of the realms below, the limitation of both light and darkvision in the endless black, are used in amazing ways: When the PCs walk an arch of stone over a gigantic, black chasm, lose track of the place they came from and only see the arc ahead, while hearing a myriad of things in the dark, only the most jaded or foolish of players will not become uneasy. Similarly, at the shore of a subterranean lake, there lie strange towers, high beyond the radius of any illumination the PCs are likely to have - and these towers, in fact, are type of crane that interacts with strange metal tubes...airtight quasi-submarines that need to be navigated through a whirlpool to gain access to the second part of the complex. Navigating the tides is VERY lethal and anyone foolish enough to try the outside will notice this the hard way - and indeed, dealing with the crane in this subterranean harbor carries its own risks. Oh, and PCs better check the tubes...they've been here a long way. Oh, and airtight, so think twice about torches...Yeah, this is most certainly something that not all groups will enjoy, because it is PROBLEM-SOLVING that is not contingent of rolling the dice. Personally, I absolutely LOVE it. We need more of the like.

So yes, this dungeon feels more like a true archaeological exploration and more like a true journey of discovery than your average hackfest; it is a module that, from rooms of ritual shaving to strange devices and lethal traps, rewards getting into the mindset of the culture, rewards behaving like an explorer of a civilization fallen and gone. This is a harsh module; it is NOT easy. However, at the same time, it is exceedingly fair - unless you consider PCs being bitten by potentially lethal snakes for poking sans checking, their finger into a hole bad form. Personally, I like that. I like that, by virtue of the impressive atmosphere, the PCs are faced with a complex that DEMANDS respect...but that also deserves it.

If all of that sounds very conservative, then rest assured that the PCs have the chance to not only find and fight the dread transmorph, which oscillates between forms and attacks, but also may poke through a wormhole...and potentially be poked back. Have I mentioned the chance to get a hyper-deadly butterfly that will kill the first living creature the PCs encounter after leaving the complex? Yes, there is the delightfully weird aspect, though it is, fittingly, I might add, subdued compared to the stars of this module: The complex and culture of the ancient dwarves.

The pdf, just fyi, comes with a solid map of the complex - no player-friendly version is included, but considering the fact that this complex very much lives by means of exploration, I am okay with that.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good, I noticed no glaring accumulation of glitches. Layout adheres to a 1-column b/w-standard in A5 (6'' by 9'') that comfortably fits 4 pages on one sheet of paper. Big plus for me, as a dead-tree purist: The printed out version is easier to read than previous LotFP-offerings when thus printed. The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience. The pdf sports several nice 1-page original artworks - one of which in full-color, while the others are b/w - in particular the campsite at the subterranean body of water drives home perfectly the sense of gigantic proportions and solitude.

James Edward Raggi IV's "Hammers of the God" is a phenomenal module that borders on being an environmental setting book. I have rarely seen a complex presented this concisely, with an impressive thematic and internal consistency. The ancient dwarven culture depicted herein, with all its small peculiarities and aspects, is evocative, intriguing and provides an exceedingly strong leitmotif for the module. It can also be easily transplanted into just about every setting and manages to make the dungeon the star: More often than not, my insistence on cool terrain features and hazards is read as a condemnation of classic dungeons. Far from it! This module very much exemplifies what you can do with a VERY classic trope, how you can make one of the oldest concepts and make it shine - by details, details, details and consistency. Few modules have managed to capture the sense of being an adventurer exploring a complex with a distinct identity this well; at no point will anyone confuse this module's dungeon for any other dungeon. This has a unique, glorious identity. It, much like the "Grinding Gear", also rewards smart players, as opposed to optimized characters. No matter how lucky or optimized your characters are, they can and will die in these halls if the players don't act smart. You know. Like in a game less based on rolling dice and more on the wits of the players.

Now, don't get me wrong - there is plenty of dice-rolling...but personally, I love how this rewards brains over luck and how it has the guts to say: "Okay, you found the treasure...do you really want to plunder that tomb over there? All right, so these are the consequences..." Greed is not necessarily punished, but the rewards gained from it are double-edged and cut both ways, whereas understanding and dealing with the culture of the complex in an even-handed manner will yield slightly less treasure, but it's true treasure sans strings attached... This is a module that rewards choices above all else and does not hesitate to show the consequences.

As a whole, this can be summed up as one truly astonishing, well-crafted exploration of a fantastic complex, one that will bring a smile to any group that loves exploring sites with a rich and vibrant culture and history, as a harsh, but also fair module that provides challenge and wonder galore. This module, much like Grinding Gear, is good enough to convert to other systems, should OSR-gaming not be exactly what you're looking for; it makes for an excellent scavenging ground for ancient dwarven cultures and complexes and represents my reference module for dwarven complexes, kept from even higher accolades only due to the lack of a player-friendly map to cut up and hand out...but then again, drawing the map's supposed to be part of the exploration....Anyways, my final verdict for this gem will clock in at 5 stars + seal of approval.

Endzeitgeist out.

Great stuff. The atmosphere is alien and wonderful. I love the processes and hints for quickly producing neighborhoods and city settings along with a quick floor plan design method. Fantastic stuff and the writing is entertaining and witty. A very enjoyable toolkit for any game master.

The product description describes Blood in the Chocolate as "A psycho-sexual romp that pits characters not just against their enemies, but against their own twisting, melting, inflating, or poisoned bodies." It is also, obviously, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory turned into a crazy colonial-era dungeon crawl. And, moreso than any other adventure I've read, you get what it says on the tin. The dungeon hews to the plot of the 1979 film pretty closely. The Oompah-Loompahs have been reimagined as mutated cocoa-bean pygmies and the enigmatic (trademarked) Willy Wonka has been swapped out with a more sinister capitalist conquistadora, but by and large, if it's a scene in the movie, it receives a DnD-ification in Blood in the Chocolate. The result is a very recognizable factory, if less suitable for children. Blood In The Chocolate delights in turning your childhood nostalgia into twisty horror.

Most indie RPG authors seem content to rehash and emulate corporate products. But Blood In The Chocolate is unabashedly weird, and passionate, and kinky, and gruesome. If you follow Kiel Chenier's blog, you might correctly conclude that some of the horrors about to befall your adventurers are author appeal, but they are presented in a very clinical, body-horror sort of fashion, and mostly arise from the source material.

The editing is, unsurprisingly, better than any corporate product's. This is especially true of the PDF, which is clean and well-organized and well-hyperlinked. There's no filler: every line of text is useful to the adventure and Chenier never waxes purple. Just concise, vivid description. The illustrations are also marvellous-- beyond what you'd generally even see in a corporate retail book.

Lucia de Castillo is a singular villainess: ruthless but intelligent, stylish but irredeemable. Like the hit film was driven almost entirely by Gene Wilder's performance, I think that the success of the adventure very much depends on the DM's ability to portray her. Luckily, there's a full two-page psychological profile outlining her personality, desires and weaknesses, as well as a section explaining, quite neatly, how she managed to open a crazed chocolate factory long before chocolate should rightly have been discovered. Still, my sole negative note for this adventure is that it is an intimidating role for a novice DM-- but those with a few good adventures under their belts should have no trouble.

Blood in the Chocolate, is a well written and well thought out adventure that can be used as part of a campaign or a one shot.

I read one review calling this adventure racist and that his players would walk away from the table instead of playing it, because of the use of the word Pygmy, we must remember we are dealing with the 17th Century and like almost every European back then they would call a people something they were familar with, anyone who knows thier history well recall that Native Americans were call Indians and that was only because they thought they had reached India.

Pygmy definition. A member of any ethnic group in which the average height of the adult male is less than four feet, eleven inches. There are Pygmy tribes in dense rain-forest areas of central Africa, southern India, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

Clearly the reviewer did not actually read the description of why they were called Pygmies in the game or he would have not have written so harsh of a review and only gave it one star.

When we start calling a fictional adventure, with a fictional race racist, then something is very wrong, that means the person or persons walking away from a game that is set in the 17th Century where the majority of people were racist, that does not mean we should hide from it, it should be taken as a learning experience not to make those type of mistakes ever again.

This adventure is essentially the 1971 musical film version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory written up as a dungeon crawl, except with some seriously unpleasant content added. The adventure's actual goal is to have all your PCs inflating like Violet Beauregarde because someone apparently has a thing about this. Pretty much all the hazards in the adventure have either a chance or a certainty of creating this effect.

Let's have an overview of some of the other delightful things in this adventure:

• "Pygmies" who worshipped the master villain as a goddess because she was white, work as slaves in the factory, and attack the PCs with blowpipes. Now, ok, the Oompa-Loompas in the original Willy Wonka were pretty bad to start with, but it could have been improved a bit..
• A scene where an NPC who is inflated like a blueberry is fastened to an altar being gang raped by 2d6 pygmies.
• Two innocent children that the PCs can rescue from prison. A little while afterwards the PCs are asked to make a save and if they fail, there's a probability they'll be compelled to eat the kids. And yes, they're 100% real flesh-and-blood children, not made of chocolate or something like that.
• Outside of the first 3-4 rooms, no treasure at all. Many of the rooms just have nothing in them that would be of interest to the PCs and there is no reason why they'd stick around.
• A factory that makes chocolate which is incredibly popular all over the world and has been for years, even though it has a 10% chance of causing permanant and obvious debilitating side effects every time it is eaten. The adventure tries to hedge this by saying that it applies only to "chocolate eaten inside the factory" but nothing changes it when it leaves. On top of this, the reason it's so successful is because the factory is making chocolate bars 2 centuries earlier than they were invented in real life, but it turns out that the weird poisons and corrupted cocoa have absolutely nothing to do with this, and the factory would work perfectly well with ordinary stuff and presumably be just as successful.
• Based on the above, a master villain who's described as being hideously evil even though she has no motivation to be nor any sense in being, and a quest that has the PCs trying to murder her and take over her factory because some other traders would like to own it instead. Oh, and the possibility that they'll meet her in the first room of the adventure and - since there is nothing in the adventure that powers up the PCs or weakens her, and a lot that harms the PCs - that's actually the best place to fight her.

The sad thing is that the layout of the adventure is great, the cheat sheets are useful, and the walkthrough comic is an excellent idea. So full marks for editing, but none at all for content.

I liked Broodmother Skyfortress, I haven't had a chance to run it- but I plan to, and think my players will have a lot of fun with this scenario. I've already introduced the Carousing rules into my game last session and they were a hit (one of my PCs partied and was thrown in the pokey- he adlibed that it was because he puked on the burgomaster, another was ripped off by some huckster while drunk). These are the kinds of things I love to introduce into my OSR game, weird little subtables and such that are asymetrical, bizarre and a hell of a lot of fun. Another great product from Lamentations of the Flame Princess.