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 Creating a d100 encounter table for Castles & Crusades requires a mix of gritty realism, ancient mystery, and the "weird" elements typical of the Swords & Sorcery genre. In this style, magic is often dangerous or corruptive, and the environment is as much an enemy as the monsters.Below is a table designed for wilderness travel, ruins, or borderlands. This blog entry picks right up Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

Doctor Who TV Movie stars Paul McGann are together again for the next Time War arc from Big Finish

In 1996, Daphne Ashbrook starred alongside Paul McGann in the Doctor Who TV Movie. Thirty years later, she’s reuniting with him in a brand-new box set of full-cast audio drama.

In Time War Uncharted the Eighth Doctor travels with great-grandson Alex (Sonny McGann) and pilot Cass (Emma Campbell-Jones).  They’re exploring a strange new universe, while trying to avoid the escalating conflict between the Time Lords and the Daleks. Through this all, he has had multiple encounters with Hieronyma Friend.

This shady temporal diplomat takes the form of many of the Doctor’s past companions, though he’s somehow yet to notice. In the next volume, Branches, the Doctor finally twigs what’s going on, and Daphne Ashbrook is the latest actor to voice the mysterious character.

Ashbrook said: “It was wonderful to be working with Paul again. The script was beautifully written and it was so much fun to play a villain to his Doctor. It does make me long for the days when I can be his friend – no pun intended!

“Thirty years it’s been since we shot the Doctor Who movie – I’ve recently watched it for the first time in many years, and I couldn’t believe how young we all were. Paul’s a fabulous actor, and he loves doing these audio dramas. His talent and the scripts Big Finish write for him is a match, and it’s kept his character going. He’s been able to experience much of what other Doctors got to experience on TV – what a gift, and it’s wonderful to be a part of that.”

The cast of Time War Uncharted: Branches also includes Carole Ann Ford as Susan, the Doctor’s granddaughter, and Nicholas Briggs as the Daleks, as well as Kate Harbour, Akbar Kurtha, Susan Penhaligon, Jane Asher, Amy Rockson, Olivia Woolhouse, and Robert Fitch.

 

The four new episodes starring the excellent Eighth Doctor are: The Only Girl in the World by John Dorney

Searching for Cass, the Doctor and Alex find themselves on board an odd slave spaceship with a version of their friend from the Uncharted universe – the swashbuckling and dangerous Cassie.

Cassie is seeking revenge for the destruction of her homeworld – believing her destiny is to stop Mr Karl, the ruthless killer who obliterated it. But if that is her destiny, why is it so hard to fulfil?

False Dawn by Alison Winter

A galactic quarantine order has the Doctor investigating an invasive species that is rapidly spreading across the uncharted universe and infiltrating multiple dimensions. As the walls between worlds weaken, even the TARDIS struggles with keeping everything on the inside.

Council of Susan by Tim Foley

Looking for a way through a dangerous Barrier, the Doctor and his friends stumble upon an unusual organisation. The Council of Susan is stationed by a wormhole – and they know all about the mysterious time traveller known as ‘Grandfather’. Are the Doctor and Alex due for a family reunion? Or will a darker presence try its best to sever all family ties?

All Over by Patrick O’Connor

Out on the ice lies an empty blue box. Luckily, there’s someone out here who can drag it to safety – that’s what Friends are for, after all. In a rundown house at the edge of the Uncharted, someone will face her destiny. It’s time for myths to be exposed and everything to end.

 

Doctor Who – Time War Uncharted: Branches is now available to pre-order for just £24.99 (download to own) or £30.99 (download to own + collector’s edition CD box set), exclusively here. Please note: the collector’s edition CD box set is strictly limited to 1,500 copies and will not be re-pressed.

The post Paul McGann and Daphne Ashbrook Reunite for Doctor Who: Branches appeared first on Blogtor Who.

By Daniel Hicks
Self Published
ACKS
Levels 4-6

Warning! Barrier Peaks is my all time nostalgia favorite. 

A spaceship was transferring dangerous exotic lifeforms for sale at another point. A defective containment unit released one avid Hund, which quickly killed those present and set about freeing its kin. The acid hounds killed or fatally wounded every passenger and member of the ship’s crew in short order. Unfortunately, this occurred while the pilot was making manual course corrections in the outskirts of this solar system and with the autopilot disabled the ship drifted off course for weeks. More recently, she ship has crash-landed, and

presents a hazard if approached.

This five page adventure uses about two pages to present about thirteen rooms in a crashed flying saucer. Basic descriptions, simple map, not much beyond the most basic of encounter structures. And, of course, too small for its theme. But, hey, it’s got more rooms than pages, so there’s that!

A classic flying saucer has crash landed, so imagine a circle layout, about a dozen rooms along the edge and one or to interior, with a circle hallway in between. It crashed because some Acid Hounds got loose. You’ll find all seven of those 3 HD dudes in the first room you encounter after entering through the hole in the side, the cargo hold. At some point you’ll also face a nanite cloud in one of the rooms. This is the extent of your actual challenges. Otherwise you find the door bracelets and collect the blasters and auto-heal patches. IE: the usual. There are more than a few missed opportunities here, like “The ship’s main reactor (‘captive-star’), centrally

located, has burned out, and cannot be restarted without the aid of a similar vessel.” You can self-destruct the ship from here, and you can loot some platinum wiring. But, no word on what looting the captive-star is/does. Sad. No green slime in the shower. No malfunctioning auto-doc. There’s just nothing involved at all going on in this. I mean, even combat, after that first room, except for the nanite swarm. You gotta have some shit to fuck around with in an adventure. Grave tubes. The jungle level. Wait, I’m describing Barrier Peaks….

These small page count adventures have a real problem with matching their theming to their size. The Lost City of Infintium! Two pages. The Endless Maze of Nilhelm. Four pages. If you’re going to theme your adventure to something that really needs more pages and has endless possibilities then you really need to make it more than the five pages, for example, that this one is. 

Descriptions here are sparse. “Shower’ A small area for changing clothes sits outside the two shower stalls. Two dials are in each shower: one to turn it one and off, one for water temperature (a range from freezing to brisk).” There are also some general notes in the beginning about lighting and doors, but no real evocative descriptions are present, even for the Acid Hounds.”Acid hounds have pale green skin and a tripartite jaw.” Ok. Drooling acid? Foaming at the mouth? Mangy fur? Allof the descriptions are very businesslike with little to inspire here.

The map, here, is not great. It’s black on white. The room numbers are in a light blue that doesn’t stand out real great. But also there are other notations on the map. B, P, b, c, 3C, C. These are quite dense, nothing which kind of bracelet gets you through a door, a sub-ro number and the location of bodies. Yes, you can figure it out. No, it is not the most cognitively easy thing you’ll ever look at. If you can light blue the font then the door codes could be in a different color, and if you can put symbols on the map then you can put body outlines on the map, all of which is easier to look at tell what is going on at a glance. 

There’s not really much here of interest, if anything.

This is Pay What You Want at DriveThru with a suggested price of $2.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/558966/chipped-saucer?1892600

The post Video of the Day – Comic Relief, 2026 appeared first on Blogtor Who.

 Bringing the "Prince of Panache" into the Cepheus Engine (or similar 2D6-based OGL systems) requires balancing his high-camp theatricality with his legitimate genius. In the 1966 series, Vincent Price played Egghead as a "self-styled smartest man in the world" who spoke in egg-based puns and relied on chemistry and gadgets rather than brute force.Here is the profile for Egghead, tailored Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

 Adapting a character like Claw the Unconquered—the cursed, demon-handed barbarian of DC Comics fame—requires balancing his immense physical prowess with the unpredictable nature of his magical affliction.In Sword of Cepheus 2nd Edition, Claw fits the Barbarian or Gladiator career paths perfectly. Below are the mechanical details to bring him into your campaign.Claw the Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

Long-time readers of my blog know I have a long-standing abiding interest in space exploration. One of my hobbies is flying space simulators and writing realistic add-ons for them.  Artemis II launched a few days ago and is now heading to the moon for a fly-by. The flight's purpose is to check out the Orion capsule on a multi-day mission. Rather than just orbit the Earth the whole time like Apollo 7, NASA decided to use the time to perform a flyby of the Moon. The mission's various orbits have been cleverly designed so that, even if the capsule's propulsion system failed, the crew could return to Earth, including the lunar fly-by.

Because of the mission profile, the only time of the month Artemis II can be launched during this part of the year is during the full moon, as that is when the moon's orbit places it closest to Earth. Because of the the astronaut had a first-of-its-kind opportunity to take a picture of the entire Earth.

What you are seeing is a photograph of the entire Earth. It is not lit by the sun, which is behind our planet. But lit by moonlight. The camera settings were set to longer shutter times and other settings to allow more detail to be visible in the photo.

Some unique features you can see in the picture include the stars surrounding Earth. And you can see city lights as well. In the lower right, you can see the zodiacal light. At the bottom and top, you can see the green auroras hovering above the poles. And looking carefully at the edge of the Earth, you can see the edge of the atmosphere outlined by the sodium line caused by meteors burning up in thin air.

Enjoy, and Godspeed, the crew of Artemis II

Link to the Photo

Dark Tower (1979) by Paul (now Jennell) Jaquays is widely considered one of the "holy grails" of old-school dungeon design. Originally published by Judges Guild for AD&D, it earned a legendary reputation for its complex verticality, non-linear exploration, and faction-based gameplay.For Castles & Crusades (C&C) players, the module is a natural fit because C&C is designed to be Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

The post Video of the Day – WatchMojoUK, 2018 appeared first on Blogtor Who.

By Heidi Gygax Garland, Erik Garland, Adapted by Bill Silvey
GAXLAND
1e
Levels 5-7

The mission: A local elder dwarf has commissioned you to find the long abandoned underground tomb of the legendary Dundel Chief, R?ta V?kara. As no dwarven folk are allowed beyond the South Gate of the city of Sørholde, you have been entrusted to retrieve a long lost and priceless document that your benefactor maintains would free the dwarven folk from their obligation to maintain the city of Sørholde and reinstate the great dwarven mines of the Dundel once again.

This 64 page adventure presents what is essentially a linear tomb with around forty rooms. Very long winded, lots of read-aloud, and no real interactivity beyond traps and combat. It is quite the amateurish effort for $35.

I’m gong to start by saying something nice. “Thieves’ Tools can always be improvised with items from the adventuring packs (i.e. a hammer and piton) but the improvised tools and lock will be destroyed in the process.” I like this kind of framing about thieves tools. I think the natural assumption is thieves tools are lockpics and other delicate instruments. I don’t really like thieves as written in most (all?) systems and this aligns with my view of crowbars and sledgehammers being standard dungeon equipment. One day maybe I’ll work up a thief class in which their find/remove abilities are just rerolls, given anyone can find/remove a traps, open doors, etc. Anyway, thieves tools being higher quality crowbars and sledgehammers make sense to me, lasting more than one attempt, etc. 

Otherwise, man, this thing is rough. Lots of read-aloud, mounds of paddings, a mostly linear dungeon and low-powered opponents. I shall assume the best of intentions and these are just enthusiastic amateurs who wrote for, say, 5e, and had Bill localize it to 1e. But that localize was just not done well at all.

The adventure starts off in medias res with the parties wagon train being attacked by five skeletons. Yes, five skeletons. At levels five through seven. This is a recurring problem with the adventure. Very low level enemies, in small quantities, in general, but skeletons in particular. Oh, but these are special skeletons! They have TWO HD!!!!! Level five is an auto-turn and level seven is an auto destroy. So, yes, please, put in five skeletons. Or some giant rats. Yeah, sure, something like a hundred or a thousand skeletons, rats, stirge, et, can become an obstacle for the party, A hazard or environmental feature if not a straight up combat. When you finally make it to the last room of the dungeon you face off against the titular undead Dundel chief himself! Who I’m pretty sure is a 2HD skeleton. The read-aloud says he rises to attack. And that other skeletons nearby rise to attack. And it gives us stats for a 2HD skeleton right there. And no stats for the chieftain. Was there supposed to be stats for the big bad? Did they all fuck this up? Both writers credited? Both editors credited? The conversion person credited? The two proofreaders credited? Or is he supposed to be a 2HD skeleton? I wonder if anyone cared?

It engages in LONG, like, REALLY LONG sections of read-aloud. For everything. Once again, no one wants long read-aloud. Nobody cares about it. The DM doesn’t. The players HATE it. That’s when the phones come out. If you don’t run a shitty shitty game then people will be engaged and the phones will NOT come out. More than two or three sentences of read-aloud, SHORT sentences, is all you can get away with. If half your page is read-aloud text, as it is here in a not uncommon occurrence, then you are CLEARLY FAILING. In many pages there is far FAR less DM text on a page then there is read-aloud. 

Second person read-aloud. Don’t do that. Don’t make assumptions about the party. They are all 50’ tall and incorporeal in my game, so your shitty long second-person read-aloud doesn’t fucking apply. This also applies to that shtity in medias res opening. You’re part of a caravan, a wagon train, to the tomb. Earthquakes! Skeleton attacks! “Uh, we flew there.” Uh huh. Unspeakable Oath did an CoC adventure that started with the lights out in the players actual game space, then the DM flicked them on and one of them spat out a piece of hotdog. (His tongue, as it turns out.) THAT was a fucking in medias res fucking openening! For a one shot. If you are not the Unspeakable Oath and doing a one shot then maybe think twice before doing this.

You are on your way to the tomb of the dundel chief. Some dwarves hired you. They want you to go find a deed in it that gives them the right to open a mine and they are not allowed in/through the gateway city. A piece of paper. The dwarves think that a piece of paper is what they need. To coopt a quote, who, exactly, is going to enforce the judiciaries decision? Jesus gonna come down and smite the city elders for not obeying the piece of paper? Emperor Whatits, that maybe both the city and the dwarves pay homage to (If that were the case?) WHo does he like best? Is he trying to curry favor with one or the other party? But, sure, whatever. That’s a dwarf probem, I guess, YOUVE got a piece of paper that lets you go explore the tomb. That doesn’t belong to the dwarves. 

Strangely, the dundel people, who still exist and are all around, are ok with you plundering and robbing and desecrating the tomb of their greatest chief. “The Dundel people will be friendly and will answer questions if able.” Like, in ALL ways. Sure thing man, plunder away! 

DM text is quite poor. ‘Wait, we just started and we already have earthquakes and are under attack by the undead? Let’s go back a few days for a bit of a flashback.” Wonderful. Conversational. “If gear is left in the tunnel above or a rope is left hanging into the chamber it will be untouched when the time comes to return to the surface.” Is the sun still burning when we return? Is the air outside still breathable when we return? Room names are that cringe stuff that turns punny sometimes like “Encounter 3F: What’s Down Here?” 

Mechanics wise get things like a column of text to describe a pit trap. A simple pit trap with a clowning lid. A column of text. Kind of makes you wonder, doesn’t it, how you used to get away with just drawing an X on the map and saying nothing about it. 

“The slabs are extremely heavy and cannot be moved or damaged in any meaningful way.” Uh huh. How about “The padlock cannot be broken, but it may be picked” I think, perhaps, you underestimate my players. One of my proudest moments as a father is when my kids, knowing there was a basement to a house but not being able to find a way in, pulled out their tools and started to work on the wood floor. And those were first level tweens. I think my aging level seven wizard can find a way through, if not the bevy of magic items the level five through sevens carry. It’s fucking absurd. Half the fucking spell lists in 1e are devoted to shit like this.

One room takes three pages to describe.

The dungeon is linear. You come down in to a room with eight doors, one open. You explore that section of the dungeon and at the end of it you can then go explore the next section of the dungeon and so on. IE: linear. Of those eight sections, about halfway through the text, you get an interlude that describes the nomad camp outside the dungeon that you camp in. Seriously. Like, after room twenty, here’s a description of the nomad camp outside, and then it starts in on room 21. No, this was not an editing or layout error. It was intentional. Because just sticking rando shit in the middle of other rando shit is CLEARLY the best way to organize things. That’s my, in my own dictionary, the letters M are placed between the letters Q and D. 

Quantum rooms? IE: the dreaded if/then padding? Check. “If the party explores to the North, they will find the walkway leads to a section of bridge that crosses to a door. If they continue North, they find a dead end and the source of the fast- moving stream, emerging through a heavy iron grate from the darkness beyond.” 

Dumb ass interactivity/? Check. “The answer to the riddle is: Eye. As soon as the answer is spoken …” No sphynx there. Just a room. Yu’re just saying the answer out loud. 

The final insult may be the hyperlink included at the end for downloadable content. It’s broken. Doesn’t work. As in it takes you a page on their website that says “No page found.” I went digging elsewhere on their website for the content. It’s not present. 

It’s linear, stuffed with excessive read-aloud, DM notes that are excessive in some places and lacking in other place, to the point I’m questioning if there was a layout/edit error that removed information that was supposed to be present. It is essentially traps and combat with a lot of irrelevant combat encounters and a few 7 HD dudes here and there. This is not a strong showing. For $35.

This is $35 at DriveThru. The preview is only three pages with none of the dungeon. A good preview should show a potential buyer what to expect, and the core encounters are a part of that. Still, you get a look at the read-aloud on a couple of the lighter pages. 

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/446899/tomb-of-the-dundel-chief-1e-special-edition?1892600

Echoes From Fomalhaut #14I am pleased to announce the publication of the fourteenth issue of my fanzine, Echoes From Fomalhaut. This is a 52-page zine dedicated to adventures and GM-friendly campaign materials for OSRIC and other old-school systems (this issue has a scenario for Swords & Wizardry). The cover art was provided by Vincentas Saladis, and the interiors by Cameron Hawkey, Graphite Prime, Jason Blasso, Ferenc Fabian, and the Dead Victorians. The current issue features two larger and two smaller scenarios, all of which are sandbox components. The following materials are included:
Dragon Isle (levels 2–4, 15 keyed areas), a complex Swords & Wizardry wilderness mini-sandbox by Istvan Boldog-Bernad. The scenario describes an island ruled by a proud society of militaristic halfling colonists. Things are of course not easy in this bucolic realm: dangerous things lurk in the hinterlands, while the halflings’ society is one where slavery is as accepted tradition as hospitality, and visitors must watch their every step. Things could go anywhere, and this is also a good base region to extend with further adventures.
The Gates of Velkos Vel (levels 4–6, 18+10+34 keyed areas), the issue’s centrepiece. Mighty Velkos Vel, stone fortress of the wasteland barbarians, rises unconquered on the edge of a region of deep canyons and rocky mesas – but there are some who would brave it still! This is a complex wilderness and dungeon scenario describing the fortress, the ancient tunnel system underneath it, as well as the surrounding wilderness. This adventure combines well with Tower of the Mad Satrap from Issue #13, or Khosura: King of the Wastelands, both located fairly close by.
The Charming Princess (levels 2–5, 15 keyed areas) is a small, modular adventure set on a plague ship that could come to any port... your port! The ship, its crew, and sinister cargo are described. “Echoes From Fomalhaut gives you the plague, you give it to your players, everyone wins.”™
The Garden of Love (levels 1–3, 13+11 keyed areas) – idyllic wine-growing village on the coast or hotbed of deceit and treachery? Picturesque art colony or Mansonesque hippy cult? And what of the nearby Canine Caverns? The scenario provides a low-level infiltration adventure in the village of Faund, suitable for all sorts of skullduggery. This is the place where the first player character died on Fomalhaut, and he is still there – sort of.
Two foldout map sheets with player and GM maps, including a full-colour players’ map of Dragon Isle by Istvan Boldog-Bernad.

NOTE: I have rather low inventory from a few other items, but reprints are on the way. Check back in a few days if you are missing something. 

* * *

The print version of the zine is available from my Bigcartel store; the PDF edition will be published through DriveThruRPG with a few months’ delay. As always, customers who buy the print edition will receive the PDF version free of charge.

NOTE TO US CUSTOMERS: Unfortunately, the US postal situation has not yet been resolved to complete satisfaction. Thus, this zine is not yet available to US customers through my online storefront until commercial mail becomes available again. As an alternative, I can recommend checking out Dark Future PDX, where this product will be available in a few weeks. A different workaround may also become available. If you would like to be notified when the seas are open again for orders through my store, please mail me at beyond.fomalhaut@gmail.com, and I will put you on the notification list.

There Will Be a Shire, Pippin,
and It Will be Won With the Sword.
Their Poppy Fields Shall Burn!

 In the world of Barrows & Borderlands, the "Beast" isn't just a monster; it’s a living relic of a prehistoric age, awakened by the hubris of modern alchemy or arcane blasting. It represents the unstoppable force of nature reclaimed from the depths. This blog post post picks right up from Barrows and Borderlands New Monster - Cultclassic Movie Monster - Pod People From Invasion of Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

If I’ve been quiet on this blog for a while, it’s because I’ve been filling my hours with a lot of RPG design: D&D, A5E, Pathfinder, and, increasingly, Draw Steel (I’ve been doing freelance work on the game back from when it was MCDM RPG). And now it’s official! I’m starting a job as Draw Steel line developer at MCDM. I’m incredibly proud that this amazing company is letting me play with their toys.

I have tons and tons of praise for MCDM that I basically can’t say now, because as a MCDM company man it will seem like I’m praising myself. But I will allow myself this: MCDM is an exemplar of ethical conduct in the hobby space, which is tremendously important to me. And everyone who works there (myself excluded) are geniuses: the more I work with each of them, the more awed I am. I’m lucky to land here, and excited to invent a lot of crazy new stuff together. Let’s draw steel!

My earlier post on the new setting I'm working on drew some questions related to the uninvolved gods and how the cleric class would work. I thought it was worth a post of its own. 

When the gods withdrew from the world it was no particular impediment to organized religion. To the contrary, priests could now make whatever pronouncements or demands they wanted without fear of divine contradiction or rebuke. The populace, worried at what the loss of the gods' favor might portend for the future, were eager for any message than offered hope or a path to the gods' return. In this period, the power of the temples increased, but so did conflict between them and various self-proclaimed prophets and spiritual teachers. 

This situation didn't last, thanks to the devastation of the Demon Wars and the invasion by the demons' monstrous allies. Human civilization was devastated, and cities became isolated. The society that had sustained and supported the temples and the priesthoods faltered, and once again faith in the gods was shown to be no protection against calamity. 

The priests and temples remain, though, particularly in the major city-states. The gods are real, after all, and no one expects them to return to a world that doesn't honor them or keep their ritual observances. Certain rituals, too, perform an important civic function and rulers rely on their observance to perpetuate their legitimacy.

In the smaller villages and hinterlands, though, the temples and shrines were mostly abandoned, the priests fleeing to the cities or killed in the conflict along with much of the rest of the population. As time passed, and these regions became (somewhat) safer, the common folk returned, but the priests often didn't.

Into this void strode another form of clergy. Those who, without official blessing or ordination, were able to wield a portion of divine power. They roam from village to village performing spiritual important services. They officiate marriages and civic ceremonies and conduct community rituals at festivals. They mediate between villagers and the spirits or the dead and perform exorcisms when necessary. Joining with other adventuring sorts, they also kill monsters threatening the people. These individuals are often called "Shepherds." They are the most common representatives of the absent gods encountered outside of the city-states.

Shepherd is the name used by the Nimble rpg for its "mostly cleric, but some druid concepts" class. It seemed a good as name as any to use here. 

 We pick right up from March 22 game session right here on the blog.  We were racing against time as a rival party of adventurers was on their way to the "The Weeping Monolith of the Silt-King," We were right on the edge of the Ruined Ziggurat territory. Events and the jungle was tense around us.  Gemini saidThis encounter, "The Weeping Monolith of the Silt-KingNeedleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

MooglyCAL2026 Block 7 is a mesmerizing block by Michele Costa of Stitch & Hustle! The Crashing Waves Blanket Square delivers texture and lots of color possibilities for all skill levels! Get all the details for this free crochet along, and the free pattern link below! Disclaimer: This post includes affiliate links; materials provided by Local […]

The post MooglyCAL2026 Block 7 appeared first on moogly. Please visit www.mooglyblog.com for this post.

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 To adapt Harry Dresden for the Sword of Cepheus 2nd Edition (or any 2D6-based Cepheus Engine fantasy system), he is best represented as a Sorcerer with high Charisma and Endurance, reflecting his "magical bruiser" nature and tendency to survive things he shouldn't.Harry DresdenRank: Experienced Adventurer Characteristics: * STR: 8 (+0)DEX: 7 (+0)END: 11 (+1)INT: 9 (+1)EDU: 8 (+0)SOC: 5 (-1)Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

No fooling! April is here, and that means it’s time for another Crochet and Catch Up on Moogly! Bring whatever you’re working on and settle in for a relaxed, welcoming reprieve with fellow crocheters. I’ll be sharing what’s been happening behind the scenes, chatting about current projects and what’s coming next, and answering your crochet […]

The post Crochet and Catch Up with Moogly - April 1, 2026 appeared first on moogly. Please visit www.mooglyblog.com for this post.

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By The Danger Forge
Self Published
OSE
Levels 6-8

Tales of Atan-Thu are told to frighten both the bold and the meek alike. Necromancer without peer. Merciless tyrant of Zahal Keep. His evil stretched across the land like a malignant shadow. Though long dead, his legend persists. Ancient texts speak of a vast sepulcher hidden deep in the Dhar Voromal Mountains, where Atan-Thu and his immeasurable wealth and artifacts of power were entombed. But rumors hint that Atan-Thu yet survives, sustained by his dark necromancy. Protected by hideous guardians and diabolical traps, he waits for the very brave or the very foolish to enter his lair.  Do you dare venture into his ancient crypt and explore this testament to Atan-Thu’s power, malice, and madness?

This 68 page adventure uses about twenty two pages to describe about seventy rooms in a tomb/puzzle/challenge dungeon. Long-winded tomb of horrors, at levels 6-8, with impossible puzzles and overpowered opponents. 

I knew I was trouble upon first cracking it open. Triple column. Small font. You are free, brothers and sisters, of the constraints of the print publishing world! You can make your product 6,000 pages long! Because it’s a PDF and no one gonna buy the print copy anyway. And if they are then they REALLY want to so you don’t have to cram your product in to some artificial page count constraint. 

Lets see here … background information about scary dude, history b lah blah blah, overland area that briefly describes some large general regions with no real mention or support of overlands play, small village generically described with no import … more background information. Bulshit bullshit bullshit, madness and horror throw-away rules cause dungeon is so scary, bullshit bullshit bullshit … Ok, the dungeon starts after ten pages of padding.

Room two: You’ve got seven stone heads. Three face inward from the west wall, three from the east, and a seventh looms at the north end of the hall. Two doors, the one you came in and another one on the far side. The doors are immune to physical damage and are wizard locked at level 18. At the base of each stone head is a small bowl and in the center of the room seven orbs float above a seven pointed star, each inlaid with a different symbol. You put the orbs in correct bowl and the door unlocks. First failure and the doors lock. Second and ichor streams in to the room. Third and everyone takes 3d6 damage per round until you get it right. There are no hints. The symbols on the  orbs? There are no corresponding symbols anywhere. It’s the second room of the dungeon (in a line until it opens up later), you’ve learned nothing yet. It is truly random. You’ve level 6-8. How much divination do you truly have? 

Did I mention that there’s a level 7 undead dude running around, with dimension door and a wand of lightning bolts? He’s doing hit and runs on your party. Oh, yeah, there are four of them, one in each quadrant of the dungeon. How the room with NINE 8HD AC2 dudes to fight? For your level 6-8’s. At one point you’re potentially attacked by 1d6 wights per turn. Which is fun except you auto-turn those at level 7 and turn on, what, a 4, at level six? 

My point here is that this was not playtested. At all. I suspect the designer doesn’t even play D&D. I don’t see how you can and come up with this stuff. No one playtested room two. It can’t be. I don’t see how anyone is living through it. A party of six level eight clerics who filled their spell slots with divinations? Let’s see, from 1e  (sorry, My kool aid stained 1e is at hand, not OSE…) that’s 3 3 3 3 2 spells at level eight. That’s three Augery and two Divination per cleric, or eighteen Augury and twelve Divinations. For room two that’s … a seven factorial? About 5,000 combinations?  

But, hey man, the treasure rooms has about 16k in gold and a ring with one wish. So, it was the friends we made along that was the real treasure!

Man, fuck this fucking shit! 

Worthless fucking garbage. 

Did you try? What is the definition of trying? There are words on a page. Someone used a professional map making tool to make the dungeon map. It looks nice. But it clearly wasn’t playtested. And I’m not even sure there’s a basic understanding of what a level six (or eight …) character is capable of. Rocks fall. Everybody dies.All of that fucking preamble bullshit is worthless. All of that appendix shit is worthless. The use of fucking italics is garbage. Long read-aloud is fucking garbage. No fucking treasure. Overpowered fucking combats. I’m supposed to believe that this was lovingly handcrafted?! Backstory in the fucking dungeon rooms. 

There is a nice bit. The dungeon map is in four quadrants. A mat surrounds three of them. That’s a nice touch, a little flavor and challenge to leverage for the party. Those 1d6 weights shows up for every 100 feet traveled on it. 

Sometimes I come across dungeons that could serve as platonic examples of what NOT to do. This is one of them. Looky there at that cover. And the layout inside. Pretty fucking nice.  But I will take a handwritten scrawl over this shit any day of the week. This is the chinese box. Emulation rather than understanding. 

I’m sure someone, somewhere, is making a bundle cranking this shit out at Kickstarter. “Look! Just like the olden days! “ Indeed. Fuck nostalgia. And fucking reading shit. D&D is for playing. A high 2E dungeon. Is there a worse insult?

This is $9 at DriveThru. The preview is twelve pages, You get to see the map, which is nice, but otherwise it’s just the generic padding shit and little dungeon overview bit. Shitty preview. It needs to show some encounters so we can understand what the core of the writing is about before we make a purchasing decision.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/554398/the-crypt-of-atan-thu-old-school-essentials?src=newest_recent?1892600