Review & Commentary On The Sorcerer Class for Labyrinth Lord By James Mishler, & Jodi Moran-Mishler From James Mishler Games For Labyrinth Lord Or Your Old School Games

 

James & Jodi Mishler from Mishler Games have created an OSR sorcerer class that dips deeply into the mythology of  classic Dungeons & Dragon style games with their latest Sorcerer Class for  Labyrinth Lord

"The new Sorcerer Class for Labyrinth Lord includes the following:

 
Class Details, including Spellcasting, Sorcerous Origin, and Evoke Magic;
 
The following Sorcerous Origins, each with their own special abilities:
Angel-Blood
Demon-Blood
Djinn-Blood
Dragon-Blood
Efreet-Blood
Fairy-Blood
Vampire-Blood
 
New spells for the Dragon-Blood and Vampire-Blood sorcerers, adapted from spells included in the Dragonborn Race and Necromancer Class booklets."  The Sorcerer PC  Class is one of those classes you don't think your gonna need as a player or DM but then it hits you. This is a perfect class for an OSR  horror game or even a science fantasy campaign.  


Here the Mishler's do an excellent job of boiling down the PC  sorcerer into its OSR roots & this is both its charm. And its dangers; "Sorcerers are humans who possess innate magical spell-casting powers due to ancient, inhuman family bloodlines, such as through having an angel, demon, dragon, fairy, genie, vampire, or other magically-powerful creature in their family line." Why do I say dangers?! Because sorcerers have powerful supernatural or occult  parents. Parent can be very protective of their children. 

Mishler's sorcerers go to twentieth level & leave lots of room for the players & DM's to have fun with the class in OSR games. The class has plenty of opportunities to take full advantage of the magic infused nature of the class; "SPELLCASTING: Sorcerers possess the ability to cast magic-user spells, but in a very different way than magic-users gain and cast spells. A sorcerer does not learn spells, scribe them in spell books, and then memorize the spells desired. Instead, a sorcerer innately knows a number of spells equal to her level plus her Charisma bonus. She then use her spell slots to cast the spells she knows in any combination desired, within her combination of known spells and available spell casting slots. For example, at 1st level Tiana the Sorceress (CHA 16, +2) knows three 1st level spells (plus one from her Sorcerous Origin), which she can cast in any combination of two spells per day using her two 1st-level spell-casting slots. At each level, when a sorcerer gains a new spell, she may choose a spell of a spell level that she can cast (including any newly-gained spell level from that character level) from the magic-user spell list. For example, Tiana the Sorceress advances from 3rd to 4th level; she may choose one new spell of 1st or 2 nd level, as she can now cast 2nd level spells." 

The very nature of the sorcerer's magic makes it even more dangerous; "EVOKE MAGIC: Sorcerers do not have any proper training in the use of magic items that are normally limited to use by magic-users, however, their natural affinity with magic allows them to try to use such items that require activation. In order to do so, they must make a saving throw versus Wands (if using a wand) or Spells or Spell-Like Devices (if using any other item other than scrolls) each time they wish to use an item that requires active use. No roll is needed to use passive items that work without activation. To cast a scroll, the sorcerer must make a Charisma-based Spell Learning Probability Check (Intelligence Table II), with a penalty of 5% per level of the spell; even sorcerers who cannot read can try to use scrolls, as they can feel the magic in the scroll and simply evoke it out of the magical writing. However, there is danger in trying to evoke magic out of a magic item or scroll. If the saving throw fails with a Natural 1, or if the sorcerer rolls 96-00 when trying to use a scroll, Something Bad happens, the nature of which is at the whim of the Labyrinth Lord." I can think of at least ten or so uses for this class as the basis for an NPC villain or mid level hench villain with an occult parent whose a complete & utter bastard. 

Mishler shifts from the various Angel-Blood, Demon-Blood, Djinn-Blood, Dragon-Blood,  Efreet-Blood

Fairy-Blood, &  Vampire-Blood. There ar new spells, advantages, explainations, class advances, & all of this fits into about twenty pages. Not bad for a compact little class with tons of D&D potential to say the least. The two stand outs for my money are the Dragon Blood & the Vampire Blood who have some real potential as possible NPC  royals or henchmen for thier parents. Taking the material has been ported over into these sorcerers with spells like this; "Dragon Claw & Fang Level: 1 st level Dragon-Blood Sorcerer Duration: 1 turn per level Range: Self The sorcerer transforms her hands into dragon claws sharp as daggers, and her head into that of a dragon, complete with sharp fangs. The sorcerer may attack each round with a claw/claw/bite routine, dealing the following damage: 1st to 3 rd level 1d4/1d4/2d4, 4th to 6th level 1d4+1/1d4+1/2d6, 7th to 9th level 1d6/1d6/2d8, 10th to 12th level 1d6+1/1d6+1/2d10, 13th to 15th level 1d8/1d8/3d8, and 16th level and above 2d4/2d4/3d10. Attacks made with the claw and bite attacks are rolled on the Monster Attack Table rather than on the Magic-user Attack Table. The sorcerer can cast spells normally while her hands are claws, but other more detailed work might be troublesome." 
All in all you get the essence of the sorcerer with all of the backwash of the classes origin. In no way are the Mishler's work being desparaged here. This is a great PC class with some solid bones to it! 

So where can the Sorcerer class be used in old school or OSR games or settings?! The obvious answer is within Adventurer, Conqueror, King's  Barbarian Conquerors of Kanahu. Half  dragons check & Science Fantasy check along with Sword & Sorcery. This is a perfect class to slide in the ACK's backdoor. Then there's Castles & Crusades which this class fits right into epecially given the number of elemental or potential god like cosmic powers we've got lurking in the background of Castles & Crusades. Yes I'm talking about the Adventurer's Backpack book here as the basis for a sorcerer to work along side the classes introduced within that book. 

Could the sorcerer class be used with say Lamentations of the Flame Princess!? Yes but it would require a bit of adjustment or would it?! Say using the basics of the sorcerer with some of the spells from Lamentations might be fun.. The sorcerer could be a very dangerous & unknown quatity as an NPC or as a PC. Sorcerer Class for  Labyrinth Lord is well done & serves its niche within old school or even OSR games quite nicely. A very useful class in my humble opinion. 

 The Sorcerer Class for  Labyrinth Lord is 
Available Right Here. 

A Pipeful Of Trouble Adventure By Bret James Stewart From D-oom Products For Labyrinth Lord Or Your Old School Campaigns

"All is not well in Brierfield. The idyllic halfling village has fallen prey to unknown bandits and marauders. These peaceful victims of shattered loves and broken dreams need a band of heroes to save them. Are you willing to help them in their time of needs?"


Sometimes a dungeon master needs a basic & down to Earth module & that's where A Pipeful Of Trouble comes in from Bret James Stewart. We get a low level halfling adventure with some heart & heat for the player's PC's. The production & layout are straight up too the level of  D-oom Products expectations. This adventure is packed with back to back old school value at seventy two pages of campaign setting set up goodness. This adventure packs in  NPCs,nasty opponents & NPC's, lots of dangerous adventure locales,
twists & turns for the PC's situations, plus a brand new
evil monster with its own brand of weirdness.
The cartography  for Brierfield, & the Merrywood route to the caves, along with the adventure  a cave and dungeon maps are very well done. But I can't help but feel that everything in Pipeful Of Trouble is an old fashioned campaign set up. While the Tolkein flavor is undeniable its not an adventure that talks down the players or the dungeon master. Here the flavor is akin to a fully fleshed out adventure that can be dragged & dropped as a prime introduction adventure.
While this is an introductory adventure for beginning characters the entire adventure feels like a European fairy tale mixed in the with strains of Tolkien shifted through the lens of Dungeons & Dragons.


:Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis - FAIRY TALE (FAIRY TALE OF KINGS) - 1909 has some of the magic of Pipeful Of Trouble adventure ideals. 

There's something to be said for bringing in a tradition Dungeons & Dragons style adventure with some solid beginnings for lower tier PC's. At this Pipeful Of Trouble succeeds in spades. The style of this adventure is one with clear goals & roadways of old school campaign ideals. This is a good thing for beginning characters & players in my opinion. The dungeon master is given all of the tools he or she will need to set up a fine campaign to beginning with.
There are several ways I can see using Pipeful Of Trouble, one is for a set up for a game of James Spahn's The Hero's Journey Swords & Wizardry rpg . All of the elements are present in Pipeful Of Trouble to really bring home the Tolkein while grounding a campaign on the dungeon master's stomping ground. The epicness of the adventure's background setting allows the dungeon master to customize certain adventure elements. 




But the place where Pipeful Of Trouble really shines is with the Goblinoid Games Labyrinth Lord retroclone game. The whole package slots right into LL with no trouble at all & really brings home that old school feel without giving the players loads of horrid worry. That isn't to say that Pipeful Of Trouble isn't going to kill your PC's dead quite the contrary. But it means that the players can have a solid time with the adventure right from the dice hitting the table.



Pipeful Of Trouble does three things at the table top level & does em right. It presents a great introductory adventure, there is some really nasty business waiting for the PC's, & the adventure serves as a prime price of adventure gaming perfect for introducing new players to the OSR & for killing off the PC's of veterans who get cocky with a first through third level adventure. Is Pipeful Of Trouble worth the money?! Yes I think so. The adventure succeeds on two levels, one it delivers on its promise for adventure! 

The 'Pay What You Want ' OSR Resource Magazine - Brave the Labyrinth - Issue #5 (PDF) From Small Niche Games

 Garb It Right
HERE

'Brave  The Labyrinth' is one of those OSR zines with so many varied uses its not even funny. I admit I haven't kept up with the zine as much as I should. In point of fact I haven't kept up as much as I should with as many of Goblinoid Games as I'd like to. This is one hell of a nice little resource zine and of exceptional quality  with some great and varied content for the Labyrinth Lord game and 90% of the retroclones out on the market. This is a really packed piece of OSR gaming zine right here. 
But what's in this issue of awesomeness? According to the blurb from Drivethrurpg : 

Brave the Labyrinth is a quarterly fanzine published by Small Niche Games for the Labyrinth Lord™ roleplaying game community. It consists of fan-created material designed to cover all types of Labyrinth Lord™ and Advanced Edition Companion™ gaming.

In this Issue you get: 

-a new demon lord - This is a really nice variation on the lords of the Abyss and a good contribution to a region where you can really vary the enemies. 

-new elf variations - Yet more of these pointed eared PC favorites, these are always welcome and very nicely balanced. 

-an amazing map of Andrel Castle - Sold map of a very cool adventure location 

-sainted icons of the Church of Law and Order -Finally! Some very nice minions of the powers of Law! Very useful for my games. 

-tools, keys, and magic items for thieves - Thief themed items that tie directly into the class. Very nicely done. 

-three (3) new monsters - Monsters are always welcome and these are nicely balanced. 

-a green wizard who sought to cheat death - Very cool. 

-a review of the Caves of Ortok - A really nice overview of an adventure module that needs more spotlights on it. Hoping my players don't get a chance to read this overview because I so want to run it. 

-artwork contributions by by JV West and Jim Wampler- Really nice pieces of artwork and old school inspiration. 

All in all this to me is a really nice issue of Brave The Labyrinth and a pretty solid old school resource. There are several articles and entries here that tie directly into some of the campaigns I'm running. I think that this is well worth your time and energy to take a look into if your a DM with any interest in old school gaming. Small Niche games has consistently put out some quality products in the past and this is certainly among those in my opinion. Throw these folks a few gold pieces and get to using some great old school material. 

Free Original "Petty Gods" book And Commentary.

 Gorgon Milk continues to set a pretty damn high standard, he and Peter Gifford have released the original "Petty Gods" as a Free PDF. The book looks pretty damn good. But I have it on really good authority that the new "Expanded" edition will blow this one out of the waters.
In Gorgon's words -  the long-believed lost version of PETTY GODS designed by Peter Gifford and edited by James Maliszewski of Grognardia! To keep things straight, we're officially dubbing this "OPG" -- Original PETTY GODS --
 You can get the original version right over
HERE
 

Hmm, the original clocks in at around one hundred and fifty pages and there are are some really interesting minor gods in here. 
The artwork reminds me of some of the Mayfair games products and the stats seem fairly well balanced. The project seems to match writers up with artists and then present the artwork and entity. 
The entities look pretty useful and might function well in a mid level Labyrinth Lord game.
 The overall feel seems almost "Gothic" somehow and I'm reminded of Lamentations of the Flame Princess in the artwork and presentation.
A DM might be very creative and use these dieties as the center of a game adventure and the ideas presented in here.
The book seems to be in almost the final stages of release but there's a bit of the unfinished about it. However the book is rather well done and I'm grateful that this piece has seen the light of day. Its a nice bench mark to see this book.
 I hope that you all enjoy it as much as I have reading this book.
 Three out of Four stars. 

1d10 Deep One Random Finds For Your Old School Horror Campaign

" After the latest raid on the lonely Island of Esbrook off the coast of  Maine. Our party found "things" left behind never created by the hand of mortal man. The marines drove them off but the price in man power was incredible. For some reason the sea seems to sing to me this evening. That damn strange flute even now sits on the desk. Its angles seem to glint and dance in the light like the luxuriousness of certain fish in the Abyss of the Atlantic." 

Corporal Martino USS Ulysses missing off the coast of Maine 1925 last diary entry 

1d10 Deep One Random Finds

1. Deeply pittied sacrfical knife with odd glyph symbols that glints in the light. Wickedly sharp and looks to almost be a boning knife. +1 Knife of sharpness 
2. Hooks and chains with barbed ends. 300 yards of chain that could be used for something of tremendous size. The ore that it is made from is oddly bluish green and its rusted at odd places. The hooks have bits of dried flesh, ichor, and something less identifiable on them. Wickedly sharp, black in places, and broken at certain points the barbs do 1d4 points of damage. 
3. Effigy of Mother Hydra - This +1 war club of a heavy iron material sings with the spell "Call Deep One" when held. One nights of the full moon it will call 1d8 Deep One warriors to the user. 
4. Odd Blue Green Coins - Made from a weird semi luminous material these slightly radioactive coins are used in the rites to call a shaggoth or Father Dagon to the those who pay the price. The coins are deeply pitted and rusted in places. There is dry human blood on them and they are also slightly radioactive. 
5. Deep One Cross Bow Bolts - These wicked barbed weapons have bits of dried human flesh on them and other things. They are a +1 weapon but must be modified to work on a human cross bow. They are made from iron and something else that is alien and they have an oily sheen to them. 
6. Weird Gill Flute - Made from fish bones, dried whale flesh, and twisted metal. This flute echoes with the song of Cthulhu when held. It may call a 1d4 hit point storm/elemental when played. There is a 20% of the deep ones noticing the user playing this item and attracting their attention 
7. Figurine from Beyond - This multi-armed monstrosity conforms to no known human god. The thing is 4 inches high and is covered from its multiple heads to its pedestal in glyphs. On the nights of  the full moon it whispers and sings three spells of 2nd level to the user. On nights of the new moon it sings a song of insanity. 
8. A Necklace of Human Teeth And Finger bones - This necklace rattles when danger to the user is nearby and threatens the user. 1d20 ghosts follow the owner. They will wait for the user to show weakness and then tear the owner apart. 
9. The Frog Glass - A lump of molten glass with a single inhuman eye  floating in it.The thing shows various Deep One cities. When you hold the item it sings the praises of madness and the Old Ones. There is a 60% chance of a shaggoth or worse noticing the user. The thing automatically allows the breath water spell once per day. 
10. The Spell Staff of Depravity - This twisted staff of coral and human bone allows the user to transform into a Deep One once per day. It has the following spell like powers : Darkness, Charm person, Mass illusion, Field of the Eel 1d4 points of damage 20 foot radius, and call Shaggoth. All powers usable once per day. There is a price for the power however. The second the owner picks up the staff their genetic structure becomes one with the Deep Ones and is polluted forever more. Using the powers of the staff marks the soul of the user as the property of the Great Old Ones and all that comes with it. 

There Are No Limits .... In The OSR

I've been doing a bit of soul searching as of late. Thinking long into the night about where my other games are going. They're not at the moment. I've been running Human Space Empires for quite awhile now but I want to do something else a bit more modern yet within the contents of the OSR field.

Frank Cotton: I thought I'd gone to the limits. I hadn't. The Cenobites gave me an experience beyond limits... pain and pleasure, indivisible. 

I somehow feel that the limits of the science fiction/science fantasy game can pretty much be felt & occasionally I've hit a wall with my dungeon mastering. Time for a bit of a change but what system? 

Well the truth is that for months I've been thinking & reading this through. I've decided on Goblinoid Games System. A combination of Mutant Future,Labyrinth Lord,& The Advanced Companion. I'm thinking of using the underworld as plane of existence. 

Kirsty Cotton: Who are you?
Lead Cenobite: Explorers in the further regions of experience. Demons to some. Angels to others.


This decision is also an economic one as well. I need a system that can do what I need it to from horror,science fiction, to straight fantasy. I've got a lot of role playing stuff & I like the idea of not buying any more & using the free resources out there. I hear a huge amount of clatter about edition wars out there. Its pure bull shit as far as I'm concerned.
The real war is one of economics & not getting sold another game that will disappear within a year with only fan support to back it up! That really is the hobby's dirty little secret. The  further regions of experience here are what I can accomplish with the systems myself as a dungeon master. No longer do I have to play around with the endless watz for the perfect system. It doesn't exist.

I'm settling down & I'm going to put a poster in few local hobby shops. I want to see what players I can scare up. Over the next couple of months I'll be converting monsters, creating new ones, settings, planes etc.
I'll be using The Beyond as my plane of torment for my players! Read about  The_Beyond