Pay What You Want - The Tomb of Rakoss the Undying For Your Old School Campaigns

I've been seeing this module around since 2013, and I've been meaning to check this bad boy out for a long while. Mischief Inc has been teasing me with this one in my Drivethrurpg feed for a while and its an interesting run through reading through OA. As a pay what you want title its pretty damn well put together.

This module has several interesting features: A its truly edition nuetral and could be used with any edition of the world's most popular fantasy adventure game. Second it emulates many of the conventions and tropes of older edition adventures. Third this makes this adventure an easy fit for any old school retroclone. Everything from the stat blocks for the monsters, the artwork, the basic intro here is top drawer. If your going to get into a mid range module for an OSRIC or AD&D style game this module is a god sent. But here's the thing this module could easily be used with a swords and wizardry rule set or Labryth Lord especially with the advance companion. 

The basic plot of this adventure reads through like a TSR era adventure but more heavy on the sword and sorcery aspect. According to the Drivethrurpg blurb: 

Rakoss was a great wizard of ages past who served the Emperor of Maere. Tales tell of his prowess as a military strategist, but they also tell of his fall. It is said that although he won campaign after campaign for his emperor, just one failure earned the wrath of his master. The Emperor had Rakoss, his generals, strategists and personal guard sealed in a tomb somewhere in the Ganlaw Mountains, and cursed them.

Who knows what treasure was buried with Rakoss and his retinue, or what horrors remain to test any who might enter the tomb. Certainly only a brave few would dare seek out the final resting place of Rakoss, and even fewer can survive the terrors of The Tomb of Rakoss the Undying!

"The Tomb of Rakoss the Undying" is a challenging adventure for 3-6 characters of level 4 to 6.

Much of the fantasy elements are twists on the classic AD&D 1st edition of play and with a bit of work could easily be incorporated into a game such as the Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea rpg system game world.
The monsters are deadly and some of the encounters would have to be used with an experienced party. There is enough meat here to challenge the PC's on a number of levels. 

All in all the quality of the adventure is quite surprisingly good and the writing complex with plenty of adventure hooks for future releases.
Much of this module is well thought out and delivers on exactly what it promises, a pilot episodic adventure from Mischief Inc. It feels and plays with some very interesting twists on some potentially nasty enemies for the PC's and introduces a fully fleshed out vile villain with not a wrap up in sign. This is done on purpose but for a eighteen page adventure with quality artwork and more this is an essential adventure to grab. 

The Pay What You Want OSR Resource - Five Swords From Harbinger Games For Your Old School Campaigns

Five Swords From Harbinger Games is one of those supplements that fills a niche as a DM that you wish you have thought to have written. Its a damn useful little product with five magical blades. The title includes their history, powers, bits and pieces, all of the useful bits about the weapons and its all done up in a nice concise and well organized package from Harbinger Games. These are not power or munchkin blades, they have a specific set of powers and magical qualities but not enough to unbalance your old school campaigns

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Five Swords has a ton of uses from adding in several NPC magical blades and their history to creating brand new artifacts in the form of swords to add just that extra little bit of shine to that treasure hoard.
According to the Drivethrurpg blurb: 

  Five Swords is exactly what it sounds like - writeups of five enchanted swords suitable for use making a treasure hoard more sought after, or to make a villain more feared!.

  Five Swords has writeups for the holy sword Whitestaff, the thief's sword Stardust, and killer's sword Orphanmaker, plus two more.

On the surface this title does exactly what it says on the title but more then that the Five swords adds that little extra edge of magical sword goodness to an adventure but don't make these swords that easy to aquire during game play. Place these swords within dragon hoard, as part of collections belonging to vile villains or give these swords to NPC's who need a magic sword with an impressive set of minor and useful powers. And that's one of the things that separates this from other OSR products. These swords are actually damn useful for game play. They should be the cherry on top of any hoard's gathering of gold, gems, and silver pieces.
Because of the way that 'Five Swords' is written there is a ton of room to modify these items to your heart's content and allowing you as a DM to make and customize these swords as your own. There is a sense that these are magic swords that are meant to see use by your PC's.
That brings up the question of balance,Five Swords definitely has its collective eyes as a product to providing you with set of swords that can easily be modified to fit your needs as a DM. 

The items are very accurately described and are completely plug and play allowing a DM freedom to drop these swords right into an Advance Labryth Lord campaign, OSRIC, AD&D 1st Edition, or even an Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea campaign. The fact is that only one of these swords should appear within a campaign. Seriously these are swords that should only show up once every two years or so of game play. They're well balanced and written items with plenty of DYI editing room so you can sneak these swords right into the middle of your carefully aligned campaign with a ton adventure hooks built right into each item. 

All in all I think that this a download with your time and your attention as a DM. Go and gran this one today! 

'The Pay What You' Want' OSR Adventure -HS1 The Lost Shrine of Sirona From Jeremy Reaban For Your Old School Campaigns

HS1 The Lost Shrine of Sirona From Jeremy Reaban is a really nice   'The Pay What You' Want' downloadable adventure that sets off to do something fairly simple and straight forward. It seeks to provide an evening's entertainment and do it well. This it succeeds in quite nicely and the module is 'pay what you want'

The module revels in its 'hack and slash' ethos and sometimes that's really all that's needed for a party of PC's.

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The text is concise, the maps pretty straight forward, and it does exactly what it says on the tin. This is a really nice mid point adventure and crawl with a location based adventure plot.
Here's the drivethrurpg blurb: 

Remember when adventures were mostly about going into a dungeon, killing monsters, and grabbing treasure? HS1 The Shrine of Sirona is the first (hopefully) in a line of small modules that focus on the somewhat neglected and usually disdained "hack & slash" style play.

HS1 The Shrine of Sirona details a small (10 room) dungeon shrine that was been invaded and occupied by monsters. It is intended for 5th to 7th level characters using the advanced first edition of the most popular fantasy role-playing game but should work with all modern simulacra, and armor class is provided in most ascending and descending formats.

My advice with this adventure is to use it for an experienced party as mid range plot point crawl and hook for your campaign against the forces of darkness. It can provide a jump point for the events and ideas of what's happening in your OSR campaign or use it as a beginning stepping stone into greater things.
Or this adventure could simply be an evening's entertainment for a party of experienced PC's.
The module is only six pages long but don't let that fool you, there are some monsters and things that could easily end your PC's quite easily. This module could be adapted to your OD&D games or retroclones but your going to have to gut the monsters and use the locations.
With a game with pulp roots such as Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea. There is going to have to be level adjustments for the encounters and the monsters will have to be ported over but because of the way combat and the rest of the setting works this is a nice mid point pulp filled bridge gap action adventure style game night run.
This is a nice hack and slash adventure with plenty of room for DYI improvisation by a DM for fitting it into they're campaigns. Because is statted out for AD&D 1st edition. This is a perfect jump point for an OSRIC game or some 1st edition style retro clone system as well.
Using the adventure should be a nice and clear experience for a veteran DM and a nice up switch for someone who wants a fast, concise, and well thought out 'hack and slash' style game.
Clocking out at five pages this module provides a nice bit of violence and good old fashioned 'kill the monsters or PC's fun' with a bit of a nice up tick of a smattering of smartly written encounters, rooms, and more. 

Winds of the Ice Forest From Random Order Creations Adapted To Your Sword and Sorcery Campaigns As Well As The Astonishing Swordsmen And Sorcerers of Hyperborea Rpg System

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Winds of the Ice Forrest is perfect for a romp through the wilds of a barbarian themed land. I kept thinking about some of Conan's home land's comments and of Fafnar's ice themed realm whilst clawing my way through the concise and well written text.
This is a pretty nicely done Labyrinth Lord Adventure for PC's first through third level and a nice round number of PC's is going to be needed to navigate through the ins and out of this snow bound affair of a module. The maps are well done and the adventure makes excellent use of it's snow bound environs. Echoes of many old school tropes round this adventure out and it handles itself with wit and style.
From The Drivethru blurb: 

he dreaded Ice Forest! Once a safe passage to the north, now the forest's evil magic seeks to trap and confuse travelers with ever-shifting paths full of terrible dangers. New monsters, new magic items, new magics!

This adventure for character levels 1-3 was designed for Labyrinth Lord but can be used with any old school dungeon-crawling RPG. It is a drop-in locale that can be played through in a few hours or in a much longer session...per the needs of your gaming group.

Winds of The Ice Forrest is devided into parts with Entering the Forrest giving all of the basics and making good solid use of the adventures content and the set up. We've got the Ice Forrest Rumor table. A quick series of encounters with back story and set up. Hazards and boom the PC's are right in the middle of the action.
Part Two The Ice Forrest is the heart and soul of the adventure placing the PC's right into harms way and bring in some of the heavy gun monsters of the module. Here's where men and barbarians get separated. Nicely thought out and well written the authors do a fine job bring in the action with some rough and tumble encounters. Don't let the artwork fool you into comfort here. The Labyrinth Lord monsters are analogous to their AD&D counterparts. They can easily be substituted for use with a 1st edition AD&D style take on this module. Or for use with the LL's Advanced Companion.
Maps here are nice, simply designed, and straight to the point of use. The treasures seem well balanced here with an OD&D style of flavor in the offering. There are multiplicity of adventure locations woven into the fabric of the module and adventure.
Part III Escape From The Forrest  - Here's that one final push of nastiness and its very dangerous. Have a care right here.
The Appendix are interesting with a nice little sample party thrown in.
New spells which have a definitive sword and sorcery flavor. 

Plenty of Winter themed monsters to draw from for LL 

New Magic items with a wintry sword and sorcery taste to them. 

Another take on the Barbarian class for LL as well pretty sweetly balanced. 

Monster list for even more random encounter action. 

I really like the cover art as well. So yeah I do think this is a module well worth picking up. Just one little note there's an NPC who when defeated will be a 'treasure load' character for the PC's. DM's you'll know em when you see 'em. 

Just decrease the amount of loot and your ready to roll!

Adapting Winds of the Ice Forrest For
Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea.

Believe it or not while reading through Winds Of The Ice Forrest I kept thinking about where I would place this adventure within Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperborea. The module screams sword and sorcery to me. Don't let the artwork fool you, in fact I think its part of its awesome charm.
For AS&SH I'd place this module either within the bounds of Mt Yimir or within Xin. Both of these ice bound freezer boxes have the right feel.
The monsters and horrors of the adventure are easily found within the Referee's Manual for the game and substituting the magic items from the module are a snap. All in all this is a pretty damn good mating of OSR material in my opinion giving Winds of the Ice Forrest even more utility. 

Review and Commentary On the Pay What You'd Like Lamentations Of The Flame Princess Adventure - The Doom-Cave of the Crystal-Headed Children

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So this is it, the Free Rpg Lamentations of the Flame Princess module from Free Rpg day. And its really a nasty little adventure and not because of the content either. The adventure clocks in at a whole fifty six pages of  low level dungeonfest exploration meat grinder adventure.
 Let me in on a little secret, your PC's are going to be killing the 'Crystal Headed Children' by the score in this one. The adventure is great low level introduction to the world of Lamentations of the Flame Princess, if world is the right way of putting it. Like every other LoFP adventure this one stands on its own merits and its a well put together old school pulpfest adventure. I don't want to go into too much detail but its nicely done and with the right group of players this adventure could really have the players challenged in a very stark and well done almost survival mode of an adventure. Note that this adventure uses the 'Grind House' edition rules of the game and with a bit of tweaking it could be used with the 'Deluxe' edition.
This adventure is not meant for the faint of heart and I'm not talking about the content here which really isn't any worse then 'The Palace Of The Silver Princess' from way back. This adventure centers around the dealings of an alien artifact and a villain whose got a whole mess of problems to deal with leaving the PC's with a dungeon crawl with several twists.
From The Rpgnow blurb: 

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

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

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

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

Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Role-Playing is the horror‹ adventure RPG out of Finland that holds nothing back. It is part of the Old School Renaissance family of games, which makes this adventure broadly compatible with dozens of other old school games.

If you find The Doom-Cave of the Crystal-Headed Children a sufficiently guilty pleasure, look for other LotFP adventures and supplements right here on DriveThruRPG and RPGNow!

Using The Doom-Cave of the Crystal-Headed Children
 For Your Old School Horror Campaigns 

Alright I downloaded this adventure expecting the Earth to shatter and lakes to dry around me. As a DM its a solidly made and well thought out adventure with some really nice pulp elements. I was expecting one hundred days of Sodom and instead got a nice introduction to the Lamentations mode of old school role playing.
This is a survival mode style of  adventure with a dark undercurrent that rolls in the  underpinning of the adventure and that in my opinion isn't a bad thing. PC's are going to get involved in the plot and background as they start to play and events will move along quite well.
The sheer weirdness of the adventure is nicely done and I surprised that so much care had been put into the encounters. The alien device and backdrop is unique which is to be expected from Lamentations of the Flame Princess's design ethos and the execution of this adventure. This one is a good adventure to introduce players to the ideas of the LoFP old school retroclone but don't get too attached to those PC's. There's a number of ways to die in this adventure and there may need to be a few PC's to navigate this adventure. That's not always a bad thing because as a player your going to get to the ins and out of this adventure quite well by the time the ride is over.
All in all I was really happy to finally get a look at this adventure. A four out of five for my expectations and the delivery on this one!
 

Review and Commentary On The System Antagonistic Pay What You Want "100 Demonic Summoning Mishaps" List From The Amazing List of Things For Your Old School Horror Campaign

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Madness rides the star-wind... claws and teeth sharpened on centuries of corpses... dripping death astride a bacchanale of bats from nigh-black ruins of buried temples of Belial...

"The Hound" Written September 1922, published February 1924 in Weird Tales, 3, No. 2, 50–52, 78

They say that one should never summon something larger then one's head but what about those times when a DM needs some truly terrible to be unleashed on the world? Something horrid has happened and now you want a random chart to tell you what has happened!? 
Here's where the 100 Demonic Summoning Mishaps From 

The Amazing List of Things folks comes in very handy! 

According to The Drivethrurpg explaination: 

100 Demonic Summoning Mishaps is your go-to table when the summoning ritual goes wrong. On this table you will find such tragedies as:

15. Dead, twisted trees sprout from the ground, their limbs showing the twisted features of witch souls.

69. Summoner must complete an autobiography, to be deposited in the libraries of hell, within the month, or die.

96. The summoning is accompanied by clothes made from human skin that the summoner must wear for 1d100 days or fall ill and die.

This list has myriad of uses for all kinds of OSR or horror games. This is really nicely done and solid list of horrors from beyond. Use it to create a scene for the next game of call of Cthulhu. 
As magical mishap table for your next OSR retroclone game or as an adventure generator.
Use it as a pulp generator adventure table or as a Gothic horror jump off point. The list is clever, easily adaptable, and be sure to throw the gentlemen who wrote it a coin or two. Check out the rest of their list of wares as well. They've done quite a few lists. Many of them look incredibly useful and challenging to adapt to any number of horror games!  

The Pay What You Want Adventure - Gift of the Gods From Griffon Publishing Studio For Your Old School Horror Campaign

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This is a fantastic pulp style horror adventure for use with any old school horror style game set before the advent of  WWII.  Think Call of Cthulhu or Raiders of the Lost Ark here. Pulp generally has some style of horror lurking in the background.
It could be with little work be done as an OD&D style game.
This is an adventure with choices and the party is in control of the situation but barely.
The set up according to Drivethrurpg : 

This free adventure outline by Peter Schweighofer introduces readers to the exciting world of Heroes of Rura-Tonga, a roleplaying game supplement presenting source material outlining elements for a 1930s pulp campaign in the South Pacific and five, full-length scenarios. When the heroes travel to Antan Island in their seaplane to investigate rumors of a strange cargo cult, they stumble upon an artifact from an alternate future history. But as they're trying to unravel this paradox, they find themselves in the middle of a Japanese hunt for fleeing British spies. Can the heroes evade the Imperial Japanese Navy, rescue the British agents and their important intelligence, and unravel the mystery of the cargo cult's enigmatic artifact? Check out this free scenario to get a feel for the kinds of adventures you can play in the Heroes of Rura-Tonga game supplement and adventure collection available from Griffon Publishing Studio.

Gamers can easily adapt this Any-System Key adventure to their favorite roleplaying game rules. The Any-System Key describes character skills and task difficulties in terms that easily translate into nearly any game system. These terms do not link to any one game engine, but serve as general guidelines to give readers an overall sense how they fit within their own game's stat and difficulty scale. To use this scenario with your favorite roleplaying game system you'll need the copy of the Any-System Key included with the free adventure outline file; or you can download it free from Griffon Publishing Studio.

Using this Adventure 

There is a lot of room to play with this one. From edge of  Cthulhu style horror all the way up to using this as a means to getting your PC's to Carcosa this is one of those adventures that can be tuned to the horror situation that the DM loves and needs to use. I've had quite a bit of fun with this one and have used it as a prelude to an Actung Cthulhu game.
 This is a very well written adventure and easily adaptable to a number of situations and eras. There is quite a bit of room to play here if the DM is willing to invest a bit of time and energy into this one. 

The Pay What You Want Adventure -The Vile Worm From Arcana Creations

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The Drivthru Explanation : 

"Deep within the forest, an ancient oak has grown huge, twisted, and evil. Ages ago, a savage cult haunted these woods and this tree became the focus of their unspeakable rites. Below it, they carved out a chamber of sacrificial horror where innocent victims were offered to a hideous worm-like god. As the centuries passed, the cult faded into the mists of time, but the twisted old oak stood fast, awaiting the day when the creeping evil in the dark below would be summoned once more."

Using The The Vile Worm From Arcana Creations
For Your Old School Horror Game

This is a good, solid, well done and easy to adapt old fashioned Lovecraftian/Howard style adventure perfect for an October game! 
This ten page adventure is great as a mid point gap adventure to fill in where the party might need a game to pick up upon an evil horror stalking the land. 
The cult is well though out and despicable. They're a nasty a group as you'll encounter and the monsters perfectly twisted for an evening's entertainment.
Don't miss this one and have a blast with this one!
 This is a really nice little adventure that will fit about 90% of the retroclones on the market. Has a really old world feel to the adventure !