Tales of Gothic Transylvania - A Gothic Horror Campaign - Actual Play Part Four - In The Steps of The Vampyr

The PC's find themselves at a Romanian Inn and have been traveling across the countryside in pursue of the 'man from Lavanti'. 

 An old man enters  the room where the PC's are staying  and leaving a square packet on a nearby  table with "To be opened upon my death" written on it. One of the PC's  takes the package and walks outside finding shadows guiding him to an old castle where he sees several shadows dancing and wandering on their own.The PC also sees an elderly woman and encounters the village doctor.

The party find the PC and  leaves the castle and walks to a manor. Looking through one of the windows, PC sees the man who gave him the package earlier. This old man is suddenly murdered by gunshot. PC is let into the house by servants who rush to the aid of the fallen man but find it too late to save him. The servants have the party stay the night, where the Lord of the manor's youngest daughter, Giséle leads PC to the library where he learns that her sister, Léone is gravely ill. PC and Giséle then see Léone walking outside. They rush to her finding her lying unconscious with fresh bite wounds. They have her carried back up to the manor where PC remembered the parcel given to him. On opening the parcel, PCs  finds the book is about horrific demons called Vampyrs.
The PC's have realized that their in over their heads.
More coming up on Monday!
Random Carpathian Encounter chart 1d10

1. 1d6 brigands and thieves raiding the local villages for slaves and prey for their dark masters
2. A group of traveling nuns looking for a bit of charity. They're armed with pistols and are actually 1st level fighters. 
3. A traveling group of Rom looking to trade goods, herbs, and offering cures for some local diseases. 
4. A minor group of villagers taking their cows and goods to market in the next village. There is a 30% chance of them telling local legends. 
5. A group of small local warriors looking for a comrade whose fallen into the clutches of a vampire. Looking for adventurers to help them willing to pay 10 to 20 silver coins. 
6. A small cunning man willing to ply stories, charms, and some advice. Can cast most 1st level spells with little issue. 
7. A relic trader and  wizard with 1d6 pupils studying the mountain spirits & local small gods 
8. A hidden priest of the mountains calling down spirits from the high places. A second level clerical warrior of the Asra. 
9. A flock of harpies looking for easy victims and able to cast 2nd level wizard spells. 
10. A vampyr looking for his supper. Guess whose it!
    
    

The 1932 Movie 'The Vampyr' as Source Material 
 One of the PC's is named Allan Gray and since their traveling across Romania. 

The plot of this weeks adventure borrows very heavily from The Vampyr  which according to Wiki :

Vampyr (German: Vampyr – Der Traum des Allan Grey, "Vampire: the Dream of Allan Grey"; German pronunciation: [vamˈpiːɐ̯]) is a 1932 French-German horror film directed byDanish director Carl Theodor Dreyer. The film was written by Dreyer and Christen Jul based on elements from J. Sheridan Le Fanu's collection of supernatural stories In a Glass Darkly.

You can see the whole movie here. 

 The Plot according to Wiki: 

On a late evening, Allan Gray arrives at an inn close to the village of Courtempierre where he rents a room to sleep. Gray is awakened suddenly by an old man, entering the room and leaving a square packet on Gray's table with "To be opened upon my death" written on it. Gray takes the package and walks outside finding shadows guiding him to an old castle where he sees several shadows dancing and wandering on their own. Gray also sees an elderly woman and encounters the village doctor. Gray leaves the castle and walks to a manor. Looking through one of the windows, Gray sees the man who gave him the package earlier. This old man is suddenly murdered by gunshot. Gray is let into the house by servants who rush to the aid of the fallen man but find it too late to save him. The servants have Gray stay the night, where the Lord of the manor's youngest daughter, Giséle leads Gray to the library where he learns that her sister, Léone is gravely ill. Gray and Giséle then see Léone walking outside. They rush to her finding her lying unconscious with fresh bite wounds. They have her carried back up to the manor where Gray remembers the parcel given to him. On opening the parcel, Gray finds the book is about horrific demons called Vampyrs.

After reading the book, Gray discovers Léone is a victim of a Vampyr and that the Vampyr also can have humans forced into her submission. The village doctor visits Léone at the manor, and Gray recognizes him as the old man he saw in the castle. The doctor tells Gray that a blood transfusion is needed and Gray offers his blood to save Léone. Exhausted from blood loss, Gray wakes sensing danger, and rushes to Léone, finding the doctor who has just dropped a poison vial from his hand. The doctor flees the manor, as Gray finds that Giséle has gone missing. Gray follows the doctor, finding himself in the castle where he has a vision of himself being buried alive. After waking from this vision, he succeeds in rescuing Giséle while the doctor is able to get away. The old servant of the manor finds Gray's Vampyr book and discovers the way to defeat a Vampyr is with an iron bar through their heart. The servant meets Allan Gray by Marguerite Chopin's grave behind the village Chapel. They open the grave and find the old woman lying there and hammer a large metal bar through her heart, killing her. The village doctor has found refuge in an old mill, but finds himself locked in a chamber where flour sacks are filled. The old servant arrives and activates the mill's machinery, making the Vampyr's associate drown in the flour that comes crashing from above. The curse of the Vampyr is lifted when Léone recovers. Giséle and Gray cross a foggy river outside by boat and find themselves in a brighter clearing.

The PCs have stumbled into a quick two night side adventure which follows the gothic trappings of the Vampyr and the movie is very much infused with the 'Gothic Horror tropes' it seemed a natural. 
More to come! 

Free OSR Resource Old-School Gazette #10 From Expeditious Retreat Press For Your Old School Horror Campaign

 Available for Free Download right over
HERE
 This issue find a bunch of very useful articles perfect for horror games in the form of  the contents of a wizard's laboratory!
 Old-School Gazette #10 explores the Wizard's Laboratory, offering 100 common and 100 uncommon items tucked away in the nooks and crannies. You'll also find a short article about conducting random encounters by Stuart Marshall and 4 tricks and tips from Matthew Finch. So enjoy the tenth Old-School Gazette and look forward to many more!
 This issue is perfect for delving into the hidden realms, loot lurking in the corners, and a bit of spice for those dangerous abandon wizard towers.
Careful placement of monsters and you've got an even's horrific encounter waiting to happen!
Since this uses the Osric lisence, "This product uses the OSRIC(TM) System (Oldschool System Reference and Index Compilation (TM)), and is also compatible with the first edition of the world's most popular fantasy roleplaying game." Its perfect for conversion among any of the most common retroclones on the market. 
That makes this a definitive download for those looking to spice up their Lamentations or
 Labyrinth Lord games!
Some of the contents of this issue won't be out of place among the various labs wouldn't be out of place among the more risky labs of Jack Sheer's settings either.  

Review And Commentary on Spinechillers and Silent Killers From Thistle Games

Get it Right Over HERE
 If you haven't checked out SpineChillers and Silent Killers?
Why not?
Here's what you get! 

Spinechillers and Silent Killers is a system free add-on for tabletop RPGs. It’s full of 500+ highly configurable traps, spinechillers, omens and other hazards or surprises. The content can be put to a number of uses:

1. Scattering unexpected and unusual events through an adventure or across a campaign.
2. Designing high intensity gameplay using clusters of high impact encounters.
3. Adding layers of mystery, suspense and mayhem to adventures and campaigns.
4. Remixing existing adventures or campaigns by parachuting in hazardous and/ or menacing encounters.
5. Raising the emotional content of the gameplay by reinstating the sense of the unknown and the unexpected so often reported as part of new players’ gameplay.
6. Building gritty and grimy gameplay.

500+

Spinechillers ~ Traps ~ Omens ~ Dark Secrets ~ Jailbreaks ~ Runaway Wagons ~ Unpleasant Places ~ Local Delicacies ~ Mishaps and Misfortunes ~ Extreme Sports ~ Ridiculous Laws ~ Serious Complications ~ Money Pits ~ Debt Collectors

 For six bucks you get 150 pages of system free deviltry perfect for adding to a Gothic Horror game. The material is perfectly tuned in to the horror movie vibe and the dark omens table came in very handy for a recent game. 
 Ten reasons why Spinechillers and Silent Killers From Thistle Games is perfect for a horror campaign 

1. This material hasn't appeared in any magazine and its perfect for throwing a curve ball right in players direction. 
2. The material is a great retro throw back to the pages of early Dragons when PC's were given circumstances beyond their control. 
3. The dark secrets are perfect to add to NPC's at the drop of a hat to make them even more believable and more then slightly strange. 
4. The unpleasant places fit right into the Gothic Horror world and really do live up to their name. 
5. The omens table does make PC's nervous and I had one players scrambling for the DMG which made him really pissed. 
6. Dark scerets, food, wagons and money pits spread mayhem. Mayhem is good and keeps a game moving very quickly. Be prepared for side adventures spawned by the book. 
7. The traps aren't goofy or so unbelievable as to be incredibly lethal unless you want them to be. Specialists will come in very handy here and with a bit of work can become mini adventures in their own right. 
8. The material here is enough to test adventurers through an evening and beyond. 
9. This is a book with a diabliocal sense of fun and its that sense that shines through. Fun that is actually based on logic and just when the PC's think they've seen it all or done it all. This book is perfect for that 'Wham' you haven't a clue bit. 
10. This and other Thistle books are a throw back to a time when gaming was DYI and all you needed was a few books to throw the campaign into an all night over drive. 

Right now in my Gothic Translvanian campaign I've got a debt collector dogging the trail of the PC's and they're really not enjoying this at all. 

 The book isn't so much a book of traps,events, or simply evil turns what the book is are horrific surprises that leap in to twist the PC's necks at very weird moments. They add both levity and danger to the game. I've written about this book before. Using it with Jack Shear's material has been enlivening and interesting to say the least. 

You might want to wait till this material goes on sale but its a solid product and there's more coming out of Thistle games all of the time. 

Tales of Gothic Transylvania - A Gothic Horror Campaign - Actual Play Part III

The PC's were twisted around this past week! |
They were delayed by mutated gnomes known as Rumpelstiltskins.  Evil little twisted things that fired Egyptian style short bows with fairy shot. By the time they got the theater it was too late! The little bastard mutants had done their work all too well. 

The sun was setting and something nasty had been left behind for the PC's.

Blood  flowed down the steps of the theater slowly,very,very, slowly. It washed the pavement red and raw! 

The entire theater stairs were awash in blood and gore. The doors having been bolted from the inside by heavy metal bars.

After the party's specialist finagles with the door they were confronted by skin, gore, and much more hanging from the rafters and the ceiling by weird brass chains and funeral hooks. Then they heard weeping upon the stage!  A vision or goddess confronts them! 
'The Rite of The Hundred Death Gods'has taken place.  And the man has fled taking the souls of theater's patrons with him! They are his!   Only their cloths and their undead flesh has been left behind. Flesh that now waits in the wings to kill them!
 She can hold this undead thing for only a moment but they must flee! 
They  find out that 'Man from Lavanti' has fled deep into the Transylvania wastelands where vast halls,ruins, and  cityscapes from the 'Time Before'  still hold many deadly secrets and vast ancient demons waiting to be awakened!
The Man has fled Into the Wasteland and they must follow.  They also learn that the man has an enemy in the form of the archmage  Pan Twardowski.
 The party puts the theater to the torch and it burns as the cries of the undead things shriek their idiot praises to the Death Gods.
The place burns with relish.
The party goes back to the 'Roman villa' of their patron for further investigation and finds that there is an entrance to a vast secret underground network of tunnels beneath the city state.
Its seems that the 'man from Lavanti' seeks  the legendary immortal queen Omphale and her Grotto of Time. Rumor has it that Omphale is in league with 'Dark Forces.' No one is certain if she is undead,goddess, witch, or something far, far, worse. 
Tune in next week for the exciting continuation of  'Tales of Gothic Transylvania'

The Old-School Gazette #2 Free From Expeditious Retreat Press For Your Old School Horror Campaign

 Get it Right HERE

I've been looking for a few surprises for my Monday and Thursday night Gothic Pulp game and remembered the Old School Gazette.
This is issue #2 and its got a few surprises in store for those players of retroclones who have memorized the Monster Manual and the various fiends in the Fiend Folo.
This issue has a few surprises with 'the statistics you need to pit black skeletons, bone sovereigns, dark voyeurs, and inscribers against your players.'
 With very little work these can be easily modified into a Lamentations game or your classic Labyrinth  Lord Advanced game. There are also four new magic items that round out the download. These all fit right into the Gothic vibe that I've had riding through this game.
This is a pretty solid little issue and I've used some of this material before. All in all its about a three out of five.
Mostly this material has a classic horror and dungeon feel that wouldn't be out of place even in a game of Carcosa or Mutant Future. There's a bit of the classic 80's horror here as well.
Simply some well thought out monsters and treasure with a bit of placement work as part of the greater horror landscape of a quick encounter to a more advanced dungeon. 

Free Old School Gothic Horror Adventure - The Manse on Murder Hill From Taskboy Games

Get it right over HERE!

 Want a nice, concise, well done adventure that has a bit of everything for you Gothic game? Want something that going to actually live up to the usual tropes of the OD&D game?
Want it in thirty two pages of fun and murder?
 The plot according to Rpgnow: 

Several children of Little Flanders have gone missing near an abandoned house of evil repute. A desperate town has begged your heroes to exorcise the house of evil spirits and rescue the children. Will you brave the dangers of the Manse on Murder Hill?

A Labyrinth Lord adventure for levels 1-3
 This is a solid, well done, low level crawl with all the options to either be customized for a Gothic setting like Tales of the Grotusque and Dungeonsque or run straight against the bone.
This is a really well thought out adventure that can fit anywhere really.
The module is a throw back to the pages of Dragon magazine and one of the first haunted house adventures.
This a great adventure for low level horror rpging and dungeon crawling. The fact that its compatible with about ninety percent of the retroclones on the market is an added plus.
 There are some killer NPCs here and a whole town to use as well all done in a percise fashion with all the trimmings of a well thought out story.
 A very happy find on this one folks.
Four out of five stars for a good solid old school hit. 

Meditations On The Gibbering Mouther Character Class

Get it right here
 HERE

There are utter strokes of genius out in the OSR blogsphere & this is one of them. Dyson's Dodecahedron presents this wonderfully warped piece of  sanity bending knowledge.  He gives birth to a whole new take on the monster.
 
I've been a big fan of Mouthers ever since the The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan. What the author has done is something pretty damn cool. Instead of simply being a monster that is only available to as a high level AD&D monster he's basically allowed the Mouther to be scaled to your campaign and party.

The Mouther can now be used in any retroclone. The thing can appear anywhere within the OD&D retroclone campaign sphere.

NO PARTY IS SAFE!
MUAHAHAHAHA

This also allows the Mouther to become a hazard as never before.

The Characteristics Of The Gibbering Mouther 

According to Wiki : 

"The gibbering mouther is not regarded as an evil creature, but in order to sustain its mad self, it must feast upon the bodily fluids and sanity of mortal creatures, preferably intelligent ones. It attacks by spitting strings of protoplasmic flesh which end in a mouth and one or more eyes at opponents, which then bite them, causing both acid and blinding damage. When it has defeated an opponent, it swallows them whole, and then proceeds to suck the bodily fluids and sanity. It is possible for the victim to cut their way out.

Having so many eyes, gibbering mouthers are difficult to sneak up on.

Gibbering mouthers can speak Common, but seldom speak anything other than mad babble and gibberish.

They are regarded as neutral in alignment, but have distinctly evil habits."
They're abilities which have been worked into the character class include the following : 

"Gibbering mouthers can produce a constant gibbering that confuses all creatures within 60 feet. They can also change nearby ground (whether earth or stone) to the consistency of quicksand. The mouther can move unimpaired through the quicksand.

A gibbering mouther can loose a stream of spittle that ignites on contact with the air, temporarily blinding creatures within 60 feet."
I've used Mouthers as proto shaggoths many times and the results haven't been pretty. They're a bit powerful when they appear in the Monster Manual II.


Uses for the Gibbering Mouther Character Class 
"It was a terrible, indescribable thing vaster than any subway train—a shapeless congeries of protoplasmic bubbles, faintly self-luminous, and with myriads of temporary eyes forming and un-forming as pustules of greenish light all over the tunnel-filling front that bore down upon us, crushing the frantic penguins and slithering over the glistening floor that it and its kind had swept so evilly free of all litter."
At The Mountains of Madness HP Lovecraft 

Mouthers have appeared in my games throughout the multiverse. This character class is perfect for introducing PC's to the horrors of the species. In the comments of the entry is  the idea of using this as part of a curse for a 'were shaggoth'. Which is a whole other entry into itself. Perhaps the Dyer Expedition brought back more then a few insane members. 
The uses for this class on Carcosa goes without saying because its possible for these things to be an actual PC class where warriors corrupted as part of a possible rite to become one of these things. 
The late great Nigel Finley (RIP) created the ecology for these Lovecraftian horrors and these things can certainly appear where and when they are needed. I can think of dimensional holes opening up and one of these horrors leaking into the world. Then these mad bastards might ooze into the ruins of a Mutant Future game quite easily and perhaps even become part of a party! Realms of Crawling Chaos gives some pretty solid guidelines for Shaggoth erm Mouthers.
These things can easily find their way into a host of science fiction and fantasy retroclones. Space might be the place these things are encountered or Heaven help us as part a society of mad humanoid aliens that dance under the stars until the time they are right.
 These things make a perfect encounter in Jack Shear's Tales of the Grotesque and Dungeonsque region of Scar. These mad bubbling bastards can easily be encountered though out the region feeding, breeding, and corrupting. 
There have been suggestions for using these things as part of some weird reverse dungeon and I can easily see this happening. This only actually highlights the idea of monster as character class and the options it actually brings to the table for the DM. Not to mention the horror of it.

Review And Commentary on The Free OSR Resource - Oriental Classes And Oriental Monsters Written and Edited By Ed Martell

Link for the Oriental Classes Below: 

Here is the link to the new "Oriental Classes" document *FREE* PDF: http://www.mediafire.com/view/?zo5zcot5hcyngig

The Oriental Monsters Book Down below

                 Here is the link to the "Oriental Monsters" document *FREE* PDF: http://www.mediafire.com/view/?t49aq05ki7yyey9

Are you looking for a source for some of the classic Oriental classes without the world background setting BS that seems to go with them? A stripped down balls to the walls classic look at these classes that once graced the pages of Dragon Magazine?
Well look no further. 

Bushi, Hengeyokai, Kensei, Koropokuguru, Nature Folk, Ninja, Samurai, Shugenja, Shohei, Wu Ren, and the deadly Yakuza are all there in loving B/X and Labyrinth Lord goodness. 

These are well organized and well thought out. They're compatible with 90% of the OSR campaign worlds that are out there on the market today. I've been looking into doing something with them for my take on Jack Shears campaign some time ago. 

Oriental Monsters is great. A catalog of Oriental mythologies nasties all in one easy to use place and stripped back into a format that fits many of the OSR retroclones. 

These are as they they appeared in mythology and the various sources of legend that they came from. These are not the anime high adrenalin source monsters they later on became. This makes them perfect for horror games and campaigns where sudden violence and death actually count. 

 Ned Martell does an excellent job with these classics with well thought out and deadly monsters put into a hard core B/X and LL format.

 Do yourselves a favor and download these and roll some dice.

Thanks for all the work that went into these and the authors of the Oriental Classes book.

Tales of Gothic Transylvania - A Gothic Horror Campaign - Actual Play Part II

The PC's dealt with the mysterious air ship hovering over them and playing odd coloured lights about them. They were very nervous to say the least and so was the crowd of the city state that they've been adventuring in.
The lights snapped off and the craft moved silently, ominously away from the city sky line. 

The PC's dealt with weird assassins, odd giant spiders preying on random passers by from above an alley and robbery. 

The PC's have been investigating the disappearance of a merchant prince within a far flung corner of a Gothic Pulp world. 

After several leads, dead ends, and near run ins with some rather dubious characters the PC's finally managed to track down a weird cleric operating out of some back alley theater. Through a beggar the PC'sd were able to find his domicile.
They did so through the sewers of the city. A rat infested horrorscape of weirdness with all sorts of black nightmare inducing crud was waiting. Noting attacked them but it was quite a bit of fun to see em squirm. 

The Man From Mord-Stavian

With this 'beggar''s help they managed to break into this man's apartment which was more like a converted North African funeral temple. There were the usual bubbling apparatus  the bedroom had been converted into a fully functioning funeral alter area complete with a level drained merchant prince close to death. 

There was also the small matter of the magic mirror that housed a animal headed guardian spirit and the 'other where' dimensional reflection of the place. 
They were able to talk their way into the reflection and found a journal detailing this visitor from 

 Levanti, the capitol city on the River Nilus. 

The 'otherwhere' temple/apartment was covered with strange glyph works of  Hundred Death Gods. 

It seems that this visitor has been passing himself off as a performing priest when in actuality he's a mage of the darkest stripe whose getting ready to bring about the final movement in a diabolical performance to a charmed audience in hundreds.
Can the PC's stop the rite to the 'Hundred Death Gods' in time? (Of course they can't!) But what is he up to and what does this have to do with the level drained merchant prince whose wife now wants nothing to do with him?
Tune in this coming week for more!

“For it is in the arcana of dreams that existences merge and renew themselves, change and yet keep the same.” 
― Bram Stoker, The Jewel of Seven Stars

Tales of Gothic Transylvania - A Gothic Horror Campaign - Actual Play Part I

Welcome to the world of Gothic Pulp.
 The Gates have swung open upon the city state streets. This is a world of the Gothic Pulp a place where the edge of nightmares have overtaken the daylight world and people fear the night. Only adventurers stand against the darkness. The Gothic Transylvania countryside is one part 'Supernaturalypse' and three parts of Hell.
 Its place in desperate need of adventurers and heroes. Last night the PC's step through those gates and into the shadow of the dark fantastic. A specialist and his cleric partner have been hired by a rug seller and dealer in antiques to find out what's happened to his partner.
The man hasn't been seen in two weeks.


The Villa
The PC's go to a Roman style villa in a very well to do part of the city state. The front gate is unlocked. The inner door is slightly a jar and there is a low moan coming from inside.

Upon the floor is the body of a :Lady. She is face down. Bleeding out and a knife lays near her right hand.
There is a sound like breaking glass coming from the back part of the house. The cleric gives add to the lady while the specialist/fighter gave chase.
The assassin was getting away and climbing a garden wall to escape.
Two daggers to the back and shoulder made quick work of  him.
The assassin burst into flame while looking directly into the eyes of the fighter.
Meanwhile the Lady Alexandreina was in rough shape. The knife wound was bleeding out and she was in shock. A healer and doctor were needed quickly. 

The cleric stabilized her as best he could. A healer and doctor were called and arrived in the nick of time. The Lady was stabilized. 

 There was furniture over turned. The place was ransacked except for a strong box which had been tampered with was solid and not tampered with. 

With the Lady of the house resting. The PC's got to work on the strong box. The specialist had quite the time with the piece. Eventually springing the lock and avoiding the poison needle trap.
It seems that the merchant and partner of the antiques had quite the shady past.
 
Andri The Wise has ties to the local smugglers and thieves guild which unlike the specialists isn't a recognized Craft. He's been working with Amazon Mutual and has a special policy with them. He may be an agent of theirs operating on this world. Most jobs for
Amazon Mutual Life Assurance Company involve rescuing prisoners or recovering bodies of
policy holders and returning the for resurrection -- but not always.Andri The Wise might be from Delos itself. 

"Like Arduin, Delos hath never built fireish machines but off times spaceships land here from the techno worlds and trade their goods or mayhap are robbed of them, and starrish beasties leave ship to roam in our woods. And here Multiversal can sell many strange goods from many strange worlds, but some they cannot sell because of the Prime Directive. And the rich living mana hereabouts offtimes sparks cross-Shadow making natural gates as those from England to Narnia, whence persons come through by mental inclining from amany strange Shadow-worlds and times, by the strength of their hearts' desires."
 

There was also some gold bars and a bit of cash in the strong box as well. The PC's pocketed the gold and cash. That's when the sky ship showed up above the house! There was also the small matter of the vials of vampire blood the PC's found.
To be continued!

Delos is copyrighted and trademarked to Dragon Tree press.  

Tales of Gothic Transylvania - A Gothic Horror Campaign - Further Meditations On Tales Of The Grotesque And Dungeonesque Volume One

The nights are beginning to get longer and the shadows are lengthening. I'm putting together a series of one shot Gothic Fantasy Adventures using Tales Of The Grotesque And Dungeonesque. I've been rereading volume one of this piece of forgotten lore.

What Is Tales of The Grotesque And Dungeonesque? 

The Tales of The Grotesque and Dungeonesque volume one is a Gothic Fantasy Supplement for old-school fantasy role-playing games.

Contains house rules, random tables, new spells, new monsters, and a campaign setting for Gothic Fantasy adventures in the old-school fantasy RPG system of your choice.

 Get The Book Right Over HERE

Its actually a bit more then just that. The book is actually the campaign setting background and volume one in three part Gothic tour de force. Tales is set up in such a way to be a plug and play piece of goodness. From the 162 page book of volume with the variations of horrific OD&D tropes. The book is set up for Labyrinth Lord but its easily adaptable to any number of OSR retroclones.
The first book is essential because it sets up the PC options, adds flavor to character generation, And adds the real world/fictional counterparts to the game world. The second volume adds even more background.

 Appendix N Background Material 
When I was very young, I was shown two books from the U.K. that grabbed my imagination and led me on a fifteen year odyssey. At a county fair I glimpsed a copy of  Tourist Guide To Transylvania And The Dracula Collection. They were deemed far too scary for me by well meaning grandparents. It too the better part of ten years to find the books I had glimpsed. Weirdly enough my wife whose from the U.K. where the volumes were published by Octopus books also owned them. 

The Tourist Guide & its sister book the Dracula Collection were essentially a number of science fiction & fantasy pieces with the Transylvania country side of a sword & sorcery universe as its framing device. The books are fantastic. They have zippo to do with the real world at all. Seriously this is a universe where no only is magic real but the countryside is ruled by vampire lords, liches, & black magicians who summon the very powers of Hell itself! Faerie exists  but its an uneasy relationship at best. These are the 'Kindly Ones' version of the fey. A sort of extra-dimensional monsters that can cause all kinds of problems. Count Dracula is eluded to but never given any real consolidation in the book.
There are barbaric tribes, witches, covens of white, black, & grey magicians, & all sorts of powers from beyond. Hell plays a very prominent roll in this book. This is a dimension where the gods of yesteryear roam the countryside plucking victims to feed their dark hungers.

 The second book describes Dracula's art collection and some of its inspirations. It also describes a family museum and the occult devices of power which it holds. The books are nice because in detail we are given a complete picture of the 'family Dracula' separate from the Hammer Films and even what we've seen before.
This is really a world of Gothic Dark Fantasy. 

These books provide very solid fodder. 

Tales of Gothic Transylvania

This is a world of the Gothic Pulp a place where the edge of nightmares have overtaken the daylight world and people fear the night. Only adventurers stand against the darkness. The Gothic Transylvania countryside is one part 'Supernaturalypse' and three parts of Hell. Its place in desperate need of adventurers and heroes. 
Some of these hard bitten individuals are those who seek thrills and hunt the most deadly game of all. The undead have run up against adventurers from 'The City' time and again. The odds are that the players are going to run into an NPC or two from the City. Trey Causey little creation is also going to be making an appearance or two at the table. 

For a metric ton of mileage from the author visit his blog right over HERE