Review - Throne of Evil

Throne of Evil, a 32 page adventure by Role Aids was published in 1984 and claimed to be "fraught with political intrigue, suspense, and magic in the violent world of 12th century." Fortunately, the 12th century aspect is superficial at best or else this would have been unusable for most ongoing campaigns.

Instead of being set in anything resembling 12th century England, this takes place in a generic setting with a few real world historical events awkwardly serving as the catalyst to this dungeon delving adventure.  Any pretense of this being 12th century England disappears as soon as you get to the six pre-generated characters on page seven. Only one the characters is human and he is a cleric of Balder!

Old School Credentials: Because it is an AD&D (1e) compatible product published in 1984, it's automatically "old school" to me. It has a very typical old school feel.

The Good: First and foremost, it's a solid dungeon craw with a few good illustrations that evoke the first edition zeitgeist. There are some standard monsters (Lizard Men, Piercers, Giant Spiders, etc.) as well as some odd new creatures (Hawk Men and Giant Kobolds) to spice things up. The plot and political intrigue, despite being based on real world events, is easily adaptable to almost any setting.  It's well organized and and an interesting read.

The Bad:There's not much really bad here. The dungeon might be a bit too generic and have too illogical of monster placement for some, but these aren't really that bad. That the module really isn't what it claims to be could by considered "bad" but it's hard to be upset when it turns out to more useful than it would have been.

The Odd: This product has some rather strange quirks that are more interesting than good or bad. Although it states "for use with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (R)" on the cover, it uses different terms/abbreviations for many stats [IN (intuition) for wisdom, SM (stamina?) for constitution, HTK (hits to kill) for hit points, etc.]. It has an early use of THAC0, but features a simple formula to roll it using percentile dice. And as mentioned above, it is set in 12th century England, but is filled magic, monsters, and non-human heroes that apparently have had had absolutely no influence on the political and cultural history of the area.

Likely Use: Despite the setting, its a very standard adventure that could easily be played as part of a campaign in most fantasy settings. It was likely intended as a one-shot, non-campaign module and could easily be used that way as well.

Value: Another long out of print product, the price varies radically from $6 to $65 at current Amazon prices for good to very good condition with the very good being cheaper. Personally I would say it's a good value at $10 or less, including shipping, but at over $20 total, it's not worth it.

Overall: A good example of a typical third party effort in the 1980s. It's a decent adventure and worth a look.

Review - Monsters of Myth & Legend

Monsters of Myth & Legend is a 1984 monster book published by Mayfair Games, under the Role Aids label. It contains roughly 80+ pages of monsters compatible with 1e AD&D.  It contains creatures from six very different mythologies (Native American, Australian Aborigine, Chinese, Greek, Irish, and Norse).

These monsters are treated in more detail than those in many early monster books and each have their own individual feel. The book is organized much like Deities and Demigods in that s organized by mythology rather than all mixed together.



Old School Credentials: Because it is an AD&d (1e) compatible product published in 1984, it's automatically "old school" to me.

The Good: The internal art is quite good, with the mischievous fox spirit and wise-looking monkey spirit being a couple of favorites.

This is a monster book and most of the monsters are quite interesting. For example, he Chinese section's Roc Demon is too powerful too add to a campaign, unless it is on a far away continent. But a monster that is so powerful that it warps the very nature of the planes in a 500 mile radius and can permanently destroy a target's magic using ability, has potential as an ultimate opponent for a campaign, or it could be used merely as an easy, though terrifying for magic users, means of traveling to the outer planes. The other monsters in the book are less powerful, but are mostly very intersting.

The Bad: The print quality is inconsistent with some pages suffering from extremely bad bleed through. About 5-10% are seriously marred by this, the worst I've seen outside of cheap newspapers.

Some of the monsters will be very difficult to use in most campaigns. For example, the White Elves / Black Elves from the Norse section are just the classic Elves (High, Wood, etc.) and Drow in rawer, mythological, not modern fantasy, interpretations. Making them fit with the modern interpretations would be challenging, likely relegating them to alternate worlds or planes, at best.

It's not the fault of this book, but a few of the Chinese monsters have since gotten "official" versions in Oriental Adventures, which came out a year later. The "animal spirits" of MoM&L and the Hengeyokai of OA clearly share the same origins, though they are quite different interpretations. 

Likely Use: This monster book is likely to used two different ways. First, like the Fiend Folio, there will be a few monsters that the purchaser loves, but most will be largely unused. However, because each section is based on a specific mythology, it is invaluable to any campaign set there. For example, if I were starting an OA campaign, I would certainly use the monsters from the Chinese section.

Value: Like any used product, the value is likely to vary greatly. I paid less than $12 for my copy from Amazon earlier this year. Today, the cheapest I could find in good or better condition is $16 (counting shipping). At $12, it's a pretty good value, at $16 it's still a fair deal.

Overall: I love this one, but I'm less certain that someone who isn't especially fond of comparative mythology would like it. It has many interesting monsters, but some would be very difficult to integrate into a typical D&D world.  For me this book is an A, but I fear that most people would give it a B or C.

Review - Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game + Field Guide

The Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game is in their own words a "rules-light game system modeled on the classic RPG rules of the early 1980's. Though based loosely on the d20 SRD v3.5, Basic Fantasy RPG has been written largely from scratch to replicate the look, feel, and mechanics of the early RPG game systems."

The Basic Fantasy Field Guide, is a collection of additional monsters for The Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game, is similar to the Fiend Folio, QuasarDragon's own Treatise of Twisted Terrors, and numerous other monster books.  It adds additional monsters to the Basic Fantasy Game, mostly classic D&D monsters, but some are new.

I'm not going to o into too much detail here because both of these are available as free PDF downloads HERE. However, I do want to strongly recommend the print versions if you like what see in the PDFs. The production quality if far better than you would expect for such a cheap price.

Old School Credentials: The Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game is very much an "old school revival" game system, feeling a bit like a streamlined, compromise between the old Holmes Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set and 1e AD&D.

The Good: The game just feels right. It is a good introduction to old school gaming and it has enough depth for a decent length campaign. The art ranges from charmingly amateur to good old school style. 

The Bad: There's not really much new, there's no label on the spine of  The Basic Fantasy Field Guide, and much of the the art will not be to everyone's taste.

Likely Use: While more experienced gamers are very unlikely to make this their game of choice, it is an almost perfect for new and casual gamers. This would make a good, cheap gift to a potential gamer.

Value: Exceptional! I just purchased the the print versions of these two for a combined total of $7.68 from Amazon! That's probably even less than the Holmes D&D would have cost in 1980 and unlike that one, this doesn't stop at 3rd level. The binding and print quality are about the same as the typical softcover game book, which makes the value even more shocking.

Overall: This is an easy A. Even if you just skim it and put it on a shelf, it's a bargain. It really captures the spirit of Basic D&D, but has enough detail for a lasting campaign.