Sunday, August 17, 2014

Review Of The Free OSR Download '&' magazine issue #10 For Your Old School Campaigns

cover issue 10

 Grab It Right Over 
Another round of the venerable free pdf magazine that packs a punch! 
'&' magazine is a really interesting little gem in OSR gaming and usually weigh in at a solid ninety pages. The magazine is usually cram jammed with lots of interesting bits and pieces of first edition AD&D material. This issue is no exception and between the covers has an entire issue of lycanthropic goodness. Here's a listing of the material in this issue. 

Featured in this issue: Shape Changers!
This issue includes
  • Why “Solids” Don’t Understand
  • Hey, Where Are My Pants?
  • By the Light of the Silvery Moon
  • Lycanthropy: A Small Matter
Plus some bonus articles
  • The Otherworld – The Faerie Realm
  • Monster Lore Non-Weapon Proficiency
  • Spells by Magic Type
  • Playing with Missile Fire
  • Is There Room for Text-Based Gaming in the Old School Renaissance?
This one has everything you could want for the AD&D first edition shape changer including ecology of the following : Werebison, Jagweres, Were moths, and Vamp weres as well as more articles covering a plethora of magic items also with a weird haunted old school slant. This issue reminded me of the old Halloween Dragon issues. There's definitely a feeling of the old school vibe riding through here. There's magic a plenty with how to use shape changers on the battle field of the AD&D. We also get a Warren of the Rat Men map that has a really nice were rat feel to it. This could be a really nasty encounter and hidy hold in the dark.  Dan Rasaiah provides a whole batch of NPC's to bedevil or add your party of adventurers. Throughout the magazine there are batches of spells and magic items that can turn a game on its ear quite easily in a good way. Many of these are lycanthrope themed. 
The Otherworld articles are well done and add a bit of Faerie to the old school table. This is a particularly well done article about a classic other dimensional realm t
 Once again Andrew Hamilton is at it again with two articles, one a mini crawl called the Ice Tombs of the Frost Jotuns which drives some of the maps as well in this pdf.  Hex Crawls: Liltwater Valey /South Slopes Region, by Andrew Hamilton gives a party a run for their money and makes for a interesting evening's entertainment. Finally rounding out this issue a wilderness fort that can be added to any OSRIC or retroclone setting. 
If you haven't figured out by now I've got a particular soft spot for were creatures and this issue delivers the goods in spades for the thrills and chills. I want to add in the Realm of the Fey to my games and just might do that next week. Grab this one and you won't be sorry as '&' continues to deliver the goods. 

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