We all know what PDF really stands for… PILES OF DOWNLOADED
FILES! If you are an OSR-nerd like me, then you probably have a folder full of RPG-related
PDFs. Downloaded from blogs, retrieved from the Way Back Machine, pirated or purchased
or “PWYW” from DriveThru, or worse – bought in a bundle of approximately one
thousand files… They are all there, in an unorganized heap, unread, unused,
forgotten.
BUT THIS CHANGES TODAY!
Or, at least, it changes a bit…
I’m going to open the dreadful “Unsorted” folder, and check
a couple of old documents.
The Tomb of Sigyfel, A Labyrinth Lord Quick Play Adventure
by Daniel Proctor
Or, as mysteriously titled in the folder: ll00Q1.pdf! This
is a two-page introductory mini-dungeon from 2008. This is free from DriveThruRPG
(https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/57863/The-Tomb-of-Sigyfel).
Ten room tomb, branching out into three sections after the entrance area. It is
very ur-D&D, evil cleric, orcs, traps…
Mediterraneo by Andrea Angiolino
This is a curiosity from 1992, an Italian RPG about Greek mythological
heroes. 32-page booklet, with rules, monster stats, and a sample adventure, “The
Island of the Amazons” (a handful of wilderness locations and a 6-room dungeon).
I don’t speak Italian, but I love ancient myth/history based RPGs, so I was
happy to find it here: https://caponatameccanica.com/mediterraneo-un-gioco-di-ruolo-di-andrea-angiolino/
I also have PDFs of Mitico! and Kalevala from the same game line.
The Metamorphica Revised by Johnstone Metzger
This should be moved to the “Random tables” folder… I have
the original Metamorphica (2012) there, this is the 2016 expanded edition.
Hundreds of mutations and transformations, great if you are running a post-apoc
game. https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/198038/The-Metamorphica-Revised
Minor Arcana Generator by Jeremy Strandberg
I had to do some googling, because the PDF itself doesn’t
have credits. This is a 7-page generator of weird artifacts, probably for the
author’s “Stonetop” Dungeon World setting. Bonus points for including eight
worked examples – always a good thing for random generators released into the
ild! There is a perchance version: https://perchance.org/81gg8njnn9
Holmes Ref 2.0 by Zenopus
Reference sheets for the Holmes Basic Set, compiled by the gentleman
& scholar from Zenopus Archives. Apart from the numbers and charts, terse
spell overviews, monster stats, it also has “Holmesian Random Names”, random character
backgrounds and pregens. Useful! https://sites.google.com/site/zenopusarchives/home/holmes-ref
Join the fun... if you dare!