Piles of Downloaded Files... #2: a deeper delve

Time for another installment of Piles of Downloaded Files, where I go through my folder of unsorted RPG-related PDFs. We all have that. Here's the first delve.

 

Adventures on Mars: An Addendum to Doc’s Excellent Warriors of Mars, Rules by gloriousbattle

This file is named “MARS WITH LARGER FONT NEATER LAYOUT” in the folder. Did I rename it to aid myself in the future? It’s still not a very informative title… Anyways, this is “Adventures on Mars: An Addendum to Doc’s Excellent Warriors of Mars, Rules” (sic!). If you don’t know it, Doc’s Warriors of Mars is a cool homebrew amalgamation of OD&D and the old TSR Warriors of Mars ruleset, for Barsoomian adventuring. Available on Grey Elf’s website! Now, this is a supplement for that. Some searching shows that I found it on the ODD74 board, and it was created by user gloriousbattle. Then a file with larger font was created by Bastet1002. The document contains Barsoomian gazetteer tidbits, but also brings in other pulptastic science fantasy monsters as well, like the Leeches of Yoh-Vombis and Mi-Go and Star Vampires. There is a 4xd12 random table for Indescribable Martian Artifacts, so now you can find a Circular Ceramic Orange-and-Silver Intelligent (as a magic sword) object while “groping through black pits”. There are also mass combat rules. This is a useful grab-bag for sword & science OD&D gaming!

 

Conrad’s Fantasy Free-Style Role-Play by Better Games

From 1990! I got it from Drivethru. Offered as “a companion to HUGO (original underworld’s generated by computer, no two alike)”! But also a system on its own. Promises free-style rules with “Quick and Dirty” combat. Attributes are not measured numerically, you either have them or don’t. Advance on the Progression Path from Bumpkin to Delta Zaire (a high-level wizard)! There is, however, a plethora of skills. The combat mechanics are maaaybe quick and dirty once you learn them, but there are several charts, so I’d need more time to really understand it. This is a wonderful artifact or old-school gaming, complete with DIY art.

Stuck under a pile of unread PDFs.

The Cuboid Prison of Joanna Cahb by Mariuswasright

A short little adventure, I downloaded it from itch.io. Free PDF. It’s a cube-shaped prison for a Dwarf singer. The cube is now “half-submerged in the magma of Mount Thal’s caldera”, that’s always a good thing. The volcano is not part of the adventure document, though. The dungeon has 7 areas, laid out on one level (there’s no multi-level cube shenanigans). Science fantasy stuff, guardian constructs with eyebeams, anti-metal artifacts. Barebones layout, some highlighting and bulletpoints. Monster stats are included in each room description, which seems like an overkill, because there is a stat appendix too. No biggie. It’s pretty cool as a last-minute drop into your setting’s volcano adventure!

Go on, open your unsorted PDFs folder! If you dare!