Does Fight On Still Have Its Mojo?

Fight On! OSR magazine issue #15 is out. It has been 10 long years since the last issue. 

Ten years later, we are back from the dead to Fight On once more! These revenant runes are just as jam-packed as you remember with classes, monsters, spells, magic items, rules mods, homebrews, and awesome adventures in the spirit of the eldritch era of fantasy roleplaying!  Dedicated to seventies D&D legend J. Eric Holmes, this issue brings together old and new stalwarts alike to celebrate our 15th issue and new beginning! With art and articles by J. Eric and Christopher Holmes, Tom Gordon, Calithena, Gabor Lux, Jeff Rients, James Maliszewski, Kesher, Pete Mullen, Cameron Hawkey, Zach Howard, Alex Schroder, Richard Rittenhouse, Settembrini, Patrick Farley, Jason Sholtis, Robert Conley, Kelvin Green, Philipp H., Attronarch, Mitzi!, and many more, this is the first of our new forays into fanzine fame and glory! Ride that wyvern while the sun is shining, and keep Fighting On!

If you were wondering if Fight On! still had that old-school magic, well check out this table of contents. I'd say yes.

Table of Contents
Ten Ways to Holmesify your Game (Zach Howard) 3
Special Ability Charts (Attronarch) 4
The Orthogonal Dwarf (Olle Skogren) 11
Gremlins! (Calithena) 14
Maze Master’s Miscellany (Alex Schroder & Cal) 15
The Catacombs under Old Samora (Philipp H.) 17
Knights & Knaves: Holmes Town Heroes (Tony A. Rowe) 28
Bringing It All Back Holmes (Clark/Grodog/Cal) 30
Maps from the Maze of Peril (J. Eric Holmes) 34
Distributary of Darkness (Alex Zisch) 36
The Silken See (Motley Dice) 37
Grognard’s Grimoire (Richard Rittenhouse) 41
The Wizard’s Satchel (J. Blasso-Gieseke) 43
Artifacts, Adjuncts, and Oddments (Rittenhouse) 44
Victory or Death! (Gabor Lux) 46
Megadungeon Workshop Extravaganza! (Kesher) 50
Calvero! (István Boldog-Bernád) 53
Creepies & Crawlies (James Maliszewski) 61
Tables for Fables (Al, Greco, Wetzel, and Rients) 63
The Darkness Beneath (Alex Schroder & Lior Wehrli) 68
Henchmen-Я-Us: Pole Arm Caddies! (Calithena) 91
Chainmail: Battle for Bronzolo (Settembrini) 92
Doxy, Urgent Care Cleric (Linneman & Green) 98
Education of a Magic User (Douglas Cox) 99
Wham! (Tom Gordon) 100

Some say the OSR is dead. I say LONG LIVE THE OSR!

Get your copy here:

https://www.lulu.com/shop/ignatius-umlaut/fight-on-15-pdf-edition/ebook/product-84kg7gz.html

Dungeoneer Master Deck Box

Dungeoneer was published 21 years ago. Somehow it has continued to remain in print with a small, but consistent following. In appreciation for your continued support I put together one of the most oft-requested items: a deck box to hold all the components and cards.

After 21 years Dungeoneer finally has everything needed to play the game.

I am impressed with the quality that The Gamecrafter has managed to achieve, and their boxes are sturdy and well designed, with satisfying snug fit lids.

I did everything I could to get the price down to as reasonable as possible. This Master Deck Box will fit all your Dungeoneer decks. The components included are specifically for Tomb of the Lich Lord. If this box does well I'll make the components for all the other Dungeoneer sets available. For now you can print out the Hero cards from these files.

https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/dungeoneer-master-deck-box

Game deck not included

The Dark Tower Series

 Like many (most) of the Gen-X generation, I've read almost everything Stephen King wrote up until around the early 2000's. And that includes the Dark Tower series. Which may have killed some of my enthusiasm for his books.

But it isn't all bad. And there are some great ideas in it. A tiny bit of the Gunslinger roleplaying game may have even gotten some inspiration from it.

On the ODD74 forum Finarvyn (of Swords & Wizardry White Box fame) asked what people thought about The Dark Tower series, if it was worth reading. It got me to thinking, and I wrote up my opinion. Which fairly reflects many reader's views of the story with some of my own idiosyncrasies. Here is what I had to say.

The Dark Tower has the best, and worst, of King's writings.

1. The Gunslinger: ok start, but not great. Establishes the bleak world setting which I kind of like.

2. The Drawing of the Three: pretty good, but still kind of meh. The characters assembled here are interesting and make the book worth reading.

3. The Wastelands: Getting better. Overall this book is quite a ride (figuratively, and literally in the story), what a cliffhanger.

4. Wizard and Glass: one of the best books King has ever written, high point of the series.

4s. The Wind Through the Keyhole: optional, he wrote this after completing the series. It is ok. It is sort of 3 short story ideas King had that he wrapped into one novel.

5. Wolves of the Calla: I might have liked this better if he hadn't given the story away in the forward. It is a storyline that has been done to death by others, and better, so I really didn't care for this book at all.

6. Song of Susannah: Holy Guacamole is this book terrible.

7. The Dark Tower: I didn't think he could write a worse book than Song of Susannah, but this just might be. He uses a device no author should ever use (no spoiler). What a disappointing end to the series. A real shame because there are a handful of great ideas amid a lot of drek.

While I can recommend about 3 books in the series, you kinda have to read the whole series if you're going to commit. I suspect you could read Wizard and Glass on its own and just enjoy this weird western.

If I was to read this series again I'd just stop after Wizard and Glass. I mean you'd want to know about the Dark Tower, but that's probably best left as a JJ Abram's mystery box than what King did with it.

If you loved the Dark Tower, and many do, that is great. I wish I could have loved it, I really wanted to. And there was much in it I did really like. And if I was to run a Dark Tower campaign, to plug my own RPG, I do think Gunslinger would be perfect for it.

On a side note, there have been several graphic novel adaptations of The Dark Tower, all of which I think are fantastic. I'd even recommend them over the novels!

What does D&D smell like?

 So I stumbled across this Kickstarter that is selling a "scent machine" that you load with smells to enhance your D&D game, like Ogre, Elf, Red Dragon, and so on.

Part of me says this is a terrible idea, another part of me wants it.

Is this an awful idea or a great one?

Scent Machine Kickstarter

D&D 2024 Stat Block

 This little tidbit has been leaked showing what the stat block will look like in 2024 D&D.

Not a whole lot different from 5th edition, perhaps a little more legible and an easier layout.

via Bob World Builder

Monstrous Gray Giant