The Glatisant: Issue #48
Welcome to The Glatisant, Questing Beast’s monthly newsletter. You can read previous issues here. Subscribe for free to get new issues in your inbox, or support the newsletter on Patreon (patrons get access to the secret Questing Beast discord channel).
Sales
Humble Bundle has a Pananoia RPG Mega Bundle, where you can get 32 books ($209 value) for $18.
Tekumel: Empire of the Petal Throne is 29% off.
The Monstrous Manual (2e), Fiend Folio (1e), Monster Manual II (1e) and Dieties & Demigods (1e) are all 40% off.
Reviews
10 Foot Pole ranks The Great Mansion Heist and Echoes from Fomalhaut #10 as “The Best” (available here and here). From the Mansion Heist Review:
But the reactions are where this thing is at. The cook, who is kindly and sweet and “worn down by a lack of appreciation for her modest gifts as a cook” will try to talk you in to fleeing. The steward is proline to fumbling and ignores all strange noises, since he’s new to the mansion. The accountant barely registers threats. The dogs are lonely and respond well to kindness … and prone to bark at squirrels. There are notes on holidays and dinner parties, on food & wine delivery wagons and how the guards react when their lord is there (more cautious about blowing their horns) You can see how each and every one of these notes, and more, are ALL oriented towards actual play at the table. Everything here is laser focused on the party sneaking or bluffing their way in, and what then happens. And none of it is overblown.
Playful Void reviews Gus L.’s adventure Tomb Robbers of the Crystal Frontier.
Tomb Robbers of the Crystal Frontier is an exceptional module. Its clarity of intent goes a long way in creating a strong, cohesive whole. Almost all of the authors guiding principles are clear and well elucidated, and work in concert with the content. It’s not a long dungeon, but not short, with probably enough content for three or four sessions, and it outperforms both Lair of the Lamb and Tomb of the Serpent Kings at their stated goals.
Geek gamers looks at MAZES.
Jorphdan’s Jocular Junction reviews Cairn:
Professor Dungeon Master reviews Crown and Skull.
GGNORE plays through The Lost Citadel of the Scarlet Minotaur using Kelsey Dionne’s Shadowdark quickstart and then makes a review of the system based on the experience.
At Questing Beast I reviewed DCC’s The Music of the Spheres is Chaos, the Mothership anthology Hull Breach, and the new OSR adventure from Chance Dudinack, Secret of the Black Crag.
And Now a Word from Our Sponsors…
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First, you create your apocalypse. Then, you must survive it. Infaernum is a brutal and gorgeous award-winning OSR experience that can fit any play style or setting for Solo, Co-Op, or Guided Play. Follow our crowdfunding campaign preview on Gamefound for exclusive gifts and perks!
"Gods of the Forbidden North: Volume 2" has launched on Kickstarter! Get Volumes 1 & 2 of this 1,300-page mega-adventure trilogy for Old-School Essentials in premium, standard, or digital formats. And catch our Early Bird to score a free poster map of the arctic wilderness!
Snake Wolf 3, the Stratosfiend Mega-Dungeon for Dungeon Crawl Classics is on Kickstarter! Answer the psionic call beginning the endless dive—chasing a man who dared touch a God; through a town crawl, point crawl, city crawl and a mega-dungeon. Feel the conspiracy as the world becomes less rational.
Travel to a spore covered paradise & ashen wastelands destroyed by a falling city in the next expansion to Cloud Empress, the Nausicaa-inspired Mothership 1E science fantasy setting. Follow on Backerkit today!
Have an upcoming Kickstarter or an RPG project you want to promote? Advertise in The Glatisant (18,000+ subscribers) using this form, or on the YouTube channel (82,000+ subscribers) using this one. If you want to send me books for review consideration on Questing Beast, mail them to Ben Milton, 6446 E Central Ave, Box #127, Wichita, KS, USA 67206.
News
Troll Lord Games announces that they are publishing a number of Gygax’s adventures and settings that were previously tied up legally.
Jon Peterson will be publishing a revised, expanded edition of Playing at the World on July 30th that breaks the out-of-print book into two volumes.
The Bloggie Awards has announced a winner for Best Blog Post of 2023: Re-inventing the Wilderness by Sachagoat
The fairytale artwork of Edmund Dulac has entered the public domain.
One of my favorite OSR settings, Slumbering Ursine Dunes, is moving closer to publishing an illustrated omnibus!
WotC will be publishing a mammoth book on the making of OD&D later this year.
Quinns from Shut Up and Sit Down has started a new YouTube channel for reviewing non-D&D RPGs. Dave Thaumavore interviews him about it here.
History
The Awesome Lies blog does a deep dive into the Western Gunfight wargame and its influence on D&D. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.
Chance and Circumstance goes on a quest to recover the sealed records from the David L. Arneson vs. Gary Gygax and TSR Hobbies, Inc court case.
Filmdeg Miniatures interviews Trish Carden, one of the earliest Games Workshop miniature sculptors.
Rhystic Studies has released a full-length documentary on the history of foil Magic: The Gathering cards.
Free Stuff
Coins and Scrolls: Holy and Roguish Items, Pocket Debris, and the Ghastly Tomb Tinies
Idle Cartulary: Advanced Fantasy Dungeons
Goblin Punch: Dungeon: Castle of the Gribblies
Rotten Pulp: This Haunted Land - Version 0.1
Dungeon Design
Poisonous Cloak: Purpose and Mystery in the Dungeon
Rise Up Comus: Metroidvanias and Megadungeons
Dungeonfruit: Knots (A Procedure For Elegant Jaquaysing)
Whose Measure God Could Not Take: Considerations on Jaquaysing the Dungeon
I Cast Light: LESSONS FROM HELL: John Romero's Level Design Rules for DOOM
Cultures of Play
At Questing Beast, I made a video commenting on The Retired Adventurer’s blog post Six Cultures of Play.
Levi Kornelsen: The D&D Playstyle Block (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5)
Methods and Madness: Wargames, Storygames, and RPGs
Rolltop Indigo: Staring Back at the Invisible
Rules
Prismatic Wasteland: Wizards Playing Telephone
Goodberry Monthly: Bribery
Silverarm: Using 2d6 Downtime Activities In My Worlds Without Number Game
Traipse: Overloading the Search Die
Theory and Advice
Wizard Thief Fighter: Beyond Political Games
Zedeck Siew’s Writing Hours: What Do Ability Scores Represent?
Alexandrian: When a Character Dies
My Terrible Sorcery is Without Equal in the West: Choosing Game Music
Win Conditions: The Bottom Line and When are you ready to crowdfund?
Welcome to the Deathtrap: How I used One-to-One time in the Silver Gull Campaign
Sam Sorensen: Which Rules Elide?
Randomless Renaissance: Role of Randomness in Roleplaying Games
Worldbuilding
Vaults of Vaarn: The Shrike: Currencies and Trade Goods
Rose & Kingfisher: 1d100 Oblique Place Names
Archons March On: D20 Reasons Why Werewolves, Devils, Wights, And So On Are Vulnerable To Silver
That’s it for this issue! This newsletter makes use of affiliate links, which help support Questing Beast at no cost to you.