If you're going to run a 1e game, or play in a 1e game, it's worth having this around. It contains an almost 1 to 1 translation of the 1e rules, but does it with modern sensiblities for language, layout, organization and formatting. While Gygax and Arneson might have been visionaries when it comes to entertainment, they were not wordsmiths or even skilled technical writers. This version cleans up and organizes the rules from their game into a format that much more closely matches what modern audiences have come to expect from RPGs.

What can be more low level than going after some orcs? Especially demon-worshiping orcs! Well if that is your jam then this is the adventure for you. This 16 page (12 of actual text) features a cavern of orcs just like the good old days. Nothing too out of the ordinary here, but just good old 1st level fun. Can be played in an afternoon.

Just a bit of background on my history with D&D. I never really got to play basic D&D back in the day (though I really wanted to). I eventually did buy the Rules Cyclopedia when it came out, but never really got to use it for anything. When I went off to college, AD&D 2nd edition was the game of choice, so that's what most of my experience is with. I've also played around a bit with 3.5 D&D, mostly with video games. Having said all of that, I haven't actually played an actual D&D gaming session in years.

A bunch of my colleagues at work told me they wanted to play D&D, so I figured why not play RC era basic D&D. After just getting things off the ground running B1-9, I got curious hearing about all of the OSR retro-clones. Labyrinth Lord was a name that kept popping up continually and it referenced the B/X or Moldvay ruleset which I had never heard of until now. I figured how much different could it really be from the RC? It's different all right, in a really awesome way. Comparing this system side by side with the RC, I feel it is much better balanced in every way. I know B/X capped out at level 14 and this one goes up to 20, but everything is still pretty close to that version of D&D. It's definitely an easy pick up and go system, and I appreciate the simplicity.

You may be asking, why would I recommend Labyrinth Lord over B/X then? Two very big reasons. First of all, you have everything you need in one book rather than two. That's something the RC always had over every other version of D&D before and since. The second reason is that this system can be expanded with the Advanced Edition Companion if you want some more character options, but not so much as to slow things down where it takes a full day to make a character. If you just want the standard B/X playstyle, then this book alone is all you need and it works really well. There's also an expansion for people who want a game more like OD&D, but I can't say anything about that one as I know nothing about it or OD&D at all. I guess there is a third reason to get it. There are a TON of supporting materials by third-party publishers on this site if you just search for Labyrinth Lord under rule system. With all of that material, you can really make this game into just about anything you want. I'm personally just sticking to this and the AEC and I like what we have going. You can always read through the no-art version for free, but I prefer having art and at this price, you can't really beat that deal.

An excellent one-shot adventure, with a fleshed-out setting. Lacking in detail in some areas, but with the intention of leaving the GM with the flexibility to adapt to the players' choices.

Clone Farm delivers an experience which blends together a quick, ready-to-run scenario with the context and detail of a more well-developed adventure. The facility the players wake up in is well-detailed, while still giving GMs the freedom to devise what sort of experience the players have within its bleak, sterile walls.

The only thing keeping me from giving this a five-star rating is the lack of detail towards the end of the adventure in comparison with the beginning/middle of it. The GMs are left to come up with the details of the rebels' assault on the facility, and the rebels are generally left as an ambiguous entity. This is done with the intention of allowing the GM to form their own game and to adapt to the players' choices, but some GMs may find this a bit hard to work with.

Nevertheless, I am looking forward to running this game. The ideas that Goblinoid Games comes up with are fantastic, and I'm sure that it'll be a one-shot my players will remember for quite some time.

Burial Plots is a compilation of 5 short adventures for the ChillMaster... sorry, CryptMaster, to inflict upon his/her gaming group. The 5 adventures are:

Condition critical; a lighthearted 10 page scenario. It takes place in a hospital where an experimental treatment to boost the white blood cells of patients has gone terribly wrong. The medical experiment has now colonised the hospital itself and decided to purge all foreign organisms infecting the building.

Unquenchable; a 9 page wilderness adventure where the PC:s join a search party to look for three missing deer hunters. Of course, the forest is full of both small ticks and larger bloodsuckers....

Death in the Dust; an 11 page adventure where the PC:s are sent to investigate an Old West boomtown near a long since caved-in mine.

Forget-me-not; a 9 page adventure in which a copycat killer after 40 years picks up where the previous axe murderer left off.

It came upon a midnight clear; a 5 page adventure set at gaudily decorated farm house during Christmas Eve beset by a spirit of the season.

No adventure should take more than 3 hours to run, and they come complete with maps, room descriptions and monster stats. The preparations are minimal, but if I should offer any criticism, it's that the investigative skills aren't widely used. The mere presence of maps also hints at a more tactical combat approach where the Envoys make steady progress from one grid onto the next. I've always found it more useful in Horror to disorient and blur the PC:s sense of direction once they enter the haunted houses and woods. Also, the NPC:s in Burial Plots could have been made out more quirky to encourage roleplaying and player suspicioins (always think Twin Peaks when you design victims, witnesses and law enforcement officers).

Nonetheless, Burial Plots is a well-crafted compilation. It's also great to see that Pacesetter is once more publishing proper scenarios these days to Chill... sorry, CryptWorld. It was Pacesetter's scenarios that hooked me to Chill back in the 80's, and free pdf:s simply won't suffice. These days I fear that the lack of proper scenarios will likely push modern horror gamers away from the Chill INSTANT ADVENTURE system towards the competing brands (Delta Green/ Cthulhu BRP, EsoTerrorists GUMSHOE and Hunter: the Vigil STORYTELLING). A full length campaign would work wonders to provide Chill/CryptWorld players with a common frame of reference.

Once again Goblinoid Games serves up top notch old school quality. Ilike this game for it's versitility and adaptbility. The group that I ran this for is begging me to run at conventions in 2018. I suspect this will happen as I am a big fan of the original Planet of the Apes series.

For my purposes this is an excellent distillation of the early d100/BRP system and specifically Call of Cthulhu. It's clean and clearly written with capable illustrations establishing that it is primarily aimed at horror gaming, specifically of the Lovecraftian bent. My understanding is that it exists mainly as a platform for further game development, free of the concerns a license might bring. At this point it seems to have been nearly abandoned, but I have hope. Seeing as CoC 7e has changed the game somewhat, and not necessarily in a direction that suits all tastes, I hope someone will hit on using GORE to produce some good Lovecraftian horror that avoids some of the CoC-isms. Turn from pulp-action toward darker realms.

While I enjoy the premise, I am not a big fan of silliness / hoke. I would have liked to have known that there is such a high comic factor to this module including constant references to humourous movies.

The Best B/X clone by far. Very well written and easy to use. Which it would get more support though.

Why I do not like the game is because they didn't fix the key problem that old Chill had. Numbers often exceeded 100 in this percentile driven game. Basically you never miss or fail a skill roll unless the CM puts a difficulty on what you are doing. This makes more experienced players hindered because they are more experienced. The whole sequence of combat was something nobody did, is outdated, and should've been redone. This really feels like the intention was to just copy the old game and put it out as something revised.

I loved Chill and wanted to love this but nothing was improved and everything taken out was missed. Basically 2nd edition will do just fine.

Positive note: Nice getting the artist from the original Chill to do this.

I did a more in-depth review on my blog but here's the condensed version: Apes Victorious does exactly what it sets out to do, which is to create an OSR Planet of The Apes rpg. However it doesn't go beyond that goal to do anything interesting in either a mechanical or narrative sense. The final product isn't bad by any measure but on the other hand it isn't great either. It's just there.

The in-depth review is at http://buzzclaw.blogspot.com/2016/12/review-apes-victorious.html

Mr. Proctor delivers the goods. It really is that simple. We are provided everything we need to play on a world ruled by apes with a clean and concise delivery. Better reviewers than myself will break down the intricacies of play if that is what you need to make a purchase decision. The only shortfall may be actually how clean this product is, really just a handfull of illustrations. But we must realize that pictures are just candy coating to actual content. If you want to play in a world of apes within the context of the OSR this IS the product. Now, take your stinking paws off me you damn dirty ape!

(This is the conclusion of a review of the PDF version)

I can say that Apes Victorious definitely lived up to my expectations! It has everything I wanted to see in it, it all seems practical and highly usable; a stand-alone niche game for people who love Planet of the Apes. And I think it has the potential to appeal to non-die-hard fans as well.

The writing is top-notch. Brief, to the point, yet personal. Formatting and layout is clean and readable. There aren't many illustrations (maybe 15 pictures for 120 pages?), all done by Mark Allen. This isn't eye candy... but it's easy on the eye. I think the book could have taken more pictures, and maybe included other artist (not that I have any problem with Allen's style - and it's a good fit for the theme). But it's a conscious laconic approach.

Read the whole review here: eldritchfields.blogspot.com/2016/10/apes-victorious-reviewoverview.html

64 pages, black & white interior, color cover. This is a monster book. For use with Cryptworld, but also compatible with Majus, Rotworld and yes even Timemaster and 1st ed Chill. There are so many good and new monsters here that it is worth it just for this alone. Really, there are such great things as the Mongolian Death Worm, the Batsquatch and plenty of old favorites. The book is more than just monsters. There are plenty of great ideas on how to play and use these monsters in your game. These sections are great for nearly any modern horror or urban fantasy game. I rank it right up there with "Chill Things" in terms of utility for my games.

100 pages, black & white interior, color cover.

Author: Michael Curtis

Majus came out before Cryptworld and after Rotworld. It uses the same Pacesetter system that all three games share with Time Master and 1st Edition Chill. Majus though takes a different path and gives us a world of mages, magicians and high magic. So in sense, everything I have always wanted in my own Chill games. Like Cryptworld and Rotworld, the Pacesetter system is revised here to be quite easy to use.
What seperates Majus from the Cryptworld is not just the magic the characaters can now wield, but also the tone. This is described as "Magic Noir" so think hardboilded detective stories mixed with a global magic conspiracy. Whether you want to use this or not is upto the individual CM (in this case "Cabal Master") but I think you would be missing out on a really great feature of the game.
This game can also provide new background, magic and ideas for your Cryptworld games as well. The monsters in this game are largely a different sort that what is found in Cryptworld, so buying both games will give you extra monsters and features. There is some overlap, but that is mostly system related material.