Castles & Crusades Players Handbook – Collector’s Pack

https://trolllord.com/product/castles-crusades-players-handbook-collectors-pack/

Oh, this is beautiful. Troll Lord Games is coming out with a Castles & Crusades Players Handbook – Collector’s Pack, with a new cover and the 11th Edition printing. Nothing has changed, which is wonderful, but we are getting a new cover!

There are some other nice things in here, such as a coffee mug, canvas printing, a mouse pad, stickers, and a few other goodies to be revealed. The preorder is up now!

The best dungeon-crawling game just got better.

Kickstarter: Book of Fell Wisdom (Adventures Dark & Deep)

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/brwgames/adventures-dark-and-deep-book-of-fell-wisdom

I like Adventures Dark & Deep a lot. As an expanded and reimagined first edition game, it is one of the best we have outside of OSRIC. We are getting a new book this year: basically, everything that didn't make it into the ADAD tomes we have, plus some of the PDF-exclusive evil classes the creator put out. And here is a list from the notification pager:

• Clerical servants of demon lords
• Necromancers
• Witches
• Alchemy
• Ley Lines
• Demiplanes
• New spells
• Followers for high-level characters
• Courtly intrigue
• Generational play

I am looking forward to this one a lot, since ADAD is the de facto new standard of first-edition gaming, expanded and beautifully presented in two massive tomes of first-edition goodness. Outside of Old School Essentials, this is one of the best OSR games out there, well worth your attention, and it captures the 1E vibe perfectly.

The Kickstarter should be happening in the next week, sometime from what I hear, so put this one on your radar, and if you haven't checked this out, please do so!

Fantasy Art Links

I added several fantasy art links to the sidebar, since I feel the best way to have a gaming shelf and setup is to not pack the shelves so full they look terrible, but to have a big enough shelf that you can display dice, figurines, face-out books on stands, and other gaming fun.

Another thing is having the fantasy art that defines your game on your walls near your shelves. This is a must for me, and I even have art books on my shelves as display items.

I have some from SQP Art Books as well, mostly fantasy cheesecake art that is often edited out of most games today, since that classic art is still a part of the hobby. I wanted to include the link to this publisher in the sidebar, but the site contains a lot of NSFW books, so you'll need to find them on your own (or Amazon) if interested. These are from artists who worked in mainstream comics and created some of the most amazing covers, making them well-known figures in illustration.

I love the classical Red Sonja and Conan art, and these types of books are face-out on my three massive DCC shelves. Are they cheesy and silly? Yes, but that is why I love them.

The other sites on the sidebar are all mostly SFW (though some have classical nude art in their collections, so still, be forewarned). Displate is also a fun SFW one that focuses on gaming, and they even have D&D-themed wall art. Prices on some of these sites are reasonable, but others have eye-opening sticker prices.

Art is a massive part of our hobby, and it's essential to make your gaming shelves reflect your vision of the hobby. Don't let just your gaming books define your game; adorn your gaming areas with the swag you want to dream of for your game.

Happy DCC Day!

https://goodman-games.com/dcc-day-2025-store-locator/

Happy DCC Day!

Check the link above, and if a store in your area is participating, please drop by for some free swag and to say hello! Let's show some support for local game stores and stop by to let them know you're "With the Band."

DCC was a game I gave up on early on, feeling the charts were too much, and I could not understand the spell duels. It seemed fun, but not enjoyable enough to warrant putting in serious time to learn. I was wrong, just as I was about many games I gave up on early. Since then, I have grown to love the game.

There was a time when I felt all the gonzo and crazy charts were not needed, and by the game's own rules, it says you are free to ignore them. They are there to inspire and motivate you, and if you can think of something better, then you are free to use that! For many players, they would have no idea that we played like this and that anything like this was possible, so the charts are needed as a starting point; otherwise, the game would play like 5E, since that is what most people are familiar with.

I also like the game not being complete, and this keeps your mind open to all the possibilities. You are supposed to tweak and add to the system, pull in monsters from other OSR games, use the treasure tables from different books, and generally hack and slash, creating a mutant, monster-filled game collection that starts with your DCC book.

For me? I use my old copies of Labyrinth Lord and Mutant Future as add-on books for the game. I am not using them for a stand-alone game right now, and they are delighted to see some use as my "+1 games" for DCC and MCC. As a bonus, I get rules on construction, ships, water travel, and other game rules to fill in the gaps. The fact that an old OSR game, nearly 20 years old, is still beneficial and handy today amazes me and speaks to the strength of the entire old-school gaming movement.

Me? Hey, the books are not in a box and are getting used! I love this!

The Mutant Future game is excellent, since this gives me a lot of old-school mutant mayhem monsters and high-tech treasures to use to populate my radiation-blasted post-apocalyptic worlds. I highly recommend this one for MCC, and it's perfect for the game.

And play some DCC, MCC, or X-Crawl today! Use this day for fun and imagination, delving into strange dimensions and arcane ruins, getting lost in unexplored jungles, and wandering over the frozen tundra in search of the lost wizard's tomb.

DCC is all about fun.

Go have some today! Meet some people, hang out, say hello, and become a part of something.

It may just change everything for you.

Shipped: Caverns of Thracia Legendary Adventure DCC

I finally got my shipping notification for Caverns of Tharcia! That took a while. Goodman Games appears to have been overwhelmed by the shipping of so many books, which is a good problem to have, and I am happy for them.

These adventures and DCC itself are just fun, and nowhere can you get so many tributes to the old-school, recreations, and re-published classics in one place.

Castles & Crusades Added

This isn't in the gonzo genre, but it can be. I love this game so much that I put it away for a while to focus on other games; it just tends to "take over" every other fantasy game in my thinking and play.

It is that amazing.

I felt it wasn't "gonzo" enough, that deadly mix of tension and old-school difficulty that defines the genre. C&C has always been more of an AD&D 2nd Edition style "story game" to me that is compatible with the classics but feels more suited for stories like Dragonlance and the other classics of the 1980s and 1990s.

It is one of my "best of all time" games.

I felt that removing it would help me focus on this blog better. Well, I was wrong about that. I tend to do better with a more narrow focus, but in light of people trying to divide the old-school community, we should not reject any old-school game from any space.

C&C can be a "gonzo" game if you play it that way. It takes adopting that gonzo look and feel, but it can be done. I always felt this was one of the more "serious" retro-games, so it did not feel in this genre, at least not to me.

But let's give it as chance.

In light of the dumb comments many are making about Shadowdark and trying to split the old-school community, I am adding C&C coverage here. We can't be divided. It is funny, when big companies release updates to their games (and try to signing players up for live services), lots of trouble is stirred up in the old-school gaming sphere.

Many troublemakers are trying to stir up anger and division, but we should not let them drive us away from this fantastic place with amazing fans. The value of the old-school community is far greater than the drama they are trying to create.

All old-school games belong together.

I am sorry, I am unsubscribing from any YouTube channel that feeds into this division. I am also tired of the "D&D Beyond and Wizards" drama clickbait channels too; they are going on my unsub lists. I never used D&D Beyond, and I don't care. The last time I used an electronic character sheet was in D&D 4 days, and I learned back then that those online character services are only supported for longer than 5-10 years, and you will lose it all someday.

I still have 40-year-old index cards with characters that are still playable for dozens of games. They are yellowed, but "data retention" on a hand-made character sheet beats many media formats and cloud services.

I still need to find shelves to commit to C&C.

And I need to do a better job balancing all these amazing games.

It is a nice problem to have.

YouTube: Gen Con Booth Preview 2024 (Goodman Games)

The Gen Con booth preview for Goodman Games just dropped, and the best piece of info in here is that there are doing a second printing of Dark Tower will be in stock in about 2 months, so the end of September or October. This is one of the out-of-stock items I am tracking for DCC, and I kick myself for not jumping in on this one. That said, more are coming!

Shadowdark Restock Reservations Live

https://www.thearcanelibrary.com/pages/shadowdark

This may have been out there a while, but reservations for the hardcover restock of the Shadowdark RPG book are still open. If you haven't picked this up yet, now is your time to grab a spot and get a copy. It is highly recommended.

Back in Stock: The Music of the Spheres is Chaos

https://goodman-games.com/store/product/dungeon-crawl-classics-100-the-music-of-the-spheres-is-chaos-print-pdf/

I have some cool news today: DCC #100, The Music of the Spheres is Chaos, is back in stock as a physical product! If you missed this one, go pick it up.

Welcome!

Happy to share my thoughts and experiences!