Creature Companion: Shadowdark Edition!

Coming to Kickstarter this January. Creature Companion, with art by Evlyn Moreau and the imaginings of R.J. Thompson. Translated from Old-School Essentials to Shadowdark by Taylor Seely-Wright! Watch for it this January.

I Have the Power, You Can't Take It From Me: An Essay Regarding the OGL

I have the power, you can't take it from me...

Twenty-three years ago the role-playing community was given a gift  by a huge corporation that had acquired the first role playing game ever made, Dungeons & Dragons. Ryan Dancey spearheaded this, with the backing of WOTC at the time. The gift was a gift to both gamers and the corporation. Its purpose was two-fold. It allowed any creator to create content for the version of the game, making more content out there that WOTC would not have to produce themselves, but also requiring people to buy their game to use. In time as the license progressed, ways were found to make other editions of the game using the license. That was great news for those of us who wanted something from the eras before the OGL itself. Everyone could produce something for their favorite version of the game. 

 By the power of believing, The strength of the sword...

Regardless of edition wars, we could all make something for the version of the game we loved! We got new versions of AD&D (OSRIC) and OD&D (Swords & Wizardry) by Matt Finch, first. Others followed. As the 4th edition of the game crept in and WOTC issued it its own license their former magazine publisher Paizo recreated the version of the game that the OGL was intended for 3rd edition was revised to become Pathfinder. We have more than 30 years of D&D all available to create adventures and supplemental rules for! 4th Ed, Pathfinder, the OSR... pick your favorite D&D and create for it. We were given a gift. We were given the power to fulfill our dreams of making contend for Dungeons & Dragons. DMs were given the ability to make their campaigns semi-official by publishing them on their own! It was a dream. It was the beginning of a golden age in the history of Dungeons & Dragons. With the 40th anniversary of D&D and RPGs came the 5th edition of the game, and a show called Stranger Things, that featured the game front and center. D&D became vastly popular and gained a huge following. Live play sessions of games caught on and people that never had access to the game started flocking to it. D&D acted as a gateway to the greater RPG hobby, like never before. WOTC has had great success from it, and the smaller publishing houses have benefited from this success. It has been a great time. To many, we had a great gift given by a corporation. Something that seemed too good to be true.

The resistance of evil, The ripples of words...

You know what they say about all good things. WOTC is a part of a bigger corporation. Hasbro. Now in 2023, almost exactly one year before the 50th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons and roleplaying games they have turned the tables. Anyone reading this likely knows about the draconian license that was leaked and then called a "draft". This was a new draft of the OGL, one that would take most of the rights of the publishers to whom the original was given. It was a terrible piece of corporate greed. It would have devastated some of the larger independent game companies financially, and the way things were worded meant that they could, at some point, charge anyone using the new license. 1.1 was such an affront that the clamor across the internet caused folks to unsubscribe from D&D's moneymaker D&D Beyond. Good. More so with the leak that there would be a more draconian payment plan for that service in the future as well, hurting not just creators, but the fans and consumers as well! This cause WOTC to choose to revise the new OGL. It was still not great. 

Never dreamed I could be someone...

The 1.0A license allowed me to live a dream that I had had since I was 10 years old. I was able to write adventures and material for my favorite version of D&D. We indie folks were able to put out materials that corporations never could. We aren't tied to a bottom line, so we can take older version of the game and say "what could have been if this hadn't been tied to a corporate bottom line?" The worst part about it all, even with a new version of the license being touted (better than the 1.1 but still a raw deal for most) we independent publishers are going to suffer in some way. We have to reword any of our works that we want to use in publishing or else let them sit in purgatory, as is. That would be fine, but some of us are living our dreams and building the universes that we have run our games in for our whole lives. Now we reword what has been published, or not allow it into our future works. It's a raw deal. 

Control of the castle, The rise of a son,

I believe in connection, I believe in the one...

WOTC has proven they cannot be trusted as the custodians of the community. Control and greater competition must rise. The fact that we all need to revise our works if we want to use them in future works and the fact that the new OGLs have NOT been true open licenses for creators to use has caused alliances of other game companies that use the OGL, and may that have their own open licenses to unite under what is being called the ORC License. This is a true open license with an umbrella of game systems under, held by no corporation.  Additionally Matt Finch, who helped many of us out by paving the way for clones and other D&D derived works, is creating a license. Others are releasing material under Creative Commons licenses. This is all making for some unlikely bedfellows under some licenses. But we indie creators must now stand as one.

Don't bury your treasure, Hold back your wealth

Don't play the victim, It's too easy to sell

Now is our time to make a stand. In doing so we must ensure that, not only are their rules we can use for our games and supplements, but that we continue to make those games, and all new games open games, for all to use and create from going forward. This was the promise made to us, and taken away. We must be the new custodians of this promise, and make good on it forever. No more complaining about what WOTC is doing to us. No allowing ourselves to be victims, or giving in and accepting their license, if the do come out with something that is good. We know we cannot trust them. It is time for us to take control. 

Take down the system, That's taking you out...

In the coming months we will all see what options for publishing and re-writing our versions of D&D, and other games will be. What licenses we can use will become clear. WOTC's OGL was the system that we used to make our dreams reality. It's time to take it down. Don't use it. Use any of the new or old alternatives. Band together through new licensing. BECOME the system. It is time for the old to die and make way for the new. We have that power. We thought that they gave it to us, but it was with us the whole time. Now is our time to use that power and usher in a new age for Open Gaming. Now is our time!

I have the power, You can't take it from me

I have the Power in me, It's all that I can be

I Have the Power by Matthew Hussey is quoted here and used as an anthem for this movement. It has been used without permission. You can hear it by following the link. Please share this essay with credit, to all corners of the internet. Make our plight, and our coming rise known! Share this with publishers. Share it with gamers. Share it with people that don't know this is happening! Make it known and gain support!

Creature Companion Pre-Order Store!

 If you missed out on the Creature Companion (formerly Creature Collection) Kickstarter for Old-School Essentials, BX D&D and other OSR games, now is you chance to pre-order at a $10 discount! What's more, you can add on our entire catalog at discounts as well! If that isn't enough, we have the OSE Rules Tomes (Classic AND Advanced) available at discounts as well! So come check it out and take advantage of the pre-order!

Last 7 Days of our Current Kickstarter!

 We are in the last week of our latest Kickstarter Campaign for Gateway To Adventure Trilogy for Old-School Essential, Classic Dungeons & Dragons and other OSRs! Please check it out if you or your players are looking for some fresh takes for Old School games! Classes, types of magic, spells, combat, all new options can be found here! We have plenty of solid stretch goals! Did we mention that these are sized to fit right along side your current OSE collection? What's more, we have all 3 OSE rules tomes available in various tiers, or as add ons! Check it out:

Gateway To Adventure Trilogy Kickstarter

Wobblies & Wizards "Gateway to Adventure" Interview

 We have been interviewed on Wobblies & Wizards again! This time we were on discussing our latest Kickstarter Gateway To Adventure Trilogy! Go ahead and give it a listen!

Gateway to Adventure interview on Wobblies & Wizards

Wobblies & Wizards Zine Quest 4 Interview!

We were interviewed by our friends over at Wobblies & Wizards again! This time we talk about what Appendix N Entertainment has in store for Zine Quest 4!

You can listen to the episode here!

You can bookmark the Kickstarter for "Zines With Class for OSE" here!

So go give it a listen and if you like what you hear, get a reminder for the Kickstarter, launching the first week of August 2022!

U-Con 2022 Event Submissions

 It's time to register your games for U-Con 2022!

As you may know, Ryan Thompson is the coordinator for the OSR and Tekumel tracks at U-Con! This year U-Con will be held Oct 7-9th in Ypsilanti, MI! We need all manner of games, but below you will find specifics on what qualifies for the OSR and Tekumel tracks. We hope to see you there! As always, U-Con is an inclusivity focused convention. 

You can read about how to submit and deadlines here: U-Con 2022 Submissions

Also: U-Con COVID-19 2022 Policy

If you are submitting to a specialized track, such as OSR or Tekumel, please not it in the notes to the staff.

What qualifies as an OSR event this year?

Actual Old School Games (examples):

All TSR Era D&D qualifies,

OD&D

AD&D

B/X

BECMI

AD&D 2nd Edition

Rules Cyclopedia

Gamma World (TSR editions)

Boot Hill

Metamorphosis Alpha

Star Frontiers

Gangbusters

Top Secret

Alternity etc.

Arduin

Early Chaosium products (RuneQuest 2nd Edition, Elfquest,  Call of Cthulhu 1st - 3rdetc)

Dragonquest (all editions)

Traveller (early editions)

Chivalry & Sorcery

Pacesetter System Games (Chill, Time Master, Crypt World etc.)

Middle Earth Role Playing (I.C.E.)

Rolemaster

The Complete Warlock

WEG D6 Star Wars

WEG D6 Ghostbusters

007

OSR & NSR:

Old School Essentials

Dungeon Crawl Classics

Mutant Crawl Classics

Troika

Mothership

The Black Hack (and all of the hacks spawned by it) 

Knave

Cairn

Cepheus Engine

Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea

Cryptworld

Labyrinth Lord

Mutant Future

Swords & Wizardry

Blueholme

OSRIC

Castles & Crusades

Primal Quest

Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells

Dark Streets & Darker Secrets

etc.

As always, this list is hardly exhaustive regarding all of the great Old School RPGs in the world. If you have one you want to run and it isn't here, just let me know. Let's make this thing huge. I want to give your favorite Old School game a place to live and breathe.  When you register and OSR game, be sure to note that it is an OSR game in the comment so that we get it registered properly!

What Qualifies for the Tekumel Track?

The Tekumel Track can accommodate ANY game system you choose to run in the Tekumel setting! If you register a Tekumel game, make sure you state it is a Tekumel game in the comments section, to assure it is tagged properly!

Wobblies & Wizards Zine Thursday Interview: Solar Sanctuary of the Cannibal Corpse

 We were interviewed by our friends over at Wobblies & Wizards again a few weeks back! This time for Zine Thursday discussing our adventure module Solar Sanctuary of the Cannibal Corpse! You can listen to the episode below.

Listen to the Episode Here!

Last Week For Our Current Kickstarter, Creature Collection I

Hello all!

In case you have not been following along, we are currently in the last week for our current Kickstarter campaign to produce "Creature Catalog I"! This is a bestiary for Old-School Essentials featuring and inspired by the art of the talented Evlyn Moreau. At the time of this posting the book will feature at least 46 new monsters, 12 petty gods, clerical orders for those gods AND will be our first hardcover publication. You can check it out here on Kickstarter!

Wobblies & Wizards: Appendix N Entertainment Inverview

 We were recently interviewed on Wobblies & Wizards! The interview cover an array for subjects from gaming and game development to records to the influence of David Lynch on our work and a spot light on our current Kickstarter for Creature Collection I Bestiary!  You can listen to the interview right here!

As always, thank you for supporting us! 

Hidden Hand of the Horla Review On Wobblies & Wizards

 For everyone out there, our adventure, Hidden Hand of the Horla, was recently reviewed on the Wobblies & Wizards podcast. You can listen at the link below!

Listen Here

We Were Interviewed

While we wait of our latest Kickstarter to be approved (the preview can be found here,) we would like to highlight an interview that our owner and author R.J. Thompson was interviewed by Third Kingdom Games a few weeks back! You can read the full interview here Meet the Publisher: Appendix N Entertainment! 

Enjoy, and don't forget to click the "notify me" button on the new Kickstarter so that you know when it launches! 

March 25th Is March on Mordor

 

Appendix N Entertainment: Open Submissions For Modules

Appendix N Entertainment is currently accepting submissions from authors and hopeful authors of adventure modules written for Old-School Essentials Retro Adventure Game. Contracts will vary by individual but will generally follow these guidlines:

1. Pay and contract to be negotiable dependent upon word/page count, ownership of material, and rights for reprinting. 

2. Payment made in USD by check, PayPal or Payoneer.

3. Manuscripts length may vary from the original submission due to layout needs and will be discussed with the author.

4. Manuscripts should include all needed maps or illustrative devices and rough handouts. These can be rough drawings maps and will be reproduced by a professional illustrator or cartographer. If the author wishes to produce their own professional quality maps/handouts/illustrations these will have their own contracts drawn separate from the writing contract.

5. If you don't have a manuscript written, please send a short summary, contact info below.

6. Please look at one of our published adventures to understand the Gateway To Adventure line. We don't use boxed text or text that is designed for the referee to read aloud. 

7. Formatting of monsters stat blocks, spells etc. to follow OSE standards. Guidlines can be found right here.

8. Our mission statement of inclusivity in old-school gaming will be discussed upon contact.

9. The rights of unaccepted, rejected or otherwise unused manuscripts will be maintained by the original author.

You can contact us and submit to appendixnentertainment@gmail.com. Please title the submission "Gateway To Adventure Submission".

We look forward to your submissions!

Solar Sanctuary of the Cannibal Corpse: REMASTERED!

 Hello all! This is just a brief post to let everyone know that we are are currently remastering Solar Sanctuary of the Cannibal Corpse. This will be done in our current format, as we have recently done with The Child Thieves and the remasters of Octhorrorfest! and Hidden Hand of the Horla. Solar Sanctuary will be re-written and feature a new layout for ease of use a the table, along with some additional material and new cover art! 

You can back the Kickstarter here: Solar Sanctuary of the Cannibal Corpse: Remastered Kickstarter

New cover with new art from Clayton Williams!

Octhorrorfest Film Challenge

This year I am challenging myself to watch one horror/supernatural/spooky season film or documentary for each day in October. Some of these that I have watched many times may be "background noise" as bag and fulfill Kickstarter rewards.I will keep track here as the month goes on. Dates will be listed for movies that share a title with another or have/are remakes.

Ongoing watching series: 

1. Midnight Mass

2. Creepshow

3. Witching Season

Movies:

1. Dracula - 1931

2. Frankenstein - 1931

3. Sleepwalkers

4. Woman In Black - 2012

5. Horns

6. The Terror - 1963

7. The Wind

8. Spiral - 2019

9. Psycho - 1960

10. Halloween - 1978

11. Tomb of Ligeia

12. Lamb

13. Children of the Corn - 1984

14. Hellraiser

15. Hellbound: Hellraiser II

16. Halloween - 2018

17. Pet Semetary

18. Tales of Halloween

19. Ginger Snaps

20. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre - 1974

21. The Exorcist

22. The Real Story of Halloween (documentary)

23. The Mortuary Collection

24. Night of the Living Dead

25. Halloween Kills

26. Friday the 13th - 1980

27. Friday the 13th Part 2

28. Friday the 13ths Part 3

29. Scream

30. Prom Night

31. The Wolf of Snow Hollow

32. Carmilla - 2020

33. Fall of the House of Usher

34. Videodrome

35. Dracula - 1979

36. The Evil

U-Con 2021 - Event Submission Open Until September 17th!

It's event submission time for U-Con!

As the OSR Track and Tekumel Track event coordinator I am looking for Referees, Judges and Dungeon Masters to come run old school games and Tekumel games! U-Con will be held November 19-21, 2021 at the Marriott Ann Arbor Ypsilanti at Eagle Crest.

DEADLINES: IF YOU WANT YOUR EVENT AVAILABLE DURING PRE-REGISTRATION THE DEADLINE IS SEPTEMBER 7th!! THE ULTIMATE DEADLINE WILL BE LATE SEPTEMBER TO EARLY OCTOBER.

Did you also know that U-Con has a Tekumel Track? If you are a fan of Tekumel and want a platform to run at, U-Con is the place! Our Tekumel Track allows for any game system so long as you are running a Tekumel game! Submit your Tekumel events today!

What qualifies as an OSR event this year?

Official D&D:

All TSR Era D&D qualifies,

OD&D

AD&D

B/X

BECMI

AD&D 2nd Edition

Rules Cyclopedia

Other TSR Era Stuff:

Gamma World (TSR editions)

Boot Hill

Metamorphosis Alpha

Star Frontiers

Gangbusters

Top Secret

Alternity etc.

Other Early Era RPGs/Supplements:

Arduin

Early Chaosium products (RuneQuest 2nd Edition, Elfquest, Sandy Petersen era Call of Cthulhu etc)

Tunnels & Trolls (all editions)

Dragonquest (all editions)

Traveller (early editions)

Chivalry & Sorcery

Pacesetter System Games (Chill, Time Master, Crypt World etc.)

Middle Earth Role Playing (I.C.E.)

Rolemaster

Spacemaster

The Complete Warlock

Cyborg Commando (Did he really just say Cyborg Commando?)

WEG D6 Star Wars

WEG D6 Ghostbusters

007

If I missed your favorite, contact me and make sure, but it will likely be fine to run.

Retro-Clones:

Old School Essentials

OSRIC

Cryptworld

Labyrinth Lord

Mutant Future

Dark Dungeons

Delving Deeper

Blueholme

For Gold & Glory

Spellcraft & Swordplay etc.

Near Clones:

Dungeon Crawl Classics

Mutant Crawl Classics

Dark Trails

Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea

Castles & Crusades

Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells

Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells

Dark Streets & Darker Secrets

The Hero's Journey

The Black Hack (and all of the hacks spawned by it) etc.

As always, this list is hardly exhaustive regarding all of the great Old School RPGs in the world. If you have one you want to run and it isn't here, just let me know. Let's make this thing huge. I want to give your favorite Old School game a place to live and breathe.  When you register and OSR game, be sure to note that it is an OSR game in the comment so that we get it registered properly!

What Qualifies for the Tekumel Track?

The Tekumel Track can accommodate ANY game system you choose to run in the Tekumel setting! If you register a Tekumel game, make sure you state it is a Tekumel game in the comments section, to assure it is tagged properly!

CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT GAMES AND GM AT U-CON 2021!

2nd Printing of Octhorrorfest, 3rd Printing of Hidden Hand of the Horla - Now on Kickstarter

Appendix N Entertainment has launched our 5th Kickstarter! The purpose of the Kickstarter is to put to of our best selling Old-School Essentials/B/X supplements back into print! We are completely out of the 1st printing of Octhorrorfest and both the 2nd and 3rd printings of Hidden Hand of the Horla! If you're playing OSE and looking for a starter adventure, more spells, more classes and new BX compatible rules, this is the place to be! If you are playing OSE and haven't been able to get these in print again, here they are, better than ever before.

This time around we want to get a more professional printing done, for both. Both will be offered in professionally printed full color covers (seen below.)  Both will be printed in A5 format to match the size of the official Old-School Essentials product line. If we can hit our $3500 stretch goal Octhorrorfest will be printed in an A5 hardcover to sit proudly next to your OSE rulebooks! 

Also, if you missed out on our Zinequest 3 Kickstarter for "The Child Thieves," it is being made available as an add on!

At the time of this posting we are $36 shy of funding. We have 92 followers of the Kickstarter right now that have not backed! If every one of these backed for the $23 level to get both Octhorrorfest and Hidden Hand of the Horla in print, we would not only fund, but hit that stretch goal of getting Octhorrorfest on your shelves as a hardcover! There's plenty of time to do it folks, we have 24 days left, but there's no reason to wait around! 

What's more? Since everything for this KS is ready to go to print, rewards will be sent out in October. That's right, rewards will be out the month after the Kickstarter ends!

You can BACK IT HERE!

St. Patrick's Day Release - The Leprechaun

I would like to take a moment to direct you to special St. Patrick's Day release, and latest release in the Gateway To Adventure line! Today we release "The Leprechaun" for Old-School Essentials and B/X D&D! In this little booklet you get a new Advanced Race, new class and a new magic item, all for $2.00! If there is interest, I will do a small print run of these.

"The enigmatic leprechaun has long been a staple of folklore and fairy stories, yet they are hardly represented fantasy role playing games. This work corrects that oversight! Here we present a leprechaun class and Advanced race for use with Old-School Essentials, Labyrinth Lord and B/X!"

You can get "The Leprechaun" here!

 

Our Latest Kickstarter - The Child Thieves For Old-School Essentials

Good afternoon, all!

As I write this we are one week away from the ending of our 4th Kickstarter for the Old-School Adventures Retro Adventure Game! This is, again, apart of Zine Quest! To date we have published 2 adventures focused on Basic level play, 1st - 3rd level. This year we are upping the ante a bit and going with an Expert level sewer and dungeon crawl. At the time of this posting we are just shy of hitting a stretch goal of our first color cover. You can see a list of stretch goals  below. 

About the Module:

In the poorest of districts of the city a plague of rats has come from the sewer every year at the same time for many years. During a more recent occurrence a wandering piper happened along, claiming to have the magical ability to control and lead the rats away. The people gladly paid his small fee. During subsequent years the piper has arrived in the city close to the time that the rats swarm, but his price had gradually escalated. This year, the people could not pay him what he wanted for his services and he swore vengeance for their parsimoniousness. One night while the district slept, the children were taken. Not one or two, but every child in the district. In the morning claw marks were found on windowsills and in the wooden floorboards of children's bedrooms, like those of a rat, but much larger. Some prints of similar claws were found at a grated sewer entrance. What's more, a crude pendant was found in one child's room, its chain broken. The symbol on the pendant was the sigil of the Demon Prince, Arimaniux patron of sewers and plague. Now the people fear the worst. They have beseeched the city leaders to find and hire help to descend into the sewers and take their children back from the suspected cult before it is too late.

Stretch Goals:

$1200 - More art (funding level only gives up the cover and 2 more pieces of new art for the project this will fund 3-4 more illustrations.)

$1500 - Cover image will be colorized!

$1700 - More interior art!

$2000 - The new Demon Prince Arimaniux will get a full write up and art in the appendices of the adventure!

$2200 - Even more interior art!

$2500 - Wererat class and advanced genre racial stats added to the appendices!

$3000 - New cleric spells and rituals added to the adventure and the appendices!

$5000 -  A complete second zine! Will will complete writing and print The Book of Sorcery featuring our upcoming Sorcerer class, new spells, new rituals (as presented in Octhorrorfest,) and new magic rules for Blood Magic. All individual backers will get a copy in digital. All individual backers getting physical rewards will also get a physical copy of this zine. Retail/Distribution backers will have the opportunity to buy copies at the same discount they are receiving at their tier. Note, if you back for 2 copies of The Child Thieves you will receive only one copy of The Book of Sorcery, additional copies will be extra.

500 Backers - If we reach 500 backers. Appendix N Entertainment will print a new edition of The Pied Piper of Hamelin by Robert Browning with the original Kate Greenaway illustrations. This will  be printed as a limited edition Kickstarter exclusive for individual backers of this project, similar to our printing of The Horla that was an exclusive with last year's Kickstarter for Hidden Hand of the Horla. You will only receive one copy of this Kickstarter exclusive, even if you have backed for 2 copies of The Child Thieves. Additional copies will not be printed.

Personally, I would love to hit at least $3000 and get new cleric spells and rituals in the appendices! 

You can back "The Child Thieves" right here!