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!

Why Appendix N Entertainment?

Some out there might be wondering about the name of our company, even if you are aware of the origin of Appendix N. First I'll give a little insight into what "Appendix N" is for those reading that may not know. "Appendix N" was a literal (Ha!) appendix in the AD&D 1st Edition Dungeon Master's Guide, in which E. Gary Gygax posted most of the things that influenced him in the creation and early stages of his contribution to D&D.  It was placed in the DMG to help to educate players as to what it was the D&D was meant to emulate and represent, as well as give inspiration. This is the original Appendix N: 

"Appendix N:

Inspirational and Educational Reading

Inspiration for all of the fantasy work I have done stems directly from the love my father showed when I was a tad, for he spent many hours telling me stories he made up as he went along, tales of cloaked old men who could grant wishes, of magic rings and enchanted swords, or wicked sorcerers and dauntless swordsmen. Then too, countless hundreds of comic books went down, and the long-gone EC ones certainly had their effect. Science fiction, fantasy, and horror movies were a big influence. In fact, all of us tend to get ample helpings of fantasy when we are very young, from fairy tales such as those written by the Brothers Grimm and Andrew Lang. This often leads to reading books of mythology, paging through bestiaries, and consultation of compilations of the myths of various lands and peoples. Upon such a base I built my interest in fantasy, being an avid reader of all science fiction and fantasy literature since 1950. The following authors were of particular inspiration to me. In some cases I cite specific works, in others, I simply recommend all their fantasy writing to you. From such sources, as well as just about any other imaginative writing or screenplay you will be able to pluck kernels from which grow the fruits of exciting campaigns. Good reading!

Inspirational Reading:

• Anderson, Poul. Three Hearts and Three Lions; The High Crusade; The Broken Sword
• Bellairs, John. The Face in the Frost
• Brackett, Leigh.
• Brown, Fredric.
• Burroughs, Edgar Rice, Pellucidar series; Mars series; Venus series
• Carter, Lin. "World's End" series
• de Camp, L. Sprague. Lest Darkness Fall; Fallible Fiend; et al.
• de Camp & Pratt. "Harold Shea" series; Carnelian Cube
• Derleth, August.
• Dunsany, Lord.
• Farmer, P. J. "The World of the Tiers" series; et al.
• Fox, Gardner. "Kothar" series; "Kyrik" series; et al.
• Howard, R. E. "Conan" series
• Lanier, Sterling. Hiero’s Journey
• Leiber, Fritz. "Fafhrd & Gray Mouser" series; et al.
• Lovecraft, H. P.
• Merritt, A. Creep, Shadow, Creep; Moon Pool; Dwellers in the Mirage; et al.
• Moorcock, Michael. Stormbringer; Stealer of Souls; "Hawkmoon" series (esp. the first three books)
• Norton, Andre.
• Offutt, Andrew J., editor. Swords Against Darkness III.
• Pratt, Fletcher. Blue Star; et al.
• St. Clair, Margaret. The Shadow People; Sign of the Labrys
• Tolkien, J. R. R. The Hobbit; "Ring Trilogy"
• Vance, Jack. The Eyes of the Overworld; The Dying Earth; et al.
• Weinbaum, Stanley.
• Wellman, Manly Wade.
• Williamson, Jack.
• Zelazny, Roger. Jack of Shadows; "Amber" series; et al.

The most immediate influences upon AD&D were probably de Camp & Pratt, REH, Fritz Leiber, Jack Vance, HPL, and A. Merritt; but all of the above authors, as well as many not listed, certainly helped to shape the form of the game. For this reason, and for the hours of reading enjoyment, I heartily recommend the works of these fine authors to you." - Gary Gygax

Since learning about Appendix N and reading it's offerings, I have loved the idea of presenting an inspirational appendix in every work that I publish. I believe that it may help referees and players to better understand the work they are reading/playing and what the intent was. Additionally, fiction and works of art tend to be welcome where most gamers are concerned. I had often wondered at what films influenced the game as I am certain that choice science fiction, horror and fantasy pieces influenced the creation of D&D. In fact there are a few choice films that we KNOW influenced the creation of the rules. So it was that I decided to include a full "Appendix N" in every offering that my publishing house would produce. Not only would I include literature but films and television as well. I decided not to stop there, but to also include albums that were listened to during the period of the creation of any given work. In this way, the reader/player can better get into the head of the creator and create an ambiance in the game that fits the mood of the work. With an Appendix N, full of inspiration, in every work I was to produce/publish the name of the company came fairly readily.

- Ryan J. Thompson

Octhorrorfest 2020! Preorder Is Open!

 That's right! This year Octhorrorfest is coming in ZINE format! If you missed out on the Kickstarter we are giving you the chance to get a hold of this now! Preorders will ship once all Kickstarters have been fulfilled. We have 2 levels open for preorders. The first is strictly for the Octhorrorfest zine itself. The second matches the "All of the Horla: For Real!" pledge that he had on the Kickstarter. For this preorder, you get Octhorrorfest, plus our three previously published Old-School Essentials compatible products, in a limited edition orange cover printing! PREORDERS WILL BE CLOSED ON OCTOBER 22ND! 

What you get:

Octhorrorfest Preorder - 1 copy of Octhorrorfest 

Octorrorfest Plus Back Catalog Preorder - Octhorrorfest, Lost Classes: The Arnesonian Classes, Solar Sanctuary of the Cannibal Corpse, Hidden Hand of the Horla all in orange print covers, only to be printed during the presale! Note: Lost Classes will not be printed again! These titles will only be printed in this format for those preordering. These special orange covers will not be printed again! 

Follow the links to preorder yours: 

Octhorrorfest Preorder

Octorrorfest Plus Back Catalog Preorder

Public Release Of Hidden Hand of the Horla, NOW AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE

 Hey folks!

I just wanted to get it out there that Hidden Hand of the Horla for Old-School Essentials is now available for purchase as a physical module! The physical copies have a detachable cover with the maps on the inside, just like the old days. The bad news is that it is currently only available for sale in the U.S. I've had some issues with getting international packages returned by the USPS recently, so until that is resolved, I won't be shipping outside of the U.S. 

The good new if you are outside of the U.S. is that we are still selling PDFs on Drivthrurpg.com. 

Additionally, if you missed either of our other OSE releases, Lost Classes: The Arnesonian Classes or Solar Sanctuary of the Cannibal Corpse we still have a small number of first prints available for each. 

You can find links to purchase them all here in the: 

Appendix N Entertainment Catalog

If you want more information, this is what Hidden Hand of the Horla is all about:

A 1st-3rd level adventure for use with Old-School Essentials Classic Fantasy Adventure Game 

Legends tell of the Hand Mage's Tower that once stood at the edge of the realm. Within the Hand Mage experimented and hoarded his magical treasures. The tower stood for many years until one day it mysteriously vanished. Rumors spread that the mage had offended the gods and had been eradicated from existence, or else had made a pact with a demon prince and was now paying his due. Whatever the case, the tales became legend and all but the oldest elves were unsure if the tower had ever existed at all. Now the tower has reappeared where it once stood. Will you dare to enter the ancient tower in search of riches and magical secrets?

So, if your OSE or B/X game needs a fresh adventure, go ahead and pick it up!