Bundles & Dragons

I suppose I ought to say something about the OSR Bundle of Holding, even though there's only about 13 hours left in the sale. I didn't mention it before, because people with a much wider readership than I were getting the word out. But I'm much more frugal with my money than the typical gamer; I usually only buy RPG materials once or twice a year, usually around my birthday. So, the fact that I splurged on the Bundle of Holding, going for the bonus material, should be a pretty good endorsement.

It's all about the dungeons.

The basic bundle is, essential, just the Swords & Wizardry Campaign Kickoff Pack. Swords & Wizardry Complete, plus some materials to go with it: a monster book, a magic supplement, and the Tomb of the Iron God module. Also, some materials you can get free elsewhere, but which are conveniently included all in one place.

I already have an earlier printing of S&W Complete, hardbound, and you can now get S&W Complete with the Erol Otis cover for free, so that wasn't really what I was looking for. The supplemental materials were more important -- I can always use more monsters or weird spells.

But I really wanted to look at more modules. I haven't bought that many or used many in my GM career, so picking up Tomb of the Iron God was a plus... and by kicking in more money, I could get Stonehell Dungeon, which gets talked about a lot among the OSR crowd, and also a Raggi module, The God That Crawls. I liked The Grinding Gear and Death Frost Doom, so getting another Raggi module sounded pretty good. And that was before they kicked in three more modules.

Another plus was the extra systems. Free versions of Labyrinth Lord and Lamentations of the Flame Princess, for those who don't like S&W, but don't have an old school system already. And at the bonus level, Adventurer Conqueror King. I already know from various discussions and descriptions that ACKS is not for me, but there's bound to be a couple stealable ideas in there, and I would like to see it. Without the Bundle, I doubt I'd ever buy ACKS by itself. But now I have a copy.

Vornheim is also a bonus that others may find valuable. It wasn't as big a deal for me, since I'd already bought it a year or so ago. But it's definitely worth it, for those of you on the edge over how much you should pay.