The Northlands Saga, Part One: Spring Rites

Note: At this point in the campaign Syrasi and Vigbjorn have yet to join until the next adventure. The current party is Askeladden, Amund, and Grackleback.

Our tale begins in the region of Halfstead, a relatively prosperous realm home to Silvermeade Hall and Jarl Olaf Henrikson. A single father with three daughters, the oldest one Runa is set to marry calling for celebrations. The PCs, trusted huscarls and confidants of the jarl's social circle, are entrusted with looking over them as they set off to pick flowers in a nearby field.

The daughters are quite a handful. Inga, the eldest, is very arrogant and treats the PCs like servants. Fastvi hopes to one day be a warrior and is enamored of Askeladden's status as skald. Runa, on the other hand, is reserved and carries on a conversation with an imaginary friend (or is it???).

While going to the field, and preventing Fastvi from overruning a farmer's crops in an ill-thought out horse dash, the party comes across a rather friendly hound who Runa desires to keep. Unfortunately, a witch by the name of Sibbe the Unkempt, indeed the very woman who helped deliver Runa's birth 9 years ago, seeks the girls to perform a blood sacrifice and enacts a powerful sleep spell on the field's occupants. The PCs fight for a bit as two of her henchmen, a berserker by the name of Njarni the Traitor and a scoundrel known as Clever Gufti attack. The dog bites Njarni in the genitals before it succumbs to sleep, earning the mutt a throat-slitting both for revenge and to make sure their scent can't be tracked down.

When the party comes to, the group sends Cecile (a paladin DMPC played by me for just this adventure) to inform the jarl of what happened, while the rest of the group rides off to save the girls. Along the way they meet a swamp-dwelling troll who's won over by Grackleback's offering of meat, sneak by some drunken cattle raiders and steal a cow for the aforementioned troll-blooded to eat, trek across the undead-haunted Barrow Lands, and come face to face with the dead dog whose spirit motivates him from beyond the grave and joins the party!

The PCs also meet Styr the Ugly, an outlaw who noticed Sibbe's group and tried to attack them, thinking them easy marks and to use the jarl's daughters as ransom. They did not count on a mind-controlled Runa or Sibbe to take out half his bandit crew with magical flames, and thus they had to huddle up and lick their losses. Askeladden convinces them to ambush Sibbe for revenge if nothing else. He accepts, and the PCs (plus a dog and 3 bandits) head up to tor. The sky is dark and stormy as Sibbe gets ready for her ritual. The PCs climb up the back, avoiding the easy to spot main pathways, and attack!

Sibbe is felled in one strike by Grackleback, interrupting her ritual. Coughing up blood she orders Runa to avenge her, and an already enlarged (11 feet tall) and berserking Njarni attacks Amund. Styr's bandits use the tor's standing stones as cover, taking shots at the villains, while Askeladden rushes to unbind Fastvi and Inga. Meanwhile Amund finishes off Njarni with one punch knocking him to his knees, then another square in the jaw.

Just in time the Jarl's war party ascends as Styr makes a speedy getaway. Olaf Henrikson is overjoyed to see his daughters safe and sound, and awards the party gold arm-rings as a sign of favor and trust. But unexpectedly, a legion of undead warriors meet the group as they head back. One of their leaders steps up, gesturing to the party for a necklace which Sibbe apparently stole from him. Askeladden gives it back, and in returns is granted an artifact blade as a gift.

Back at the hall the PCs are the talk of the town, with people asking them to retell their deeds, something the skald is all too happy to do. Alas, the undead hound refuses to go any farther and watches from the town's edges before heading off into the woods. Grackleback decides to follow him, and is looking to this day (and possibly to live among the swamp trolls, one of the few who shown her kindness).

The Northlands Saga, Cast of Characters

So around mid to late 2016 I snagged a PDF copy of the Northlands Saga Complete for Pathfinder. During this time I noticed an increasing crop of Nordic-themed RPG supplements as of late, and the idea of a full adventure path in a cold land of viking warriors was quite appealing. Yet gaming priorities prevented me from running this until early this year. As of now we're very far into the 2nd of 10 adventures within this book, and are having quite a bit of fun. I decided to chronicle our exploits in a campaign journal here.

This first covers the heroes of the North, both past and present. In other words, the PCs. As of this posting, all of the PCs save Grackleback are part of the current party.

Meet the Cast

Amund: An ingarsuk (giant from Inuit folklore), as a young boy Amund was captured in a Northlander raid and taken south to the domain of Halfstead. He spent his childhood in the town of Silvermeade Hall, earning a living as a hunter's apprentice and earned a place at the jarl's table in spite of his oft-distrusted heritage. A man of few words, he is still technically a boy in giant years, but for the time being he is assumed to be merely giant-blooded (humans with a distant touch of giantish heritage) by other villagers.

Mechanical Information: Jotunn Racial Paragon Class from Rite Publishing. Amund serves as a mix of melee and ranged support, alternating between spears, fists, and boulders. He's an accomplished hunter, and helped the party track down quarries and weathered the worst of the Northlands' climate.

Askeladden of the North: Raised alone by a mother who never spoke of his father, Askeladden heard many heroic sagas from her later forming his aptitude for skaldship. But a tragic storm at sea changed his fate, taking away the one person he respected more than anyone else in the world. He lived an itinerant life as a bandit, before meeting his match against a man he calls only "the Shieldstorm." A short yet fast friendship was formed out of this unlikely circumstance, but one day Askeladden's friend, disappeared, leaving but a handwritten recommendation to Jarl Olaf Henrikson to train Askeladden as a huscarl. Jarl Henrikson accepted, albeit grudgingly, and the skald isn't exactly happy about the situation either.

Mechanical Information: Skald hybrid class from Paizo Publishing. Although capable in melee combat, Askeladden is very heavy on using heroic ballads and minor magics to enhance the rest of the party's combat prowess. He's an experienced metalsmith and crafted more than a few magical arms for the party.

Grackleback: A troll-blooded woman of Silvermeade Hall, Grackleback is a rather friendly if gluttonous associate of Jarl Henrikson. She is not well-liked by the other inhabitants due to her heritage, although she and Amund got along well enough.

Grackleback's player bowed out of the campaign, and so the troll-blooded left the quaint village of Silvermeade Hall to search for an old friend...

Mechanical Information: a Rogue through and through, Grackleback fights with her claws, taking advantage on ambushes and openings in enemy defenses to bring down foes before they can strike back.

Syrasi the Curious: An elf whose people ventured north fleeing religious persecution, Syrasi is an accomplished worker of the magical arts. Jarl Henrikson was the one who requested she travel to his town to help consult him in supernatural affairs, although her other reason was that his departed wife contacted her from beyond the grave to help their daughter Runa control her magical heritage. Currently a free agent, Syrasi accompanies the party on their travels, motivated out of altruism to fight the many evils arrayed against them and the people she loves.

Mechanical Information: An elf Witch with variant racial traits suitable for cold travel, Syrasi focuses heavily on hexes and curses to debilitate enemies. She knows a variety of magical spells useful in and out of combat, and can craft magical scrolls.

Vigbjorn: A troll-blooded warrior of Silvermeade Hall, Vigbjorn displays great intelligence and mind's worth the envy of any warrior, which causes more than a few opponents to underestimate what they view as a "monster." Originally meant to serve as expendable cannon fodder in battle who managed to survive, he's now a steadfast companion of the other party members.

Mechanical Information: Multi-class Barbarian/Rogue with the Scout archetype, allowing for Sneak Attack damage to be applied during a charge attack. Hit fast and hit hard is the name of the game for Vigbjorn.

Aluki: An Ulnat woman from the village of Laquirv in the Far North. Aluki first met the party when her kayak was set adrift by a storm and crossed paths with their ship. She helped them fight against the Children of Althunak, a demonic cult terrorizing her people, and later on became smitten with Syrasi and volunteered to travel with them for a time.

Mechanical Information: Is an outdoors survival expert, capable of drawing upon magic to help the party better brave the harshness of nature. Specialized in ranged archery, able to shower foes with arrows from across the battlefield.

Larius Firetongue's School of Sorcery is out!

Cover Art by Eric Lofgren

Six months ago this book was an assembly of notes in Microsoft Word. Even two years ago it was an idea I had; aside from Redhurst Academy of Magic for Dungeons & Dragons 3.5, gaming sourcebook dedicated to magic school adventures and settings where rather rare. Sure you had city-based sourcebooks make mention of a mage's college here and there, but they were but one piece of the setting, one page in a much larger tome. Having grown up on Harry Potter and influenced by
school-based Japanese anime and manga, it seemed odd to me that such a popular and ripe subgenre was going more or less unexploited in the D&D and OSR fandoms.

As the largest book I've published yet, it is hard to describe the feelings going through me now that it is fully finished. For the last 3 days I spent 5 to 6 hours on average in Adobe InDesign, motivated by a newfound burst of energy now that I was nearing completion. As soon as I scanned the book for error-checking and made a prototype PDF which by all accounts worked, the tiredness rushed over me suddenly like a tidal wave. But within that exhaustion I felt satisfaction, happiness at a job well done. The happiness one gets at the end of a long and winding road, and as they look back they see that all their hard work led them here.

Thus the creation of this sourcebook. Larius Firetongue's School of Sorcery is a 100-page sourcebook full of new rules and setting material optimized for campaigns where the PCs are apprentices at a magical academy and all the crazy shenanigans which can only occur from spell-slinging adolescents and grimoires full of forbidden knowledge. It was made with Swords & Wizardry in mind, but can be a useful toolbox for other Original and Basic D&D style retroclones. Even if the magic school campaign does not appeal to you, the book is filled with options sure to please any fan of spellcasters from new spells, a cantrip subsystem, turning books into a new form of treasure capable of teaching readers new and interesting abilities, and the like.

It's available for sale on Drive-Thru RPG and RPGNow, and the product contains bookmarks and is watermark-free.

If this sounds interesting to you, or if you know of a gamer friend who would like this, feel free to take a look and share. I hope my work brings as much fun to your gaming table as I did writing it. But this isn't going to be my only magic-school sourcebook! I am hard at work on an adventure path for Pathfinder and 5th Edition, along with some other work projects. As they're still in the idea stage I'm afraid that I can't share much information about them as of now, but hopefully you'll be tided over with this latest offering.

To all my fellow fantasy academia enthusiasts, I wish you good luck and good gaming!

Larius Firetongue's School of Sorcery: First Draft is Done!

Little Witch Academia 2 Art

Pack your adventuring gear and spell component pouches, for magic school's just around the corner for the OSR!

One hundred and six pages. 36,619 words. All in MicroSoft Word, and I figure it's going to be even bigger once I add in page backgrounds and artwork! Even though it's still in development, this is my biggest piece of work yet and most of the tasks remaining involve the help of others. Fortunately I have plenty of stock art to fill the book's interior, but in terms of editing, cover art, and maps, those still need to be done and people hired. I can't predict when this will all be finished, but I'm confident in saying that we're nearing the finish line.

A Comprehensive List of Megadungeons

Entrance to Rappan Athuk, the Dungeon of Graves

Back around mid-2012 I decided to create a Master List of D&D Retroclones and Simulators. For a time it became a very popular resource before it was eventually eclipsed by Taxidermic Owlbear's own list (which was inspired in part by my previous efforts).

In regards to last few years we saw the release of several mega-dungeons. The long-awaited Dwimmermount, Castle of the Mad Archmage (a sort of inspiration of the old Castle Greyhawk legacy), and even a consolidated Barrowmaze Complete!

I figured that a compilation of megadungeons would be a worthy project. But first we should define what a megadungeon is. My terms are broad: a megadungeon should be a large enough dungeon which could encompass the better part of a campaign for players to explore session after session. 

So here's my list so far, arranged in alphabetical order. Tell me if you have any others to add, or if I missed any relevant products:

Anomalous Subsurface Environment (ASE1 and ASE2-3, available for Labyrinth Lord)

Barrowmaze Complete (available for Labyrinth Lord)

Castle Gargantua (available for Lamentations of the Flame Princess)

Castle Greyhawk (WG7 Castle Greyhawk for 1st Edition AD&D, Greyhawk Ruins for 2nd Edition AD&D, Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk for 3rd Edition D&D, Castle Zagyg series for Castles & Crusades)

Castle of the Mad Archmage (available for Adventures Dark & Deep and Pathfinder)

Castle Triskelion (available for AD&D 1st Edition)

Caverns of Thracia (available for 3.5)

The Darkness Beneath (for 1E/OSRIC/etc, collection of adventures in Fight On! magazine)

Depths of Felk Mor (for 5th Edition)

Dungeon Crawl Classics #51: Castle Whiterock (available for 3rd Edition D&D)

The Dungeons of Castle Blackmoor (available for 3.5)

Dwimmermount (available for ACKS and Labyrinth Lord)

Emerald Spire Superdungeon (available for Pathfinder RPG)

Eyes of the Stone Thief (available for 13th Age)

The Grande Temple of Jing (available for Pathfinder RPG)

Maure Castle (available for 1st and 3rd Edition D&D, in Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure and Dungeon Magazine #112, with bonus levels in #124 and #139)

Rappan Athuk (available for Swords & Wizardry and Pathfinder)

Ruins Perilous (available for Pathfinder in Adventure Quarterly magazine)

The Slumbering Tsar Saga (available for Pathfinder; Swords & Wizardry version upcoming and a 5th Edition conversion wiki)

Stonehell Dungeon (available for Labyrinth Lord, Down Night-Haunted Halls with 2 bonus Supplements)

Temple of Elemental Evil (available for 1st Edition AD&D, has sequel adventure Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil for 3rd Edition D&D)

Undermountain (Undermountain I and II for 2nd Edition D&D, Ruins of Undermountain boxed set, Expedition to Undermountain for 3rd Edition D&D)

World's Largest Dungeon (available for 3rd Edition D&D)

OSR Tropes and Implied Settings

So there's a mutual player and friend of mine who played 2nd Edition back in the day who's seen the OSR and doesn't really connect with it.  Basically the subgroup fandom shows an appreciation for older versions of Dungeons & Dragons, but to his view focuses on rose-tinted glasses or takes specific play-styles as emblematic of the TSR-era games in general.  I do think that he has several good points, in that several distinct trends have emerged among popular OSR publishers and gaming groups.  This isn't by definition a bad thing, but what OSR gamers like and hold as ideal doesn't mesh with what people like my friend knew and experienced back in the day.

This isn't the first conversation we had about the subject, but afterwards this got me thinking about things.  The fandom originated as faithful OGL conversions of prior Editions with Labyrinth Lord, OSRIC, and the like, but over time branched out into new paths with things like Lamentations of the Flame Princess and White Star.

There's the Primer for Old-School Gaming and preferred Editions, but beyond the mechanics and GMing attitudes what other trends are present?  For starters I focused on overarching themes and setting tropes:

Body Horror: Adventuring is not a clean job.  The dungeons of the world contain monsters, magic, and traps which puree, masticate, go beyond the adequately necessary to leave adventurers a gooey, soulless mess.  Lamentations of the Flame Princess may be the best-known example due to its artwork, but this trope shows up in other places like the Slaughtergrid dungeon by Neoplastic Press. The Vivimancer spellcasting class specializes in "life magic" but it takes strange forms, like lab-grown homunculi, acidic fungal blooms, and debilitating creations which can be even more disturbing than the undead creations of necromancers.

Examples: Lamentations of the Flame Princess (same publisher), Slaughtergrid (Neoplastic Press), Teratic Tome (Neoplastic Press), The Complete Vivimancer (Lesser Gnome Productions)

The Flailsnail

Gonzo Factor: Unorthodox combination of genre expectations makes the adventure or setting feel beyond a typical Tolkienish fantasy, or more of an emphasis on weirdness and throwing out expectations than overarching themes.  In some cases this may take the form of science fiction elements in fantasy, like a dungeon being a crashed alien space ship, or the injection of humorous elements into an adventure like a troll trying to sell the PCs timeshares or scrawled graffiti on an ancient obelisk proclaiming that the prophetic runes are wrong and that the halflings are the favored race of the gods.

Examples: Crimson Dragon Slayer (Kort'halis Publishing), Dungeon Crawl Classics (Goodman Games), Expedition to the Barrier Peaks (TSR), Lamentations of the Flame Princess (same publisher), Realm of the Technomancer (Faster Monkey Games), Sword of Air (Frog God Games), Vornheim: the Complete City Kit (Lamentations of the Flame Princess)

Cover Art of Lost Lands: Tales from the Borderland Provinces by Frog God Games

Low Fantasy: This originated as a literary subgenre, detailing worlds which can have fantastic elements but tend to focus on a more down to earth and less mythic scale, where things such as magic and monstrous races are less present in normal society and instead cloistered away as the things of fear and legends.

On a similar note, many OSR adventures tend to presume that the PCs are more along the lines of opportunistic folks than people out to save the world, and the vast majority of civilizations tend to be humanocentric and are unfamiliar with the workings of magic on everyday life.  The exceptions that do exist tend to be within the confines of dungeons and places for the PCs to explore as part of their adventures.

Examples: Chronicles of Amherth (Small Niche Press),  Lesserton & Mor (Faster Monkey Games), The Lost Lands (Frog God Games)

Entrance to the Famed Rappan Athuk by Frog God Games

Megadungeons & Sandboxes: These two campaign styles are by no means limited to old-school modules and sourcebooks, but they are a very popular style.  Both of them take a non-linear path to player exploration, where the adventure focuses more around where the party decides to go and what they want to do than a pre-determined path.  Megadungeons are very large dungeons that can last for an entire campaign, whereas sandboxes are open-ended worlds where the PCs have more or less freedom to journey where they want.  For a video game example, consider the open world of Skyrim.

Examples: Anomalous Subsurface Environment (Patrick Wetmore), Barrowmaze (Greg Gillespie), Castle of the Mad Archmage (BRW Games), D30 Sandbox Companion (New Big Dragon Games Unlimited), Dwimmermount (Autarch), Red Tide (Sine Nomine Publishing), Rappan Athuk (Frog God Games), Stonehell (Michael Curtis), Sword of Air (Frog God Games)

No Gods, Only Men: Although many retro-clones provide support for going up to 20th level, doing this by the book is a long and arduous task which can take many months, if not years, of weekly gaming.  Many adventures take place between 1st to 9th level, and some of the more popular rulesets such as Scarlet Heroes and Dungeon Crawl Classics only go up to 10th level.  Even though a 10th level Magic-User is still a wonder to behold, and a Thief of equivalent level can effectively disappear or undo locks and traps on tier with the Gordian Knot, some of the more high-powered elements of D&D aren't present.  Wish spells, fighting gods, and enough hit points to power through molten magma and stave off all the bites of a 12-headed hydra aren't in the purview of this level range.

Examples: Dungeon Crawl Classics (Goodman Games), Scarlet Heroes (Sine Nomine Publishing), Too Many Adventures to Count

Official Artwork of Phantasy Star video game series

Science Fiction/Science Fantasy: Owing some credit to Sword & Sorcery and gonzo influences, the mixture of futuristic and space elements in a more typical fantasy world is not unknown.  In some cases OSR rulesets are taken out of the fantasy genre entirely and transposed into a sci-fi setting, most notably Sine Nomine's acclaimed Stars Without Number RPG.

Examples: Anomalous Subsurface Environment (Patrick Wetmore), Dungeon Crawl Classics (Goodman Games), Dwimmermount (Autarch), Hulks & Horrors (Bedroom Wall Press), Isles of Purple-Haunted Putrescence (Kort'halis Publishing), Stars Without Number (Sine Nomine Publishing), White Star (Barrel Rider Games

Sword & Sorcery: Before the Tolkien influences of dwarves, elves, orcs and the like set the standard for Dungeons & Dragons, elements from early pulp magazines had a clear inspiration in the game.  This still continues in several areas, and more than a few retro-clones sought to emulate worlds closer to Conan the Barbarian and the Gray Mouser, where mages enact pacts with alien entities and fallen empires of Atlanteans and serpent folk dwarf the feeble accomplishments of humanity.  Civilization can be divided between tyrannical city-states and nomadic barbarians who recognize strength and warfare as the greatest virtues.

Examples: Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea (North Wind Press), Crypts & Things (D101 Games), Dungeon Crawl Classics (Goodman Games), Tales of the Fallen Empire (Chapter 13 Press), Works of Kort'halis Publishing

Surprisingly fitting settings for OSR games

Even before the D20 boom there were folk designing their own worlds to share with other gamers for their favorite iteration of Dungeons & Dragons.  The Judge's Guild's Wilderlands of High Fantasy is probably one of the earliest known third party settings out there.  The trend continues onward with OSR and Pathfinder self-publishers, and there's already some folks using the 5th Edition ruleset to make their own material.  I'm rather worried about the last bit, as nothing approaching an OGL has been released yet by WotC, leaving the safety of said products in a sort of legal limbo.

Still, in my collecting of various gaming products, I found more than a few campaign settings which are highly appropriate for OSR games in spite of being made for newer rules engines in mind.  The mechanical rulesets of D20 D&D may be different, but a lot of the following settings are versatile enough to squeak into an old-school-style  game without much trouble.

Freeport

Freeport is probably one of the most iconic pirate cities in Dungeons & Dragons, even if it's an unofficial product.  Although it originated as an early entry into 3rd Edition, over time the setting's popularity saw it converted to a variety of rulesets, from Savage Worlds to Fate and even Castles & Crusades.  The Pirate's Guide to Freeport is a system-neutral book, and the beauty of it is that the material present clearly calls out several D&Disms with a piratey flavor.  The setting has a vibe of Lovecraftian horror lurking behind the tropical seas, what with hidden cults dedicated to Great Old Ones and a former empire of serpent folk existing among the ruined remnants of former civilizations.  Freeport tends to be more down to earth; it has its fair share of mages and monsters, although the city isn't packed to the gills with high-level world-bending individuals.  Many of its more interesting denizens have something to distinguish themselves other than a character class or magical discipline, such as a muckracking journalist, a vigilante paladin stalking the drug dens and sewers for evil to thwart, and even a scholarly orc clan who seek to uplift their kin through a cultural renaissance.

Pathfinder Campaign Setting: The Inner Sea World Guide

Although Pathfinder can be run in all sorts of settings, Paizo's Golarion has always been its flagship product.  Their renowned adventure paths all take place in this shared world, which now expanded into a veritable Inner Sea World Guide along with numerous sourcebooks dedicated to specific regions and groups.  Golarion vies for a kitchen sink approach, where its 50-plus countries are more or less organized into distinctive themes.  Ustalav is modeled off of Gothic Horror, the River Kingdoms is a frontier region of upstart lords and independent city-states, and Cheliax is a totalitarian empire where devotees of Asmodeus direct the nation's fate.  There's something for everyone in the Inner Sea, and you can't go wrong with homing in on a set location by finding the appropriate material for it or building inspiration off each nation's 4-page overview.

The Inner Sea's most iconic organization is the Pathfinder Society, an pseudo-Masonic lodge of scholars and delvers who travel the world and record their findings for the pursuit of knowledge (and to make money off of their findings).  The Pathfinders serve as a great way for adventuring parties to explore the world and its many secrets, while also lending an Indiana Jones two-fisted archaeologist vibe.

Maximum X-Crawl

The main pitch of X-Crawl is that it's set in a modern alternate Earth where elves, dragons, and other fantasy elements are real.  The repressive neo-Roman Empire rules over the North American continent, and one of the most popular means of escapism and entertainment is a reality game show where contestants fight through a constructed dungeon full of monsters and traps for fame and prizes.  That is, if they manage to survive.  I forget who made the connection or where (I believe it was RPGnet), but one person stated that this can make a great setting for Dungeon Crawl Classics.

In addition to the game show aspect of the setting, one of X-Crawl's more entertaining ideas is the implementation of a DJ, an in-character "Dungeon Master" responsible for the dungeon obstacle's oversight.  Many DJs keep in touch with adventuring teams via television sets and cameras, focusing on stellar performances for the crowd's delight while taunting their competency and recording every failure to push them further.  There are also limited rules for the use of fame, where particularly renown X-Crawl teams can gain the many privileges of media stardom (as well as its faults).

Primeval Thule Campaign Setting

Designed by Wizards of the Coast veterans, Primeval Thule is a setting which harkens back to an era of Conanesque Swords & Sorcery for Pathfinder, 13th Age, and 4th Edition D&D.  Interestingly, the majority of the book is not system-specific, instead dedicated to setting detail with the hard mechanics largely confined to appendices in the back.  It has a lot of classic Hyperborean goodness, such as magic being a mostly an unknown factor capable of terrible things.  Even the spells of priests and the like are learned via an inner circle of mystery cults part of the city-state's upper classes, so even the divine aspect is just as unknown and feared.  Demi-human races are present but tend to take a backseat to the dominant human powers.  Virtually every region of the world is brimming with adventure, from roving bands of warlords in the western plains to seemingly sentient glaciers threatening to engulf the north, with even individually-themed locations having enough variety for several kinds of adventures.  The elves are truly in decline, their people addicted to a vile drug disseminated by cultists of the Crawling Chaos so that their masters may feed upon their hallucinogen-fueled dreams.

Things I particularly like about Primeval Thule is the implementation of backgrounds, unique elements about your PCs to make them unique in the game, such as the Bearer of the Black Book where your spellcasting hero is pretty much the owner of the Necromonicon.  Also, ironworking is an art guarded by the dwarves; in the 4E version they're treated as magic weapons and armor for the purposes of game mechanics, an aspect which I'd adapt to other editions to preserve this metal's vaunted status.

Conclusion

All but X-Crawl is largely mechanics-free for most of its content, even if they were made for specific game lines.  I have a long and good history with Freeport, and the other three are so full of good ideas that it would be a crime to restrict them just to newer game engines.  I included links in the titles to storefronts in case you want to check out reviews and previews for yourself.  It shouldn't take much work converting them to Basic-Style OSR games, considering that a lot of their main pulls do not rely much upon 3.X tropes.

If you have any non-OSR campaigns of your own to recommend as good old-school fits, feel free to reply!

OSR House Rules and Such

Village on Haunted Lake by Punknroll of Deviantart

This Saturday I finished DMing the climactic part of my Solo Heroes Labyrinth Lord campaign.  Allegra, paladin of the Red Hierach, met the army of the Winter King on the field of battle.  Successfully she united the forlorn realms and city-states of East Brendor against the 250,000 strong horde of berserkers and giants.  The Winter King was a warlord legendary for his cruelty, his very touch capable of encasing one in a tomb of ice.  Allegra fought all manner of terrible beasts and witnessed many forgotten secrets most folk would not experience in several lifetimes.  Her horse is a celestial being and divine gift, her sword imbued with the spirit of Su'ursgah the fire elemental famous for centuries-long battles against evil.  She's seen necromancers call up the bones of elder beasts, only to put them back into their graves.  She's healed the tainted ley lines within the blighted forest and wiped out the remnants of the Shadowguard.

And this was all done in the span from levels 3 to 7.  After this session it's likely that I'll be taking a break from this world, although unlike Arcana High it's possible we may come back to it to record more of Allegra's deeds, especially if the upcoming Dreams of Ruin adventure is an exemplary module.  This campaign was my first real long-running OSR game, and I took sincere joy in creating a world modeled off of old-school aesthetics while at the same time applying my own inspirations and changes.

Below are the house rules I used on a regular basis for this campaign.  Some of them are streamlined rules conversions from newer editions which we found more intuitive (both of us cut our teeth on 3rd Edition D&D), or simply modifications which felt right for the campaign.

Ability Checks

Inspired by D&D Rules Cyclopedia.  A D20 is rolled when the PC wishes to perform a task with a reasonable chance of failure not covered by spells or class features.  The result is compared to the ability score most relevant to the task at hand.  If the result is equal to or less than the score, the task succeeds.  If it is greater than, it fails.  For particularly easy or difficult tasks, a modifier ranging from -4 to +4 is added to the D20 roll.

Rationale: This was used for the times when Allegra wished to climb treacherous walls, spot hidden danger, research obscure lore in libraries, and the like.  It rewarded high ability scores by making the PC an expert in a general field of expertise.  Those with high Intelligence were veritable storehouses of knowledge and could remember plenty of detail, high Charisma characters would come off in the best light for their player's intentions, etc.

Special Materials are "Magic"

A monster's hide or magical barrier might be so strong that only an enchanted blade may hope to smash it; or perhaps one fashioned from adamantine.  Armor made from the bones of an elder beast is particularly resistant to the elements, and can grant limited protection from breath weapons and fire and ice spells.  Elf-forged weapons and armor are incredibly light but do not sacrifice durability, weighing half as much as their iron counterparts.

Although such materials are not treated as magical for the purpose of divination spells and register as 'normal' pieces of equipment, they are considered magical for the purposes of a monster's damage immunity and resistances vs. non-magical weapons and armor.  If a set of dragonbone plate was crafted by a dwarven forgemaster instead a wizard, that does not mean it can't have a +2 bonus.

Initiative

Personally I found Labyrinth Lord's procedural order of turns based on weapon type to be more complicated than Pathfinder's number-based order.  When combat starts, the PC and each class of enemy rolls a D20, with a bonus or penalty in very rare situations for extremely fast or sluggish creatures.  The person with the highest result goes first, regardless of whether they're using a melee weapon, ranged weapon, or spell.  They're followed by the next character or class of enemy with the next-highest result, and so on and so forth.  Ties are resolved via a second roll-off.

A class of enemy counts as a group of characters who share the same properties.  For example, a fight with four goblins and a dragon would have the goblins' initiative rolled only once, but the dragon rolls separately.

New Equipment

Bio-luminescent Fungi: As most Underdark cities have a natural ceiling and thus no easy place for smoke to escape to, typical torches are banned and inhabitants make use of naturally glowing mushrooms hanging from baskets.  A patch of such fungi clearly illuminates out to a 30 foot radius.  The fungi needs to be fed with 1 gold pieces worth of compost every 24 hours or else it will shrivel up and die, no longer giving off illumination.

Repeating Crossbow: This crossbow has an attached box on top holding five bolts, allowing the wielder to fire projectiles without the need to reload between shots.  They deal 1d6 damage per shot and weighs 6 pounds.  Once the battery runs out it must be detached and refilled, which takes 2 turns.  Repeating Crossbows are advanced technology and thus not sold in all lands, but cost 100 gold pieces where they can be found.

This weapon saw effective use among the manticore riders of the Winter King's forces, who Allegra fought when assaulting one of their citadels.

Magic School Campaigns by System and Setting: Scarlet Heroes

Artwork by Eric Lofgren

Back in May 2013, Kevin Crawford of Sine Nomine Games published a series of free supplements for his Red Tide Campaign Setting known as Black Streams.  One of them, Solo Heroes, proved to be an incredibly popular pick.  It dealt with the mechanical aspects of how to run a game of one DM, one PC in a way which wouldn't break the game or result in one-sided battles.  More than that, the underlying math largely worked, and it was compatible with most existing B/X D&D and retroclone adventures.

One year and one Kickstarter later, Crawford expanded the concept into a full-fledged OSR game of its own, complete with its own setting, bestiary, DMing advice, and even rules for true "solo gaming" where you can play a Scarlet Heroes game with nobody but yourself.

Mechanical Considerations

Scarlet Heroes works very well for a magic school campaign, in that the character creation method is very forgiving for a player willing to go against type.  Unlike other retroclones, ability scores are generated using 4d6 drop the lowest, assign the results to scores of your choice.  Additionally, results where the highest score is below 16 allows the player to bump an ability of their choice to 16.

Race is separate from class, allowing for halfling mages, dwarven clerics, and the like.  Racial abilities are turned into "traits" which are a simplified pseudo-skill system which cover things like "acrobat, friend to secret society, vibrant health" meant to provide open-ended bonuses to rolls where they can be a factor.

What's more, a PC is not locked into their class, and can forestall gaining an additional level in their existing class upon leveling up in lieu of taking a level in a new one!  A 4th-level Magic-User may pick up a 1st level in Fighter to gain increased damage with weapons and hit points, or a Cleric may balance out levels with Magic-User to become adept in both arcane and divine spells.

Unorthodox Races: By seeking an alternate to the race-as-class system and boiling down racial features to pseudo-skill traits, Scarlet Heroes allows for the easy creation of new races and the implementation of existing ones.  Generally speaking, humans gain 3 trait points to spend as they wish, while non-humans gain 1 trait point to spend as they wish plus 1 trait point in a pre-determined skill reflecting the races' innate abilities.  Generally speaking the latter should be their most iconic feature and impossible for other races to take as a trait.

House Rule: Let's say we wanted to turn the Serpent Folk, a classic sword-and-sorcery staple, into a race.  As these ancient reptilians have a renowned ability to take the shape of humanoids, we'll give them 1 trait point in "Magical Visage," reflecting their keen ability to appear like a normal human and hide their true nature.  To balance this ability, we'll make any attempts to disguise themselves as a specific human require a skill check (which the 1 trait point applies as a bonus to).  Other than this, Serpent Folk gain 1 free trait point to spend as they wish.

Student Budget: Clerics are able to access potentially any class spell provided they are at a level capable of casting it, but Magic-Users aren't so lucky.  In order to add new spells to their spellbook, they must copy it from an existing spellbook or scroll or be taught by a teacher.  As even the cheapest method (scroll or spellbook-copying) takes 100 gp worth of ingredients per spell level, the GM for a Scarlet Heroes game should provide some means of spell access if they're going for a more Harry Potter vibe where the heroes aren't amassing great hoards of wealth while doing adventures at school.

House Rule: Beyond the spells a 1st-level Magic-User knows, every level gained in the class allows the PC to select two Magic-User spells of their choice to add into their spellbook, provided that they are at a level they are capable of casting.  Such knowledge represents the PC researching the accumulated lore they came across in their adventures.  As there are 50 Magic-User spells in Scarlet Heroes and this method allows them to gain 23 spells at most by 10th level, this is a reasonable value.

Naturally, Magic-User PCs are more than free to add spells they find as a result of scrolls and spellbooks borrowed/stolen, and favors gained from fellow sorcerers.

Arcane Lore: The creation of magic items and copying spells are expensive endeavors.  If sitting on literal piles of gold feels unseemly, the GM can substitute a portion of treasures in exchange for "Arcane Lore."  This may be in addition to or separate from the Student Budget houserule above.  Generally speaking, Arcane Lore is pseudo-treasure representing the scribbled writings of cultists, esoteric ingredients from unnatural beasts, mind-melded knowledge from otherworldly entities and the like which grant a spellcaster ability to create magic items and learn new spells.  They can range from research notes and insight-producing consumables, the latent power of a specific area (where the ambient energy is used by magical artisans while building/researching there), and strange ingredients.

Arcane Lore is treated as individual treasure values, but can only be "spent" for the purposes of creating magic items and the learning of new spells into one's spellbook, or trading in exchange for such material.  Here are some sample lists:

Random Value:

Arcane Lore	Value
Cheap	1d6 x 20 gp
Costly	1d10 x 50 gp
Precious	2d10 x 100 gp
Priceless	1d6 x 1,000 gp

Types of Arcane Lore:

1d12	Cheap	Costly	Precious	Priceless
1	Cultist’s Scribblings	Inquisitor’s Journal	Memory-storing Crystal	Dragon’s Knowledge
2	Witch’s Herbs	Elemental Salts	Earthshield Plates	Fey’s Dreams
3	Tarot Deck	Alchemist’s Lab Materials	Meteorite Metal	Unicorn Horn
4	Crushed Moonberries	Runic Stones	Sigil-embroidered Cloth	Spirit-Possessed Mask
5	Strand of Prayer Beads	Bardic-enchanted Writings	Magical Hieroglyphs	Quill of the First Library
6	Local Lord’s Library Resources	University Library Resources	Wizard’s Library Resources	First Era Library Resources
7	Curio Shop Trinkets	Augury Bones	Demonflesh-stitched Tome	Raw Souls
8	Weak Ley Line Location	Druidic Grove	Location with Spiritual Resonance	Geomantic Planar Crossroads
9	Household Shrine	Village Shrine	City Shrine	Holiest of Shrines
10	Gnomish Cookbook	Basilisk’s Eyes	Dragon’s Blood	Fur from the Wolf God
11	Bloodstone Crystals	Onyx Skull Gems	Leprechaun Gold	World Tree Flowers
12	Zombie gallbladder	Wight’s teeth	Bottled Nightshade Spirit	Lich’s phylactery

Sufficiently "rich" wizard PCs over time will pepper their lairs and laboratories with the flesh and bones of magical monsters, cauldrons brewing with liquid shadows, shelves lined with crystals mined from the deepest dungeon trenches, and a small library of tomes penned by archmages, legendary bards, and other folk touched by the otherworldly.  As magic doesn't abide by the laws of the mortal realm, you might allow the PC to spend the gp value of treasures for the creation of otherwise-unrelated magic items.  Perhaps the Basilisk's Eyes (normally used for petrification and stone-related rituals) and a set of Wight's Teeth can be used to make a Purifying Oil, as the inherent "curses" of such creatures' essences overwhelm any latent magical debilitations on an applied person or object.

Quest-giving NPCs might grant the heroic adventurer things like access to a legendary forge worth an arbitrary amount of gold pieces for crafting the perfect blade in lieu of raw gold.  Adding such treasures, even if they're cheap things like macabre preserved monster fetuses from a curio shop, can add a hint of eldritch wonder to one's campaign.

Magic Schools of the Isles

The Sunset Isles are home to many civilizations with their own local magic traditions.  Although the Magocracy of Tien Lung is home to the grandest (and most cruel and dangerous) arcane academies, they are by no means the only realm with wizarding schools and temple-shrines.

Altgrimmr: dwarven magic-users bear runic stones as their "spellbooks," the traditional means of storing magic in the old times.  Apparently the long-forgotten dwarven civilization of the old Isles was home to grand underground spires brimming with magical energy.  Although the Underking has yet to find a way to harness their true potential, such spires provide indispensable aid against the many underground horrors poised to invade their country.  The inevitable attraction of dwarven mages caused magic schools to sprout up around these spires, which the local communities welcome because few of their own can hope to control the spires' great magical energy.

Hohnberg Pact: a devoutly religious folk, the Makerites of Eirengard devote significant resources to the upkeep and maintenance of holy shrines, statues of saints, and other divine sites meant to honor their patron.  Even Magic-Users are expected to follow in the religious traditions, supplementing their spell invocation with holy incantations and ritual prayers.  Young men and women who show a gift for magical manifestation, be it arcane or divine, are often brought to live in theurgist chapter-houses.  Here they are raised by monks and scholars under strict moral guidance so that they use their powers for the betterment of society and the Maker's glory.  Naturally, differing religious sects have varying interpretations on the nature of arcane magic, and it's not uncommon for rival schools to develop resentment and open disputes over theological interpretations.

Magocracy of Tien Lung: In comparison to Xian, Tien Lung seems at first to be a freer society for mages to carry on their magical research and work without pesky laws and moral codes restricting them.  A Learned (the magic-users of the country) can do what they want to the common folk without much in the way of consequence, and the lore of the otherwise-forbidden Stitched Path is the most common form of sorcery at the Academy of Refulgant Wisdom.  However, this "might makes right" society causes Tien Lung's wizards to be ruthless and paranoid, and it's not uncommon for even academy students to resort to sabotage and murder to preserve their social standing and surpass their fellows.  The school's teachers often force students to pledge loyalty to them, and cloak-and-dagger espionage is often carried out by their apprentices against their rivals.  Studying to learn astrology under the Stargazer's class might preclude an apprentice from attending necromancy lessons if the two teachers despise one another.  Mages who end up multi-talented earn both great respect and even greater suspicion, as the theft of scrolls and spellbooks is almost certainly required to accomplish this feat.

Mandarinate of Xian: The remnants of the Ninefold Celestial Empire are a shadow of their former glory.  Once the province of the nobility, now old and established families cannot afford to be so picky when their heirs produce no magical talent.  The magic schools of the capital are full of heirs to old money as well as the sons and daughters of well-off "commoners" and non-Xian foreigners, whose donations are too generous to refuse or overlook on the manner of xenophobia and elitism.  There is significant wheeling and dealing by the political powers of cities to woo a promising student to work for the local government or the private mage of a noble family upon completion of their graduation.  It's not unknown for even the teachers and faculty to incorporate local errands and favors as part of an apprentice's "training."  The magic schools of Xian are some of the oldest and most well-respected, but the deep incorporation of their residents into the societal power structures affords little respite for mages who wish to remain non-political.

My Goal This Year: Play New Games

The Big Adventure by zazB of deviantart

I have an active gaming schedule where I'm the DM for two weekly games.  Going strong several months now, one of them is coming to a close; with that same group I'm planning to run Pathfinder's Kingmaker.  One player from the Pathfinder group is part of my Solo Heroes campaign for Labyrinth Lord, and we are at the point where the game's moving on to domain management (using Kevin Crawford An Echo Resounding).

Late December I made a set of New Year's Resolutions which should reasonably be achieved in 12 months or less.  One of them is to expand my gaming horizons.  Whether it's Pathfinder and D20 variants or Labyrinth Lord, I realize that my primary gaming schedule the past few years ties back into a specific framework of 2 rulesets: Basic and 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons.  Although this is by no means a bad thing or a trend I don't think I'll reverse anytime soon, as a self-publisher of RPG supplements it's a good idea to see how different mechanics shape one's play experience in terms of game design.  And beyond that, it can be fun to go out and try new things!

I with to play these games at least once during 2015.  Whether it's with my own group or another bunch of folks on Roll20, Google Plus, I'd like to sample a bit of each game even if it's just a one-shot.  Although if I really like the game I'd definitely be up for future sessions!  

RPG Wish List:

13th Age

Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea

Beyond the Wall and Other Adventures

Dungeon Crawl Classics

Dungeon World (& Monsterhearts)

Eclipse Phase

FATE (Core or Accelerated, either's fine)

Fiasco
Mouse Guard

Numenera
Spears of the Dawn

The One Ring

OVA: Open Versatile Anime

World of Darkness (Old or New, preferably either Vampire or Mage: the Awakening)

I don't know if I'll play all of these games within a year, but I should at the very least try.  Even if I played one session of each game per week, that would take about 3 months time.

I once tried GMing a third game.  Even though it was semi-weekly, preparing notes for this in addition to 2 others led to burnout almost immediately and thus the disbanding of the group.  Knowing my limitations, any regular non-one-shot games I participate in I'd like to be a player for instead of a GM.

Magic School Campaigns by System and Setting: Dungeon Crawl Classics

House of Time by flaviobolla of Deviantart

Dungeon Crawl Classics is one of the most popular OSR games currently on the market.  Not emulating any one particular Edition, DCC borrows elements from multiple games to create a series of themes drawing inspiration from 1970s Sword & Sorcery and lethal "Fantasy Fucking Vietnam" game-play.  One of its most notable features is the Level 0 Funnel, where each player runs 3-4 PCs little better than average folk unsuitable to adventuring such as bakers, tax collectors, and other medieval occupations.  Those who manage to survive the adventure and gain 10 experience points reach 1st level and selects a real Class; it is assumed that from then on the players will control one 1st level PC of their choice, the lucky survivors.

Like other retro-clones, the existing classes are strongly role-based.  The three magic-using classes are Cleric, Elf, and Wizard.  Unlike in other retro-clones, magic is less predictable, where the elf and wizard risks their soul and sanity and the cleric can earn disfavor from their deity.  Combine that with rather deadly critical hit and fumble charts, and you have a dungeon crawl full of random elements and unpredictable combat.

The Class of 969: the School-based Funnel

So, how can we adapt a magic school campaign to Dungeon Crawl Classics?  Well, notice for one how a lot of Level 0 parties are quite large: 12-20 PCs to be weeded down to a pack of grim survivors.  That's a healthy-sized student body for a typical classroom, right?  So instead of villagers of differing occupations banding together, the PCs are all fellow classmates of differing magical traditions banding together to face some impending threat coming to their school!

The school is home to a lot of strange goings-on, but the painstaking discipline of senior staff and daily training imparted to the students keeps most magical disasters from spiraling out of control.  But something terrible happened, and now the class finds themselves in peril!  Perhaps the academy's under attack by an invading army seeking its wealth and secrets; maybe one of the students or teachers turned traitor and summoned a horde of demons past the protective wards; or maybe a civil war erupts among the magical factions as one side takes the initiative and starts killing everyone in the school.

There might not even be a group threatening the academy's stability.  Perhaps the dangers of magic are too great to let anyone but the most skilled keep, and the PCs are sent into a dungeon of trials.  Those who make it to the end alive and with their sanity intact are accepted as full mages and taught the inner mysteries of sorcery.

Larius Firetongue's School for Sorcery: Further Adventure as Level 1 Mages

They got through the funnel, reached first level, and now have real magical power at their fingertips.  What then?  Well for one, this game isn't called Dungeon Crawl Classics for nothing!  You need weirdness and adventure!  Forgotten crypts to climb through, rituals to perform, planar gates to close before the Purple Ooze seeps through and engulfs the entire kingdom!

The Megadungeon: Even senior mages whose minds are battered and broken from contact with otherworldly powers know better than to set up a magic school in any podunk town.  Location is key, it has to be close to a source of eldritch power to properly harmonize the supernatural energies so that when the stars align and-yadda yadda yadda, it's a bunch of wizardly gobbledygook.  What matters is that the school's been built on top of, nearby, or even inside of some strange, labyrinthine place.  This dungeon is responsible for not just the strange goings-on in the land, or the monster of the week bursting forth to menace the school and the nearby peasant village; its foundations hold the key artifacts, spell tomes, and ritual components so necessary for the mages to further their studies into that which can never be truly known.  In order to advance their own power, they must delve into this strange land where civilization ends and the laws of the world do not apply.

It might seem negligent, cruel even, to allow young men and women barely old enough to learn a trade into such a dangerous dungeon.  But the truth of the matter is that they can't rely on anyone else: the teachers have their hands full keeping order among the factions and holding the wards together so the school doesn't cave in on itself in a magical conflagration.  The witch-hunting Knights of Magus, tasked with cutting down any student or teacher who becomes 'too far gone,' see little need in going on dangerous adventures and potentially helping the mages unlock some eldritch abomination upon this world.  The peasants in the nearby village are even more out of their league than you when it comes to dealing with monsters and magic, and those necromancer jerks in the school's basement are probably digging a tunnel straight into the megadungeon and by Sezrekan are you going to let them snatch up all the good stuff!

Careful now, you don't want to end up vaporized! In spite of their best efforts at security, magic is an inherently unstable art.  Death, dismemberment, and insanity are accepted casualties of learning at the school.  It's sad when a student dies or vanishes to the realms between planes, and the mages do hold funerary rites in the ever-increasing cemetery, but it happens often enough that nobody is truly surprised when poor Achebe is stricken with permanent blindness by failing to follow the ritual's instructions, or when Esmerelda turns into a mute snake-woman after spending too much time in the Reptilium.

For this reason it's not out of the blue to suddenly drop a dangerous random encounter within the school grounds.  The PCs might flee, try to unite with fellow students and staff, or even be forced to handle it themselves.  As the DM, take care not to make the danger constant, but do it often enough when the PCs are treating the school as a safe haven too much to remind them that nothing is truly safe when magic is involved.

In a DCC magic school, even middling apprentices and senior staff members bear some kind of physical ailment, deformity, or personality tick.  Feel free to take examples and inspiration from the Corruption section (page 116) of the main rulebook.  For further inspiration, I made a table here:

Roll	Ailment/Behavior
1	Mage has a prosthetic hook hand
2	Mage’s eyes lack irises, are milky pools of white
3	Mage is forming gill slits on neck
4	Mage speaks backwards
5	Mage’s skin is transparent
6	Mage’s flesh, and room has runes carved into it
7	Mage is severely underweight, has to be reminded to eat to survive
8	Mage writes everything in their own blood
9	Mage experiences no emotions, speaks in monotone voice
10	Mage talks to objects as though they’re real people
11	Mage’s skin exudes slimy sweat
12	Mage’s bones are like rubber, body is super-bendable
13	Mage attracts a flock of birds whenever they go outside
14	Mage wears eyepatch, covered eye offers maddening glimpses to those who stare into it
15	Mage wakes up every day with no memories older than 24 hours, still accumulates spell knowledge
16	Mage is living on borrowed time, will drop dead with no explanation in 1d4 months
17	Mage is colorblind
18	Mage collects dead insects
19	Mage refuses to cast any spells for any reason
20	Mage gnaws on their hand, is bruised with teeth marks

Embrace the Zany: Whereas many fantasy RPGs and retro-clones are tightly-defined with genre-appropriate ideas and canon, this is not the case for Dungeon Crawl Classics.  While there's plenty of room for iconic traditional fantasy, there is no shortage of strangeness which would not have a place in more tightly-defined games.  One game session the PC might be infiltrating the dark tower of school's bone-clad necromancers to stop a dangerous ritual.  The next session a meteor from space might crash near the village, from which emerges Rotol the Conqueror, Extra-Dimensional Alien Overlord who must feed on the brain matter of sapient humans to grow to full power.  The emotionless teenage girl who does nothing but dutifully study might actually be a disguised golem, and ends up revealing her super-strength once she throws the class bully across the lake!

Combine what your players know and take for granted in the fantasy and sword & sorcery genre, lay it over the setting in appropriate parts, then scatter some stuff which goes beyond their expectations.  This not only keeps a sense of wonder and mystery in the game, it applies for a nice variance between adventures.

New Apprentice-Based Occupations!

In core Dungeon Crawl Classics, there's not much in the way of suitably supernatural occupations. Astrologer, Fortune-Teller, Shaman, and Wizard's Apprentice are about it.  More than a few standard ones might be offbeat or unsuitable for a magic school-based campaign, so I decided to make a new 1d100 table!  Below is detailed a variety of disciplines and traditions of magic; as 0-level PCs, they do not know any spells (yet) so feel free to theorize as to what some of the more obscure titles might signify.  What is a Claw of Chaos, and why does that PC wield such a mean-looking dagger?  It depends on your campaign, and what the player or GM makes sense of it!

Table: Magic Academy Apprenticeships

Roll	Apprenticeship	Trained Weapon	Trade Goods
1-2	Abjurer	Club	Shield
3-5	Alchemist	Staff	Oil, 1 flask
6-7	Amulet Maker	Hammer (as club)	Warding amulet (non-magical)
8-10	Astrologer	Dagger	Spyglass
11-12	Bard	Short Sword	Musical Instrument
13-14	Blood Mage	Dagger	Vial full of own blood
15-16	Celestial Devotee	Staff	Holy water, 1 vial
17-19	Claw of Chaos	Kukri (as dagger)	Blasphemous Tome
20-22	Curse Speaker	Hammer and Chisel (as club)	Runic plate with names of hated enemies
23-25	Demonologist	Hand Axe	Robes with 5-pointed star on back
26-27	Diviner	Dagger	Crystal Ball (non-magical)
28-29	Earthspeaker	Mace	Pouch of blessed soil
30-32	Eldritch Historian	Quill (treat as dart)	Book of Strange Lore
33-34	Elven Bladecaster	Longsword	Leather Armor
35-36	Elven Greenbond	Club	Clothes made of interweaving leaves
37-38	Elven Star Mage	Staff	Star-shaped necklace worth 1 gp
39-40	Enchanter/Enchantress	Dagger	Perfume
41-43	Fortune-Teller	Dagger	Tarot Deck
44-46	Herbalist	Club	Herbs, 1 lb.
47-49	Illusionist	Sling	Hallucinogenic herbs
50-51	Iron Magus	Iron Bar (as club)	Iron spike
52-53	Maintainer of Balance	Staff	Set of weighted scales
54-56	Naturalist	Sling	Herbs, 1 lb.
57-59	Necromancer	Shovel (as staff)	Bone meal
60-61	Pyromancer	Dagger	Flint & Steel
62-64	Shadowcaster	Garrote	Black hooded cloak
65-66	Spell Dancer	Dart	Performer’s Outfit
67-68	Spirit Keeper	Staff	Ouija board
69-71	Summoner	Spear	Pouch of powdered silver (5 gp worth)
72-73	Sword of Law	Longsword	Shield
74-75	Tattooed Mage	Needle (as dart)	Ink
76-78	Temple Ritualist	Club	Religious Text
79-81	Transmuter	Spear	Vial of unknown substance
82-83	Truenamer	Mace	Dictionary
84-86	Universalist Mage	Spear	Bag of multi-colored pebbles
87-89	Warlock	Shortbow	Human skull
90-91	Warmage	Battleaxe	Vest with royal insignia
92-93	Wearer of Silver	Short Sword	Silver necklace worth 10 gp
94-95	Wild Mage	Flail	Multi-colored string of cloth
96-97	Windshaper	Blowgun	Weathervane
98-00	Witch-hunter	Short Sword	Chain, 10’