Review: Aventures Dark and Deep: A Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore

 

My latest +Joseph Bloch acquisition, Adventures Dark and Deep: A Curious Volume of Forgotten Knowledge.  Some how this one slipped past my radar, but not for long.  This is a curious tome indeed.  Joseph wrote this volume to expand the topics to work with Advanced D&D, OSRIC and Labyrinth Lord.  That's what it says on the cover.  I'm adding it to my mix of Swords & Wizardry Complete and Blood & Treasure mash ruleset.  

This is a general overview.  I haven't had time to read it thoroughly, but just to give you a clue, even though I haven't, I'm planning to use it in my game.

Included in the book five classes; Bard, Jester, Mountebank, Mystic and Savant.  I plan on adding the latter three classes into the game.  

An interesting take on acquiring Secondary Skills.  If you want a secondary skill you need to spend your experience points.  I like this take.  I'm not sure if I'll use it, but I like it.  This book is all about presenting options for your game so you can pick and choose what you like.

There are alternate treasure rules that I plan on taking a closer look.  A lot of good random tables are included.  Especially for mundane/luxury items. 

The next section covers rules for ships and waterborne travel.  I have to admit, this is an area I shy away from.  For some reason I've never ran a water based adventure.  I am very interested in these rules.  Maybe I can wrap my head around doing a fun adventure at sea.  

This book is full of great ideas and tables.  Joseph continues to impress me with the quality and usefulness of his work.  I give his all thumbs up on this effort.  I think I'll be spending a lot of quality time browsing through the pages.  If you want a copy of Adventures Dark and Deep: A Curious Volume of Forgotten Knowledge click this link and head over to RPGNow and snag a copy.  The PDF will run you $9.95, but plop down another ten so you can get a soft cover print version along with the PDF.  That's the version I bought.  But if you are into hardcovers $29.95 will get you just that and the PDF.  

Now I am impatiently awaiting for the Monster Tome for Adventures Dark & Deep.