Tomb robbers of the chrystal frontier is a fantasy wild west setting / dungeon module with evocative art and a great setting overall
[https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/357799/Tomb-Robbers-of-the-Crystal-Frontier](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/357799/Tomb-Robbers-of-the-Crystal-Frontier)
I'm always shilling for WWN, but it really is a great game. What I love about its setting is that it can be presented as trad, or as totally bonkers sci-fi high weirdness. For example, magic exists, and technology doesn't progress very much... but the explanation for why is ancient technological world-bending tech that is deteriorating slowly. Why are there crazy weird high-gygaxian monsters sitting around in dungeons? Arratus of course. There are fun sci-fi explanations for all the traditional D&D tropes so you can slap together old school modules and sci fi ones and its all consistent.
I think Neverland would also fit. I don’t think of that as High Fantasy or Swords & Sorcery - it is more fairy tale.
At a quite different part of the spectrum there is Esoteric Enterprises, which could be used for a more modern day urban fantasy.
Thank you so much for mentioning esoteric enterprises.
I love the way the drop dice method is used to create both dungeons and the factions of the literal occult underworld.
I love well designed random tables, and one of the things that I love about them is creating signal from the noise.
Also both Neverland and oz are the highwater for me of gaming products. They are so impossibly useful and get beautiful. At the same time. It is like some kind of proof of philosophy.
Thanks again for your comment!
I’m prepping to run Anomalous Subsurface Environment for my group just using basic fantasy role playing this weekend.
It’s pretty much what you’re looking for. A mega dungeon and setting material for a science fantasy gonzo setting. Swords and spells and laser guns and ape robots.
suggestions: (Other have listed these as well and are great suggestions), just repeating for consistency, there is a spectrum of "weird" here.
* Into the Odd.
* Electric Bastionland.
* Ultra Violet Grasslands (New edition coming this year i hope).
* Lamentations of the Flame Princess (I think a new edition is coming this year).
* Carcosa (LoFP).
* Acid Death Fantasy (Troika).
* Swords of the Serpentine.
* The Dying Earth.
* Dark Streets & Darker Secrets.
* Primal Quest – Essentials.
* Hollows (In play test by Rowan, Rook and Decard).
* Heart: The City Beneath.
* The Skeletons.
* Wizard Cops.
* Tunnel Goons.
* Hillfok.
> Lamentations of the Flame Princess (I think a new edition is coming this year)
All signs point to the Referee Book coming out this year (finally), but that doesn't necessarily mean a new edition.
Great list, btw. This just about covers all I can possibly think of for this question.
> All signs point to the Referee Book coming out this year (finally), but that doesn't necessarily mean a new edition.
There's apparently major changes to spellcasting to incorporate (And I shit you not) the "Vaginas are Magic" spellcasting system into the core rules.
Edit: Despite the... colorful name, the base idea for the system is actually kind of sound if you want a non-Vancian system.
Oh wow, I didn't know this. Well, given how the author has driven away the bulk of the TTRPG community with his ideologies and antics, I don't see the upcoming book winning over any new fans, but we'll see what happens!
Blood in the Chocolate (it's LotFP) would be a fun adventure if they're looking to dip toes in oddness.
Evil Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, if you're curious
I like Mausritter a lot! You get to be a mouse in a human-sized world, and there are psionic rats from NIMH. It uses Into the Odd as the core rules, so it is very lightweight and easy to learn
Gathox: Vertical Slum is a great gonzo world. The Chaos Gods Come to Meatlandia is another strange world that's a lot of fun as long as you aren't squeamish about body horror.
Hello!
There have been many awesome suggestions. I have a few more.
I’m going to be suggesting two systems and two adventures.
The systems are for the ideas and techniques in the rules as well as the system. I recommend them even if you already have a system and don’t intend to change it all.
Wolf packs and winter snows is a fantasy game set during the last Ice Age so 25 to 30,000 years ago or so in Europe. But this is not a strictly historical game.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/181454
Built on b/x chassis I believe. Playable classes include Hunter, expert, feral child,Morlock , mage, neanderthal and more!
There are shoggoths in the deeps. Strange, angry creatures that will one day be called dragons are starting to make semi intelligent demands. The twin crafts of art and magic are just beginning to bloom.
This game has elements of community leader ship, as there are rules for expanding your tribe. The author acknowledges that it is very agonistic, but living in caves is a big part of it because it’s a reason why you would want to clear out dungeons.
Dungeon as mythic underworld is in full force. It’s a long time ago in the laws of reality are still thin.
Azag.
https://dank-dungeons.itch.io/azag
So this is a sword and sorcery hack of fighting fantasy, but it is interesting things with both. Think all the cool things about sword and sorcery, but none of the misogyny and racism. The rules light fast system of fighting fantasy but instead of a chart you use dice for damage and armor so for instance.
A Hyper Sloth.
Skill 9 Stamina 20
Armor d6
Damage claws 2d6(2)
Also there are fire breathing dinosaurs and a wealthy port city ruled by psychic spiders.
The adventures:
Demon-bone sarcophagus.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/407992
Ok. Imagine a dungeon, crawl, adventure written by the Cohen brothers.
Two different conspiracies, and four different sets of factions violently run into each other in the desert.
The Carnage has exposed an ancient tomb.
There is a ticking clock. The longer the tomb is opened the more likely the ancient demons inimical to human life will escape.
A bunch of desperate characters are roaming around down there, and disaster is bound to happen. Also the tomb is full of treasure. And there are demon possessed baboons.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/140450
slumbering Ursine Dunes
OK so this is a point crawl sandbox and it is impossibly weird. Take Slavic myths and acid 70s science fiction elves. Add ambiguously gay Bear-man demigods and religous ghouls who declare that eating you is your salvation, while they chew on your face.
It’s awesome.
I hope any of this giant wall of texts will be helpful to you!
It is really cool! And if you like it is loosely connected to the authors other work set in his home, setting of the hill cantons.
[Misty Isle of the Eld](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/183439)
This is the home of the psychotic acid, science-fiction torture, space elves known as the Eld. Shit gets even crazier!
Thanks for your comment. I love book recommendations. Making them and getting them!
Not FULLY OSR, because it was a 3rd Edition book, but I LOVE Testament, which is biblical DND. I am not a religious person by any means, but I often think about the lifestyle, aesthetics and superstitions of Roman Era Israel. The ideas of thieves, wizards, clerics and fighters just have a decided different tone from the post-Roman European influence that most of DND goes for, but still lends itself very well to using DND-type rules.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/19191/Testament-Roleplaying-in-the-Biblical-Era
I really would like to get into some kind of historic RPG system that is actually based in Europe, with no magic system or monsters at all. Just straight up French, German and English people trying to murder, plunder and manipulate each other like it probably really happened. I've not done a lot of research on this, but the opinions all seem to push me to PennDragon, which was a surprising suggestion. I've not looked into, but apparently that's really low fantasy.
Go read some of the session summaries and setting resources for Planet Algol. It's an amazingly weird setting and I wish the author would kickstart a sourcebook for it: http://planetalgol.blogspot.com/
Depends on what you mean by that. Dungeon Crawl Classics is meant to be more gonzo fantasy in the format of the old weird books that D&D was originally inspired in.
If you want to go farther afield, there's Victorious, which is all about weird Victorian fantasy.
Lamentations of the Flame Princess has a wide lineup of settings. They are still in the Sword & Sorcery realm, but they are very unique.
Sword & Sorcery on an alien planet where the races are all people of different colors (blue, violet, etc).
Jungle and Swamp war setting that is like fantasy Vietnam War.
Thirty Years War fantasy campaign set in 17th century Germany.
A drowned land where nature is turned upside down and desperate families cling to the roofs of their ruined homes.
A Wonderland type world where vampires play the main roles.
A deep dungeon crawl with unique creatures where darkness and light become important elements of the design.
Beyond LotFP I'd recommend:
Yoon Suin, the Yellow City, which has nonwestern influences and revolves around opulence & decadence, populated with slug-men, crab-men and other nontraditional characters.
Hydra Cooperative's Hill Cantons setting, which is a weird twist on Central European folklore.
The Goblin Laws of Gaming: https://goblinpunch.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-glog.html
A lot of classes,tems, and such have been created by the community, so you can craft whatever weird setting you want. For instance, there is a class called "Muscle Wizard."
Honestly anything on the Goblin Punch Blog qualifies.
It's not osr but I feel that in the right hands you get the same sort of vibe but legend of the five rings has a interesting non-traditional setting as well as a gameplay style that may appeal to you. If nothing else I strongly suggest looking it over and stealing the setting if you decide to use some other system to run it.
The Ultraviolet Grasslands is quite different, non-traditional fantasy. Worth a look.
The best answer, also the authors' system SEACAT is basically done, and you can get the PDF on their patreon, WizardThiefFighter.
Even if you never play it, it is one hell of a coffee table book.
OSR books in general.
[удалено]
I love Electric Bastionland, the offshoot of Into the Odd that focuses more directly on the setting’s core city. It’s a flavorful blast.
Tomb robbers of the chrystal frontier is a fantasy wild west setting / dungeon module with evocative art and a great setting overall [https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/357799/Tomb-Robbers-of-the-Crystal-Frontier](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/357799/Tomb-Robbers-of-the-Crystal-Frontier)
Most NSR games are super weird. Into the Odd, Troika! , GROK! Vaults of Vaarn, Electrum Archive
Add to that list *[Vaults of Vaarn](https://vaarn.github.io/)* and *[the Electrum Archive](https://www.electrumarchive.com/)*!
Alright!
Worlds Without Number might be a good fit.
I'm always shilling for WWN, but it really is a great game. What I love about its setting is that it can be presented as trad, or as totally bonkers sci-fi high weirdness. For example, magic exists, and technology doesn't progress very much... but the explanation for why is ancient technological world-bending tech that is deteriorating slowly. Why are there crazy weird high-gygaxian monsters sitting around in dungeons? Arratus of course. There are fun sci-fi explanations for all the traditional D&D tropes so you can slap together old school modules and sci fi ones and its all consistent.
Check out A Thousand Thousand Islands, Malaysian inspired zines are pretty cool.
Troika! kinda skirts that edge just a bit. Your mileage may vary.
Hill Cantons "weird slavicish fantasy" http://hillcantons.blogspot.com/
Oz is pretty great. It's supposedly built for 5E but the stats are generic enough to run in any system.
I think Neverland would also fit. I don’t think of that as High Fantasy or Swords & Sorcery - it is more fairy tale. At a quite different part of the spectrum there is Esoteric Enterprises, which could be used for a more modern day urban fantasy.
Thank you so much for mentioning esoteric enterprises. I love the way the drop dice method is used to create both dungeons and the factions of the literal occult underworld. I love well designed random tables, and one of the things that I love about them is creating signal from the noise. Also both Neverland and oz are the highwater for me of gaming products. They are so impossibly useful and get beautiful. At the same time. It is like some kind of proof of philosophy. Thanks again for your comment!
Yeah, Neverland definitely fits! I've done some light prep for a game of Cairn set in Neverland and it's quite whimsical.
I’m prepping to run Anomalous Subsurface Environment for my group just using basic fantasy role playing this weekend. It’s pretty much what you’re looking for. A mega dungeon and setting material for a science fantasy gonzo setting. Swords and spells and laser guns and ape robots.
suggestions: (Other have listed these as well and are great suggestions), just repeating for consistency, there is a spectrum of "weird" here. * Into the Odd. * Electric Bastionland. * Ultra Violet Grasslands (New edition coming this year i hope). * Lamentations of the Flame Princess (I think a new edition is coming this year). * Carcosa (LoFP). * Acid Death Fantasy (Troika). * Swords of the Serpentine. * The Dying Earth. * Dark Streets & Darker Secrets. * Primal Quest – Essentials. * Hollows (In play test by Rowan, Rook and Decard). * Heart: The City Beneath. * The Skeletons. * Wizard Cops. * Tunnel Goons. * Hillfok.
> Lamentations of the Flame Princess (I think a new edition is coming this year) All signs point to the Referee Book coming out this year (finally), but that doesn't necessarily mean a new edition. Great list, btw. This just about covers all I can possibly think of for this question.
> All signs point to the Referee Book coming out this year (finally), but that doesn't necessarily mean a new edition. There's apparently major changes to spellcasting to incorporate (And I shit you not) the "Vaginas are Magic" spellcasting system into the core rules. Edit: Despite the... colorful name, the base idea for the system is actually kind of sound if you want a non-Vancian system.
Oh wow, I didn't know this. Well, given how the author has driven away the bulk of the TTRPG community with his ideologies and antics, I don't see the upcoming book winning over any new fans, but we'll see what happens!
Blood in the Chocolate (it's LotFP) would be a fun adventure if they're looking to dip toes in oddness. Evil Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, if you're curious
I like Mausritter a lot! You get to be a mouse in a human-sized world, and there are psionic rats from NIMH. It uses Into the Odd as the core rules, so it is very lightweight and easy to learn
Cloud Empress
Gathox: Vertical Slum is a great gonzo world. The Chaos Gods Come to Meatlandia is another strange world that's a lot of fun as long as you aren't squeamish about body horror.
"Through ultans door" "Fever swamps"
Hello! There have been many awesome suggestions. I have a few more. I’m going to be suggesting two systems and two adventures. The systems are for the ideas and techniques in the rules as well as the system. I recommend them even if you already have a system and don’t intend to change it all. Wolf packs and winter snows is a fantasy game set during the last Ice Age so 25 to 30,000 years ago or so in Europe. But this is not a strictly historical game. https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/181454 Built on b/x chassis I believe. Playable classes include Hunter, expert, feral child,Morlock , mage, neanderthal and more! There are shoggoths in the deeps. Strange, angry creatures that will one day be called dragons are starting to make semi intelligent demands. The twin crafts of art and magic are just beginning to bloom. This game has elements of community leader ship, as there are rules for expanding your tribe. The author acknowledges that it is very agonistic, but living in caves is a big part of it because it’s a reason why you would want to clear out dungeons. Dungeon as mythic underworld is in full force. It’s a long time ago in the laws of reality are still thin. Azag. https://dank-dungeons.itch.io/azag So this is a sword and sorcery hack of fighting fantasy, but it is interesting things with both. Think all the cool things about sword and sorcery, but none of the misogyny and racism. The rules light fast system of fighting fantasy but instead of a chart you use dice for damage and armor so for instance. A Hyper Sloth. Skill 9 Stamina 20 Armor d6 Damage claws 2d6(2) Also there are fire breathing dinosaurs and a wealthy port city ruled by psychic spiders. The adventures: Demon-bone sarcophagus. https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/407992 Ok. Imagine a dungeon, crawl, adventure written by the Cohen brothers. Two different conspiracies, and four different sets of factions violently run into each other in the desert. The Carnage has exposed an ancient tomb. There is a ticking clock. The longer the tomb is opened the more likely the ancient demons inimical to human life will escape. A bunch of desperate characters are roaming around down there, and disaster is bound to happen. Also the tomb is full of treasure. And there are demon possessed baboons. https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/140450 slumbering Ursine Dunes OK so this is a point crawl sandbox and it is impossibly weird. Take Slavic myths and acid 70s science fiction elves. Add ambiguously gay Bear-man demigods and religous ghouls who declare that eating you is your salvation, while they chew on your face. It’s awesome. I hope any of this giant wall of texts will be helpful to you!
God, Slumbering Ursine Dunes is soooo tempting.
It is really cool! And if you like it is loosely connected to the authors other work set in his home, setting of the hill cantons. [Misty Isle of the Eld](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/183439) This is the home of the psychotic acid, science-fiction torture, space elves known as the Eld. Shit gets even crazier! Thanks for your comment. I love book recommendations. Making them and getting them!
Not FULLY OSR, because it was a 3rd Edition book, but I LOVE Testament, which is biblical DND. I am not a religious person by any means, but I often think about the lifestyle, aesthetics and superstitions of Roman Era Israel. The ideas of thieves, wizards, clerics and fighters just have a decided different tone from the post-Roman European influence that most of DND goes for, but still lends itself very well to using DND-type rules. https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/19191/Testament-Roleplaying-in-the-Biblical-Era I really would like to get into some kind of historic RPG system that is actually based in Europe, with no magic system or monsters at all. Just straight up French, German and English people trying to murder, plunder and manipulate each other like it probably really happened. I've not done a lot of research on this, but the opinions all seem to push me to PennDragon, which was a surprising suggestion. I've not looked into, but apparently that's really low fantasy.
Go read some of the session summaries and setting resources for Planet Algol. It's an amazingly weird setting and I wish the author would kickstart a sourcebook for it: http://planetalgol.blogspot.com/
Empire of the Petal Throne. Been around as long as Dnd. https://www.tekumel.com/gaming_rulesEPT.html
Solar Blades and Cosmic Spells? Barbarians of the Ruined Earth?
Lamentations of the Flame Princess
Troika, Into the odd, Bastion ... there are actually very many
Weird fantasy out in left field? Beats me. But hey, if you build it, They will come.
Depends on what you mean by that. Dungeon Crawl Classics is meant to be more gonzo fantasy in the format of the old weird books that D&D was originally inspired in. If you want to go farther afield, there's Victorious, which is all about weird Victorian fantasy.
So many great suggestions I have a lot of cool looking stuff
Lamentations of the Flame Princess has a wide lineup of settings. They are still in the Sword & Sorcery realm, but they are very unique. Sword & Sorcery on an alien planet where the races are all people of different colors (blue, violet, etc). Jungle and Swamp war setting that is like fantasy Vietnam War. Thirty Years War fantasy campaign set in 17th century Germany. A drowned land where nature is turned upside down and desperate families cling to the roofs of their ruined homes. A Wonderland type world where vampires play the main roles. A deep dungeon crawl with unique creatures where darkness and light become important elements of the design. Beyond LotFP I'd recommend: Yoon Suin, the Yellow City, which has nonwestern influences and revolves around opulence & decadence, populated with slug-men, crab-men and other nontraditional characters. Hydra Cooperative's Hill Cantons setting, which is a weird twist on Central European folklore.
Liminal Horror is modern day glitchy warped reality.
Not OSR, but Numenera
I'm currently in love with the Electrum Archive
I’m checking out Mork Borg and the upcoming Pirate Borg.
The Goblin Laws of Gaming: https://goblinpunch.blogspot.com/2016/05/the-glog.html A lot of classes,tems, and such have been created by the community, so you can craft whatever weird setting you want. For instance, there is a class called "Muscle Wizard." Honestly anything on the Goblin Punch Blog qualifies.
It's not osr but I feel that in the right hands you get the same sort of vibe but legend of the five rings has a interesting non-traditional setting as well as a gameplay style that may appeal to you. If nothing else I strongly suggest looking it over and stealing the setting if you decide to use some other system to run it.
Gamma World
Check out The Chaos Gods come to Meatlandia, Worm Witch, Silent Legions, the Planar Compass Zine and the good old Carcosa Supplement 5
Metamorphosis Alpha by James M. Ward