A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement CASTLE OLDSKULL – 333 Realms of Entropy

CASTLE OLDSKULL – 333 Realms of Entropy is a role playing game supplement written and published by Kent David Kelly. This is essentially a system-agnostic supplement but like the others in this range it is aimed at OSR role playing games and is covered by the Open Game License.

This is a 153 page PDF that is available from RPGNow for $2.39 but was purchased at the reduced price of $0.99. One page is the front cover, one page is a full page logo, one page is the front matter and Table of Contents, one page is About the Author and three pages are the Open Game License.

The Introduction explains how to use the book and its relationship with other supplements in the series. For The Classic Dungeon Design Guides Book I, II and III, it is to create the area surrounding the dungeon. For the Game World Generator, it is to quickly create the wilderness territories. For the Oldskull Adventure Generator, it is to create the region where the adventure takes place. For the Monster Generator, it is to develop a homeland for an Eldritch Abomination. For Sword & Sorcery, it is to create the regions surrounding the characters’ homeland. For Treasure Trove, it can be used to generate the locales mentioned in treasure maps.

The Realm Selection Table is a d1000 table with 333 result. Each result follows a standard format. There is a weird name for the locale, followed by a description of the terrain type and then thematic and noteworthy monster encounters.

The Terrain and Denizen Glossary has a list of terrain types with some random encounters for the terrain that aren’t thematic or noteworthy. The terrain types are divided into different overall types.

The Luring Rumour Generator are tables designed to generate rumours to get players interested in going to one of the Realms, and can also be used by GMs to help develop the Realms further.

Where to Go from Here is essentially a promotional list of several other supplements.

CASTLE OLDSKULL – 333 Realms of Entropy in Review

The PDF is reasonably bookmarked with the major sections linked. Further depth is not really possible, as it would require each result to be linked as well. The Table of Contents is to a similar level of depth. The text maintains a two column format and no errors were noticed. There are some pieces of colour stock art that are sort of appropriate. Presentation has actually taken a substantial step up from previous supplements in the series. This one lacks the giant tables that are bizarrely positioned on pages; instead, the results are separated by horizontal lines. This is much easier to read and looks a lot better than previous supplements.

This is perhaps not the sort of supplement that might be expected from the title. Realms of Entropy doesn’t really suggest strangely-named sparsely-detailed wilderness locations. It suggests something far more interesting, such as demiplanes. Instead, it’s nothing of the sort, but the full preview shows enough of the supplement that this can be determined.

Turning the 333 realms into definite locations will require quite a bit of time on the GM’s part, and possibly some skill as well. This is not that useful a supplement for any GM with limited time. The rumour tables will take a fair amount of effort to turn into viable rumours as well; GMs who aren’t able to turn a couple of random words into a fully-fledged rumour will probably struggle.

A fair bit of the supplement seems to have been taken from the Adventure Generator. In fact, what this actually looks like is a demonstration as to how to use part of the Adventure Generator properly. Perhaps it will be useful for GMs who have some time, but not a lot of time to develop locations completely from scratch. This is probably not worth the full price, but could perhaps make using the Adventure Generator easier. CASTLE OLDSKULL – 333 Realms of Entropy can be found by clicking here.