A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement CASTLE OLDSKULL – Dungeon Delver Enhancer

CASTLE OLDSKULL – Dungeon Delver Enhancer is a role playing game supplement written and published by Kent David Kelly.

This is a 572 page PDF that is available from RPGNow for $4.99 but was purchased at the reduced price of $0.99 during a sale. The supplement is also available in Kindle format from Amazon. Two pages are the front and rear covers, six pages are front matter, twelve pages are Description and Contents, two pages are About the Author and five pages are ads for other products.

Part I: Identity: The Sleeper Awakes is an introduction as to what the supplement is for, namely for adding depth to characters and NPCs. There is an overview of the 40 step process that is followed.

Part II: Names and Epithets is a set of d100 lists of names, family names and epithets. The personal names have tables for males and females. The personal name sources are Ancient and Classical Greek, Roman, Medieval English, Medieval French, German, Medieval Italian, Norse and Scandinavian, Medieval Gaelic, Latinized Swiss, Guttural Orcish and Pastoral and Traditional Shire. Some of the names are genuine, others are -sounding names, due to a lack of available ones. Some name tables have explanations of the logic behind them (in one case there looks to be an error where the introduction from one table is duplicated in another). Some names are also suggested as sources for non-human names.

The family names are generally similar, and are also d100 tables. The differences are some definitions are expanded. These are Norse and Dwarven Clan Names, Gaelic and Elven Bloodline Names, Latinized Swiss and Gnomish Clan Names and Names of Vengeance for Orcish Clans. The other name sources are not tweaked like this. No names have their meanings explained.

The epithets have tables for high, and low, stats, using the standard six OSR stats, followed by epithets for law, chaos, good, evil and neutrality.

Finally, this section concludes with crafting the name.

Part III: Defining Characteristics has various descriptors for attributes, again using the standard six, organised by attribute score rather than a d100 table. There is also a section on determining handedness, but ambidexterity needs allowing by the GM, as it gives a game advantage.

Part IV: Thematic Enhancements starts with a list of several alternate titles for multi-class characters, using the fairly standard classes that would be found in early AD&D, including Unearthed Arcana.

Next there are tables for druidic clan backgrounds and tribal themes for barbarians and half-orcs. Following this are class themes for the standard classes. These have a non-generic level 1 title (OSR games had level titles), a description of what the character theme is like and, depending on the class, suggested fighting styles (detailed later) and initial spell repertoire (gone into more detail in Part V).

Part V: Initial Spell Repertoires has thematic selections for spells known by various character classes based on the theme determined in Part IV. These are primarily intended for NPCs. Suggestions are also given for spells known later.

Part VI: Trades, Skills and Fighting Styles starts with what are essentially some optional rules on dealing with skills. Next, clan and family trades for demi-humans has a number of different trades, organised by race. Secondary skills follow, again organised a race, but this time including humans (and that includes any races not given their own listing). Languages has several tables, organised by rarity, for languages known.

There is another table on specialised talents for classes with thieving skills, plus an optional rule on allowing all classes to get some thieving skills (which doesn’t mean that they get a roll on this table) but only percentage-based ones.

Fighting styles were mentioned in Part IV. These are now covered, and basically have the favoured weapons for the style. The different styles are broken down by class.

Part VII: Background and Standing starts with demi-human racial lore, divided into races. Next is character backgrounds, of different levels of rarity, which are brief phrases that could be potential hooks. Famous ancestors is essentially a listing of classes with how this might effect a character’s family; the most likely result is the character lacks a famous ancestor.

Next are some options by class. This starts with a table of possible careers for bards and similar characters. Next is a list of druid spirit companions, followed by familiars for spellusers. This also has suggested rules for dismissing familiars; at higher levels, familiars become a dangerous liability. There are optional powers for both spirit companions and familiars.

Social standing has a list of 117 ranks in social standing. These also come with examples as to what characters and NPCs might have this level of standing. The 117 ranks are not titles – such are covered in the examples – but a way of comparing relative standings.

Coats of arms, and how to create such, are then followed by starting wealth and then finally cleanliness and fashion.

Part VIII: Physical Appearance has tables for determining eye, hair and skin colour, organised by races. Finally, there is a table of unusual characteristics, from allergies to more fingers than usual.

Part VIIII: Personality and Individualisation is the final set of steps. This includes demeanour, likes and dislikes, preferred culture and company, speech patterns, names for adventure parties, recording all the information, an optional description and an example of a character created using the method.

CASTLE OLDSKULL – Dungeon Delver Enhancer in Review

The PDF lacks bookmarks, which would have been very useful. The Contents is thorough, and hyperlinked, and there are a number of internal hyperlinks as well. Lacking the bookmarks makes navigation fairly poor; the internal hyperlinks are useful, but no substitute for bookmarks.

The text maintains a single column format and no errors were noticed. There are a number of black and white and colour illustrations, all public domain by the looks of it. The placement of the illustrations is rather erratic; they don’t simply fill empty space but create odd breaks and disrupt tables. Presentation could be a lot better.

Supplements for creating characters are not uncommon, even though many focus on the actual game stats rather than the personality and description. There are some that concentrate on fleshing out a character to be something other than stats, and this is one of them. Whether or not this is a useful version is probably a highly individual matter. Some users may not want to roll some of the stuff randomly; of course, there is no reason why every table has to be followed, or used in a random manner. There is quite a lot of content, including some useful name tables, even though these are not as in-depth as might be found in individual supplements.

This supplement, like most in the Castle Oldskull range, is a collection of tables. If tables are not inspirational, then this supplement is probably not going to be inspirational either. If a series of random results, some a word or two and some more descriptive, can provide the inspiration needed to create a distinctive, original and interesting character, then this supplement is a fantastic resource for such. It could do with a bit of an overhaul when it comes to presentation though. CASTLE OLDSKULL – Dungeon Delver Enhancer can be found by clicking here.