CASTLE OLDSKULL – Oldskull Tyrrhenia Map Pack is a role playing game supplement written and published by Kent David Kelly. This is a start on describing the author’s World of Oldskull campaign. It is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result.
This is a 138 page PDF that is available from DriveThruRPG for $3.99 but was purchased at the reduced price of $0.99 during a sale. One page is the front cover, one and a half pages are the front matter and three and a half pages are About the Author and the Open Game License.
The Description gives a brief description of the supplement and what the detail maps show, which includes many locations from the author’s Oldskull campaign, and what else is included.
The Overview of the Maps of Tyrrhenia states that the maps are derived from NASA satellite images to gave the best view of mythic Italy, set in the 14th century after a Chaos Plague which caused great devastation. In The Pegana Mythos, the author explained why he based the Oldskull campaign out of Italy in a rebuilt and renamed Rome; it was a nation broken into many factions, had a lot of lore and history and provided comparatively easy access to the rest of Europe and the Mediterranean, trade coming from them and a wide variety of mythic and folkloric opportunities from all of those regions.
There are various terrain features marked on the maps, which include cities, or perhaps the ruins of these; this being up to the GM. These terrain features are often referred to in the individual monster entries in the Bestiary, where the locations a creature can be found are given. There are also various Realms of Entropy, where a GM can drop in any random terrain feature they desire (these do not appear to be referring to the supplement 333 Realms of Entropy). The Game World Generator – Deluxe Edition is referenced as a way of creating minor bases of operations, such as villages and towns.
Suggested sizes for the hexes are given and reasons why they do not use the traditional geographic symbols found in the older supplements. The general overview of the terrain features and how to interpret colours is also explained, as well as what areas around the city-states can be considered to be civilised.
This is followed by the maps, each of which takes up a full page. The first page has a map of the Italian peninsula – Tyrrhenia – with the various regions marked, Those areas that are mapped, of which there are sixteen, all of the Italian peninsula, in a 4×4 grid, have their map reference numbers labelled.
Next are the 16 full page maps that cover Tyrrhenia. These are hex maps which have various locations of interest marked on them and labels that show where they join with the other maps.
The final map in the section is an unlabeled map of the peninsula.
The Tyrrhenian Bestiary is the largest portion of the book. It starts with some explanations on sandbox campaign and monster rarity, and how the losses of the Chaos Plague resulted in grave losses and many areas becoming uncivilised.
This is followed by an A to Z listing of the various monsters by name. All the monsters have hit dice listed, in some cases for different strengths or types of the particular creature. There may also be references to locations they may be found or have been sighted, referring to the maps and marked regions on them, and sometimes references to particular strongholds for intelligent creatures. There can also be notes regarding deities associated with a creature, or that they worship, and what mythical, or real, inspiration is behind them.
Next is Archetypal Tyrrhenian Monsters by Challenge and Lethality Level; Lethality Level is used with supplements such as the Adventure Generator. This starts with how Tyrrhenian monster Challenge Ratings are defined, and how this differs from some older games; monsters are classed as having more special abilities, as such as flying is classed as one. The example given is killer bees, which traditionally were at the same level as kobolds, despite the bees being able to fly, cause automatic damage and instakill.
There is then a listing of monsters by Lethality Level from 1- to 11+; each level from 1 to 11 has -, normal and +. These are further subdivided into graduated Challenge Levels. The monsters are those from the preceding bestiary
Finally, Gods, Demon Lords, and Powers of Tyrrhenia lists over 100 deities and powers grouped by alignment. These powers come from Greek, Roman (Empyrean in this setting), Etruscan and others. Each is given its name, portfolio and perhaps its original mythic origin. The section concludes with hints at future supplements on the Free City State of Grimrook (formerly Rome), Castle Oldskull, the Manor Ushir and the mega-dungeon below the manor.
CASTLE OLDSKULL – Oldskull Tyrrhenia Map Pack in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and it also lacks a table of contents. At the size of the supplement, even though there are few major sections, these would have been useful. Navigation is very bad. The text maintains a two column format and is mostly free of errors. There are a variety of colour and black and white stock illustrations. Although the styles are not hugely complementary, different styles of art are used in different sections, so this isn’t as noticeable as it is in some supplements. The images chosen are also appropriate to nearby text. Presentation is decent, better than many of the author’s supplements.
This supplement should not be purchased if what is expected is a gazetteer of part of a world, as it isn’t that. The map section only has maps with labels on them. A GM is expected to flesh out the labels into actual places. Some may be mentioned in the bestiary section, but none are described in much greater detail than as a place where a certain creature can be found. This may be the start of describing a world, but a GM will need to do almost as much work to actually use it as they would to design their own world. The supplement provides some interesting teasers for a game world but not much more than that; it really needs more supplements detailing more of the world as currently it doesn’t work as for a GM wanting a pre-described world and a GM who wants to build their own would probably prefer starting from scratch. CASTLE OLDSKULL – Oldskull Tyrrhenia Map Pack is not much more than an interesting start and it can be found by clicking here.
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