A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Gregorius’ Notes: On the Weird OSR Fantasy #Year 2020

Gregorius’ Notes: On the Weird OSR Fantasy #Year 2020 is a role playing game supplement written and published by Kai Pütz a.k.a Gregorius21778 for use with Lamentations of the Flame Princess. As such, it is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result.

The supplement is available as a 23-page PDF from DriveThruRPG for $2.50 but was purchased at a reduced price thanks to a discount. The PDF comes in two versions, one with a colour background and a more printer friendly version with a black and white background. About half a page is the front matter and one the Open Game License. There are also two images, one jpg, one png, which are maps of the two dungeons.

The opening text explains that this is a collection of material that was originally published on the author’s blog.

The Tree That Sees is a tree to which ravens take eyes harvested from the dead, which are then placed in hollows in the tree crated by woodpeckers. Chaotic creatures that sacrifice an eye of their own to a tree learn spells; non-Lawful creatures that sleep under it will be visited by strange spirits.

The Widowsiren is a new monster that lures men to its lair to kill and eat, and, if they were loved by a woman, send the woman into a coma.

Alms & Indulgences is an option for LotFP to earn XP by giving money away or by indulging themselves.

Enchanted Black Powder Weapons has six gunpowder weapons with magical abilities.

20 Uses of Vampire Blood provides 20 ways, some nice, some not, of using blood from that vampire.

Chaotic Swap/Mix-Creatures has three new combination monsters; Gorilla with a Parrot’s Head, Orang-Owl and the Krakenbear.

Lord of the Forest is perhaps similar to the Chaotic Swap/Mix-Creatures, but is a singular creature.

Magic-User Spells has two new spells.

Rose, the Gardener’s Daughter gives the fairly unusual story of an NPC and how to use her in a game.

20 Magical Statuettes, Idols and Figurines has twenty of these with varying powers.

The Maze of the Necromancer is a dungeon, that goes with one of the maps, and a truly old school dungeon. Monsters are there to kill visitors; there is deliberately no ecology to the dungeon, which is comparatively dangerous.

Shrine of the Future Self is another dungeon complex, that goes with the other map, one in which a magical mirror with unusual powers can be found.

Gregorius’ Notes: On the Weird OSR Fantasy #Year 2020 in Review

The PDF lacks bookmarks and with the number of different sections, these would have been useful. Navigation could be better. The text maintains a two-column format and a number of minor errors were noticed. There are a number of pieces of black and white stock art, plus the maps. Presentation is decent.

As this is a collection of blog posts all on the same system, it is naturally rather diverse in material. From dungeons to monsters to magic items, there is a range of weird, and sometimes dangerous, content to be had to liven up a game. Most should be easily adaptable to other OSR games as well. Gregorius’ Notes: On the Weird OSR Fantasy #Year 2020 is an interesting collection of material and it can be found by clicking here.