Gregorius21778: Almanac of Blobs is a role playing game supplement published by Kai Pütz a.k.a Gregorius21778. This is a collection of new rules and new creatures for Lamentations of the Flame Princess although it can probably be adapted to other OSR systems.
This is a ten page PDF that is available from DriveThruRPG for $0.75 but was purchased at the reduced price of $0.50 during a sale. One page is the front cover and one the front matter and a brief introduction.
Blobs are such as slimes, oozes and puddings. The supplement starts with a “Standard” Blob, providing game stats and some new rules for blobs. As blobs have no sensory organs, they are technically blind, and so are unaffected by things that need vision, but they can still sense creatures. They cannot, however, distinguish between characters, so will only randomly attack more dangerous or weaker characters. Without a mind or personality, blobs will not be affected by charm or other mind-affecting spells, but they will fall for simple traps.
Blobs take reduced damage from many weapons, as they lack vital organs, and are erratically damaged by poisons. They lack limbs for movement and are not very fast, but they can climb up sheer surfaces.
Different Flavours of Nastiness has new traits that can be added to a blob template. Increasing a blob’s size increases its Hit Points and attacks, but reduces AC and speed. Some blobs are quicker, which grants them an initiative bonus, additional attacks and improved AC. The ability to create pseudopods also increases attacks and AC.
There are some Optional Combat Rules for Blobs. A successful attack means to victim is too close and the blob gets a bonus. A second successful attack results in the victim being enveloped, giving the blob automatic hits and an improved chance of damage, and attacks on the blob damage the victim too, until the victim can break free.
Next are 25 new blobs. These would be assumed to have the “Standard Blob” basic stats but they all also have special abilities. These do things such as eat bones, causing CON loss, corrode metal, emit explosive gasses, temporarily turn victims to stone, stink very badly and many more. Each blob also has a corresponding weakness; Corrosive Blobs for instance cannot “see” characters with very little metal.
Gregorius21778: Almanac of Blobs in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and has enough different sections that these would have been useful, despite its comparatively short length. Navigation could be better. The author gives his standard warning about not being a native speaker, and there are a few more spelling and grammatical mistakes than is usually the case with his work, but not enough to damage comprehension in any way. There is a single piece of colour stock art, a blob. Presentation is okay.
There are a lot of new options for blobs here. The new rules can be used to make an existing “blob”-creature far more dangerous, or make it so that players are surprised by their abilities. A black pudding may be a little different to what is normally seen with some tweaking. Then there are the new blobs themselves. They have a lot of variety, with a host of new abilities, and appropriate weaknesses. Some of them are also extremely dangerous; a Petroleum Blob can cause a lot of damage purely by accident if naked flames are brought a little too close to it. This is not a monster to use fire spells against. GMs should be careful about deploying some of the blobs, especially the most dangerous or those with potentially permanent damage. This is an excellent collection of weird new blobs to add to a game, and it is really extremely cheap for the content even at full price. Gregorius21778: Almanac of Blobs can be found by clicking here.
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