A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Gregorius21778: Examples of the Dark Arts Vol.02

Gregorius21778: Examples of the Dark Arts Vol.02 is a role playing game supplement published by Kai Pütz a.k.a Gregorius21778. This is a collection of magic items for use with Lamentations of the Flame Princess but should be easy enough to adapt to other OSR systems. 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 also available in a version for FATE.

This is a nine page PDF that is available from DriveThruRPG for $0.50 but was purchased at the reduced price of $0.34 during a sale. One page is the front cover, one the front matter and one the Open Game License. The PDF comes in two versions, one of which lacks the page backgrounds.

This is a collection of thirty different magic items. The items are not named as such; they each have a brief description of what they look like followed by what happens when they are used. As can be guessed by the term “dark arts” these are not cheerful magic items. Quite a few are made from body parts or dead things. Most of the effects are less than pleasant as well and many of the items also have nasty side-effects.

Gregorius21778: Examples of the Dark Arts Vol.02 in Review

The PDF lacks bookmarks; these are not essential given the length but would have been appreciated. Navigation could be better. The text maintains a single column full colour layout and some minor errors were noticed. As well as the page backgrounds there are a couple of stock images. Presentation is okay. Having a more printer-friendly second version is useful in PDFs lacking layers.

A lot of these items are rather dangerous to use, due to the side-effects. These bad side-effects mean that a lot of the items seem cursed – even the ones that don’t actually cast curse. Side effects include penalties on saving throws vs death, instantly aging 10 years and losing 2d6 hit points and having vines growing out of wounds are some of the nastier effects. Tamer ones include being afraid of the dark and having to remove an eyeball to use the item. GMs should be careful about using some of these in regular campaigns. They are, however, eminently suited to darker campaigns where magic has a price if it is used – and these definitely have a price. Gregorius21778: Examples of the Dark Arts Vol.02 is a very inexpensive collection of some truly dark items and it can be found by clicking here.