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

Gregorius21778: Examples of the Dark Arts is a role playing game supplement published by Kai Pütz a.k.a Gregorius21778. This is a collection of magic items and spells for use with Lamentations of the Flame Princess, although it should be easy enough to adapt it 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. it is also available in a FATE version.

This is a 13 page PDF that is available from DriveThruRPG for $1 although it was purchased at the reduced price of $0.69 during a sale. One page is the front cover, one page is the front matter and how to use the supplement and one page is the Open Game License.

The actual content is various magic items and spells. They tend to have a dark theme to them and are to a large part inspired by European folklore, and the concept of sympathy. Parts of the human body are believed to have their own powers and, unless stated otherwise, many of the items described can be made by anyone with the knowledge and components needed – being able to use magic is not required. As might be expected from the title, many of the items are dark in nature, requiring the harvesting of body parts.

Two of the items are classed as weapons, five are spells, one is a ritual and fourteen are items. The remainder are hybrids; two item/spells and one item/ritual. Many of these items are made from pieces of bodies, primarily human, but some are more general. They include such as a dried infant’s heart that shows the wearer as Neutral and makes lies believable, a doorframe constructed from bodies that kills or causes damage to anyone but the creator and undead who pass through it, an ear sliced off a willing henchman that allows the user to talk to said henchman and eyes taken from a seer that function as an augury spell. There are many more of these, sometimes disturbing, items and spells. By and large, they are most likely to be used by foes of characters, rather than characters themselves.

Gregorius21778: Examples of the Dark Arts in Review

The PDF lacks bookmarks and is long enough with enough content that such would have been useful. Navigation could be better. The text maintains a single column format and the author gives his standard warning about not being a native English speaker. There are some fairly minor errors in the text. There are also a handful of stock black and white illustrations. Presentation is okay.

There are a lot of different examples of the dark arts in this for the price. None are hugely powerful but some do have some moderately to fairly nasty means of manufacturing. Ideal for a local witch, necromancer or dabbler, rather than a major villain. Each is nicely described, including how the items are made, when appropriate, and as should be expected, some of these are not that pleasant. Gregorius21778: Examples of the Dark Arts is a good collection of interesting low-level dark items and it can be found by clicking here.