A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement CASTLE OLDSKULL – The Oldskull Necronomicon I

CASTLE OLDSKULL – The Oldskull Necronomicon I is a role playing game supplement written and published by Kent David Kelly. This is a combination of a supposed modern translation of the Necronomicon, which features heavily in the writings of H.P. Lovecraft and games based on his works, together with setting details. Although aimed at Old School games, much of it is actually system-neutral.

The supplement is available as a 240 page PDF from DriveThruRPG for $3.99 but was purchased at the reduced price of $0.99 during a sale. It is also available from Amazon as a Kindle ebook and printed book; the PDF is the version reviewed. Two pages are the front and rear covers, seven pages are the front matter, three pages are the front matter, three pages are the Contents, two pages are annotated maps of Arabia, two pages are About the Author, six pages are ads for other supplements and one page is blank.

CASTLE OLDSKULL - The Oldskull Necronomicon IThe two page Description explains what the book is for. The two annotated maps of eastern and western Arabia have various places of importance for the Necronomicon marked on them.

The Introduction is presented in character as being based on the Necronomicon as translated and annotated by Dr. John Dee, with further annotations by the author (in character as Professor Kent David Kelly) and Clarice Whateley, a previous owner of the book.

The primary part of the book is divided into four Gatherings, each of which is then divided into multiple Scrolls. These tell the life of Abd Al-Azrad, the author of the original Arabic Necronomicon, as penned by him. This, the first book in an intended series, tells of Al-Azrad’s early life, his dreams of Cthulhu and R’lyeh and his encounters with Ghuls and the Cult of Cthulhu. This is by design incomplete, and some parts are poetry rather than prose.

Appendix I: GameMaster’s Lovecraftian Lexicon, Part One: A-E is a compilation of game material related to the story of Abd Al-Azrad. The author states that these are written in a similar manner to those in The Pegana Mythos, being more fluff than crunch. Some of the entries do have some generalised game stats that is mostly suited to Old School variations of the Dungeons & Dragons game.

The entries are related to Al-Azrad’s story, being people, places, creatures, items, organisations etc. connected to the story and Arabia, as it is portrayed in the World of Oldskull. Some of the entries are not referenced in the story in this supplement, as they are instead intended to reference events in the, not published at the time of writing, sequels.

Appendix II: Tentative Chronology of the Cthulhu Mythos is a timeline of the World of Oldskull, as influenced by the Cthulhu Mythos. In the introduction to it, the author states that it is based on his own game information, and sometimes the information may change. The timeline starts at the end of the previous universe and the beginning of the current one, so the first date is approximately 14 billion years ago. The dates start at big gaps, narrowing as the present is approached, with various references, based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, as to what various entities in the Mythos are doing.

CASTLE OLDSKULL – The Oldskull Necronomicon I in Review

The PDF is bookmarked with the various major, and some minor, sections linked. The primary entries missing are for the individual entries in Appendix I, which would have been useful. The Contents is also hyperlinked, but to slightly less depth with regards to the appendices. Navigation is okay, but it could be better.

The text maintains a single column format and appears to be largely free of errors. There is the scattershot use of colour and black and white public domain images that is seen in many of the publisher’s supplements; in this one they look even less appropriate than usual, because the primary part of the supplement is supposed to be a scholarly work based on an earlier book and in that none of these illustrations would have appeared. If there had been some, perhaps annotated, images of Lovecraftian creatures, it would have been different, but presentation is less than brilliant.

This is a bit of a mix-up of different styles of supplement, as it is a combination of three different but linked parts. The first part, the actual Necronomicon, would perhaps make an interesting, and extensive, player handout, but isn’t designed in such a way to make this feasible, given the included illustrations and the appendices. This might have worked better as a separate book that was designed as a handout. The two appendices, in contrast, are more game related, even though they lack much in the way of game stats. There are some included in the Lexicon, but overall this is system-neutral fluff that can be used for inspiration. Again, this, if the first appendix was A-Z, would have worked better as a separate book. Really, this is a combination of two, different, fragmentary books rather than one coherent whole.

The story of Al-Azrad does contain information that may be useful as a source of inspiration for GMs; the Lexicon definitely does. CASTLE OLDSKULL – The Oldskull Necronomicon I is a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to coherency and utility and it can be found by clicking here.

 

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