Malcon’s Tome of Treachery by Joseph Mohr is a role playing game supplement published by Old School Role Playing for use with OSRIC. 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 48 page Pay What You Want PDF from DriveThruRPG. Two pages are the front and rear covers, three the front matter and three the Open Game License.
Forward is by the author, although the book is written as if it was done by the lich Malcon the Firebringer. It explains that there are many kinds of treachery, with tricks there to confuse, confound and waste time, illusions to harm, warn and terrify, traps to wound, maim and kill, riddles to confuse and puzzles to guard treasures, passages and secret areas. It also explains that though this was written for OSRIC, it will easily work with other games as it lacks stats for most things.
Treachery is written in character by Malcon and explains the book will cover tricks, traps, puzzles, riddles and illusions, as well as covering obstacles and nasty encounters.
Tricks in the Dungeon starts with some fluff in which some adventurers are plagued by various tricks. It then has a list of features that could be tricks and possible attributes, then some more thorough descriptions of specific tricks.
Traps in the Dungeon has 52 described traps, though without any game stats.
Puzzles explains these can provide a change of pace but warns against creating puzzles that must be solved in order to advance through the dungeon. It then covers a variety of puzzle ideas, some with multiple examples under a general category.
Illusions has eleven different illusions.
Nasty Encounters has 18 encounters that are a little different which can give the characters an unexpected challenge.
Obstacles in the Dungeon has 16 non-combat encounters that can pose a problem.
Treachery is a good thing is the afterword.
Malcon’s Tome of Treachery in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and is long enough with enough different sections that these would have been useful. Navigation could be better. The text maintains a two-column format and some minor errors were noticed. There are a number of colour and black and white stock illustrations, up to full page in size. Presentation is okay.
This supplement will need game stats adding for the system of the GM’s choice, and how complex this will be will depend on the game in question. It is, however, a useful resource for adding the subject matter to a dungeon, with some interesting ideas. Malcon’s Tome of Treachery is a good little supplement and it can be found by clicking here.
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