Reviews

My goodreads page (which I didn't know I had.)



Fire on the Velvet Horizon


REVIEWS

BASIC RED
Not like any monster manual I'd ever read, I was certain, but still of its genus species. That was my expectation. My expectation can fuck off I guess because Fire on the Velvet Horizon is better than me.


Save vs Total Party Kill
Fire on the Velvet Horizon is a monster book, but that description seems reductive. Scrap Princess and Patrick Stuart have produced something very avante garde and truly unique.

Hack & Slash
I read a lot of fiction, and the creativity here is on par with some of the masters. Gene Wolfe displays this kind of creativity in his novels. Borges describes the type of hells these creatures inhabit in passing. McCarthy has the type of poetic turn that takes your mind from where it is and puts it somewhere you are not. This is what the book does.

James Raggi
Patrick Stuart & Scrap Princess' Fire on the Velvet Horizon and Rafael Chandler & Gennifer Bone's Lusus Naturae have redefined the monster bestiary for role-playing games and have basically made every single other such book boring, backwards, and useless.





Deep Carbon Observatory 

MAPS

If you prefer top-down maps, Gus L has created some for this adventure for free. go here to access them.

REVIEWS

Bryce Lynch at Ten Foot Pole gave it e very nice review.
GREAT adventure. More than enough content, and the content is VERY easy to build off of.

Robin Zink at RENFIELDS CAT has actually run it.

"I love this thing. It has introduced myself and a rotating circle of about ten friends to Old School role-playing and we are having the best fucking time."

Robin also did a whole series of posts about running it and even created an index.

Basicred RPG

"The phrase "There's a flood and your PCs are compelled to investigate!" is not in the module because it got in the way of poison and rules for the stairs, and because doing awesome things is taken as granted in your players."

Bonigen.org

"Like many contemporary adventures it’s shock full of desperation and sadness and malice. What makes it stand out, however, is the human scope."

Dungeon of Signs

"UltimatelyDeep Carbon Observatory is a thought provoking and wonderfuladventure, almost novelistic in its scope and strangeness." ..."Despite my affection for the creator of Deep Carbon Observatoryit has troubles. "

Save vs Totalpartykill

"Scrap Princess’ illustrations contribute to the overall tone of the book. I find her work is so frenzied and terrifying. Maybe that’s not the right word, but there is something about how she draws that I find really visceral. I don’t know anyone else that draws like her."

Hack and Slash

The nearest I can figure is avant garde is code for everything in this module is interesting and novel.

Cauldrons and Clerics

Seriously, my points here are - it gives you pretty much everything you need for 4-8 sessions of gaming, depending on your style (my style of games would probably end up at the higher end of that amount) - which for $10 is a steal. (In the same review Luka also goes into some of the negatives.)

Nerdwerds

This adventure deserves to be spoken about in hushed tones and discrete symbols.

Violent Media

Go buy this fucking thing… It’s incredibly good and very, very interesting.

rpggeek.com

While easily placed into plenty of popular fantasy role-playing settings—Greyhawk, Near, Hyperborea—Deep Carbon Observatory does have a rich science-fantasy vibe. I rather like that flavour in my Old School gaming—my reviews of The Dying Earth and Carcosa delight in such science-fiction trappings—and Deep Carbon Observatory is a fine entry into that tradition.

James Young at tenfoopolemic

Final Scores:7+ sessions of play
Average of 0.7 PC deaths/session.
2-3 apocalyptic scenarios inbound.

This isn't a review but you might find it interesting

Swords and Stitchery
DCO is at once disturbing and weird, because as I'm reading the pdf the sky is dripping down with rain and history. You see in 1955 my home state of  Connecticut suffered one of its worst disasters so far the flood of  Nineteen Fifty Five!
Beyond this link are the ruins of the original post:



In Lamentations Of The Flame Princess silver is the standard currency and gold is rare.

I made this table to decide what the Players found at the end of a dungeon.

With thanks to Neil MacGregor, my girlfriends toys and Guy Deutscher

Roll a D20

1. Golden compasses and other scientific gear. once well made, now twisted by ignorant hands into the shapes of strange heathen idols.
2. The forms of tiny animals well wrought in gold, whose species you do not know.
3. The golden hilts of mighty swords. Steel rotted through and wood expired.
4. The mummified body of a child-prince wrapped in a golden cloak writ through with strange devices.
5. A gold salt-shaker with a scene of homosexual and paedophilic ribaldry cast in it. Expensive. Illegal under almost any law.
6. A bag of rags and bones and at the bottom, a smaller leather sack of gold teeth. Human teeth.
7. A necklace of amber and gold, and, in the central pendant, what looks like a preserved fly. If they look closer they see, not a fly, but a tiny black Daemon, curled up and caught in the amber.
8. A wrap of leather and soft paper with several gaudy medals, including a clockwork Chelink diamond spray and a gold and ruby star. One other medal, bronze and worthless, in the shape of a stylised phoenix with the words ‘For Valour’.
9. A sword-bit helm, black with grime. But on closer examination, the bearded face mask is not bronze, but gold.
10. A well made crate with the symbol burned off. inside, empty and full of paper wrappings, except for one last wrapped gold bar.
11. A Faberge Egg containing a scene of duelling wizards, with a clockwork key.
12. The last Ark of a dead faith. Dust inside, too heavy to lift. Fittings might be worth something.
13. Gold shadow puppets in the form of daemons and gods with a bronze lamp to cast a shadow with and possibly a silk screen printed with an epic heavenly landscape.
14. Skull with a jewel hinged jaw.
15. The Language Glass. The first kind words spoken around this mirror will fall from its surface in forms of feather-light gold like coins falling through clear water. The first angry words said in its presence will break the mirror. Do not tell the PC’s any of this.
16. Gold Totoro. This plump, friendly, smiling animal cast in gold sits heavily in the palm. It has a diamond tail. If the tail is pulled then a silver chain extends. As it automatically retracts the animal makes a happy thrumming.
17. A carefully wrapped letter. The letter begs for the life of a criminal, (roll random criminal) on the behalf of a noble (roll random noble). The execution is taking place in the closest town. The letter is dated a month ago, the execution is tomorrow. A fabulously beautiful gold & diamond ring is included. Clearly a bribe.
18. Saints-bone chess set.
19. The eye of a hurricane. Set in a storm-wracked hand sized opal. Listen closely and you can hear the hurricane inside. (Don't spin it!)
20. No treasure, but an outrageous piece of blackmail about the worlds most powerful, roll a D4
    1. Wizard
    2. Priest
    3. Criminal
    4. Warrior

All you have to do now is extort the cash, and live.