Heroic Legendarium, The - A First Edition Adventure Gaming Companion

Rules Modifications and Expansions for use with OSRIC™ and Other Compatible Advanced Adventure Games

After its creator and publisher parted ways in the mid 1980s, the creative vision and development paradigm of the First Edition Advanced Fantasy Game abruptly shifted leaving many of the creator's planned expansions half-finished and incompletely implemented. This left fans of that version in a limbo state, forced either to retreat into the past and keep the game frozen in amber (contrary to its creator's intent) or to attempt to make those disorganized and partially-complete expansions work.

This volume represents the author's efforts towards the latter solution over more than three decades of gameplay and consultation with other fans. Incorporating both expansions derived from and inspired by the original creator's notes and ideas, as well as the author's own expansions and revisions to the original material in the same spirit, the result is a major expansion and revival of that long-neglected original creative paradigm.

At long last First Edition emerges from its decades-long hibernation to become something more than a "retro" historical curiosity or museum piece. A parallel evolutionary path to how the game developed in subsequent editions is revealed, of interest and value not only to long-term fans of the original vision but also to contemporary fans curious about alternative approaches and flavors that have been neglected in the mainstream for far too long.

The specific contents of the book include:

4 new PC races (cat-blooded, dhampir, dragon-blooded, half-ogre)

5 new PC classes (mystic, hunter, savant, mountebank, jester)

redone bard class that starts at level 1 but maintains the feel of the 1E version

notes and revisions to other classes (cavalier, barbarian, acrobat, monk)

expanded secondary characteristics (more detail on appearance, social class, and birth order)

new PC characteristics (knacks & quirks, joss, focused energy activation techniques)

expanded secondary skills info (expanded table + rules for adding new skills or improving existing ones)

expanded equipment table (41 new items + carrying capacity chart & new high and low value coin types)

19 new weapons

over 180 new spells (for mystics, savants, and mountebanks - plus an entire unique set of spell-songs for bards)

revisions and clarifications on psionics and combat procedures

full system for PCs establishing and managing domains

expanded racial preference table including monster-types

random treasure-generation tables for dungeon levels 1-12+

32 new magic items

49 new monsters

revisions to the existing 1E monster stats to resolve discrepancies and fill holes

essays on tips and tricks for players and GMs, dungeon-designing, campaign-building, wilderness and other-planar adventuring, in-town activities, and more
If you play (or are curious about) 1E, you're almost guaranteed to find material here that you can slot into your game to expand its scope and horizons (or in some cases to address known issues with the original text) without having to fret about second-order unintended consequences.