Using OSE Aquatic Adventures with Mystara Undersea campaign
by SenarchI would like to shamelessly plug a book I recently backed, "Aquatic Adventures" by Wind Lothamer
I have only gone through the pdfs, I will pick up the books at the post office.
I backed it in anticipation of the Threshold issue on Undersea, as an addition to "The Sea People". It is written for OSE, and my games are basically OSE/BECMI.
I was not disappointed. Great books with tons of fun stuff for underwater campaigns.
Warmly recommended and available from some publishers already.
I am not connected to publisher except as a happy backer, and felt it was too good not to plug
So I now have the main book next to me (and the other two zines on pdf)... Short review, I love it but now some detail on how it sits next to PC3 the Sea People and X7 War Rafts of Kron, and might fit in Mystara.
First impressions: very well produced book, A5, about 150 pages, cool old school art... Like most OSE connected 3rd party, it has the clarity and simplicity of the ruleset. Knight Owl Publishing make very good books usually, and particularly inventive ones.
It is a bit more dark, baroque, zany and sword and sorcery than the high fantasy of Mystara, but can easily fit.
Setting: No setting as such, at least outside of the sea, there is some lore, races that are not available in Mystara (Senzarican) and in the Eye of the Deep PDF there is a short gazetteer of locations, cities and so on. However, what does not fit Mystara can easily be ignored or converted, and outside of the Sunlit sea, undersea and sea of dread, there is a lot of sea not covered, so almost everything could be given a home.
RULES:
OSE is basically B/X, compatible with BECMI, and if you use advanced (slitting race and class) as I do, with a bit of AD&D. It is very easy to pick up and play anything Mystara related with OSE. OSE is a bit harsher than BECMI, which is more high fantasy.
BOOK 1 AQUATIC RULES:
This chapter is super useful. Lore and species history (10 pages) can be used or ignored as I said above, otherwise everything is a welcome addition to PC3.
The rules for underwater movement, combat and so on are better and more comprehensive than the ones in PC3, and cover aquatic and non-aquatic folk. They are a bit harsher than the PC3 ones, especially for land-lubbers. It also covers magic items and spells underwater, and underwater terrain.
Overall12 pages of great and immediately useful.
BOOK 2 PLAYER CONTENT:
35 pages of great. I am not very good a comparing classes and so it is a bit hard to judge how the classes of AA would sit next to the ones of PC3. Some people have said to me the PC3 races could have done with more playtesting, and the child creature conceit is a bit of a pain.
Overall the AA classes seem simpler, and progress faster in terms of XP per level. And you can play evil Devilfish if you like that... My gut feeling is you could play them alongside each other relatively ok, depending on the game. For one shots and short campaigns no problems I think. For the full BECMI experience, which I have never succeeded in doing, you would have some work. For shorter play I would be tempted to use AA for simplicity.
All the stuff on new equipment and spells though is immediately useful, as well as the word magic of Lingomancy if you want to include it.
BOOK 3 REFEREE CONTENT:
Encounter tables by 15 sea environments, perfect.
Bestiary of creatures split between surface, sea and abyss, yes please. All very well done and can be used straight away.
Gods of the deep, 7 big sea lord monsters... Inspiring and scary
These sections really fill out what is lacking in PC3. And would work fine with War rafts of Kron. A lot of flavour and variety...
There are magic item tables and new magic items as well ... Again more great sea flavour.
Couple of pages on cities by the shore and culture clashes which are fun.
BOOK 4 DUG TOO DEEP:
31 page adventure, underwater hexcrawl and a bunch of cool locations and story, encounter tables and dungeons...
I don't want to give any spoilers, but this looks easy and fun to run, and easy to convert and expand.
There is a useful little appendix at the end with some sea related sources of inspiration...
ZINE - DELUGE:
I somewhat regret not buying the physical copy of this, but the pdf is great. 42 pages, 17 short articles by various OSR writers, all fun and useful, or at the very least inspiring. From "You find and unmarked potion" to "So, you've angered a sea god", "into the wizard's cove" and ending the "the dreaming city", there are random tables, mini adventures, and inspiration fodder for the unprepared DM who just needs to run a session now...
Conclusion:
Aquatic Adventures is a great supplement to PC3 The Sea people (and probably X7 War rafts of Kron) if you want to run Undersea adventures in Mystara with OSE or B/X BECMI, AD&D 1e. In many ways it is easier to use and more comprehensive. The work to adapt it to Mystara is yours to do, but it, and the two zines Deluge and Eye of the Deep give easily everything you need to run campaigns under the sea, and to expand on and out from the Sunlit Sea and Undersea. Warmly recommended!