3 May, 2009

Today’s Tabbloid
PERSONAL NEWS FOR riorio2@rogue-games.net

ROGUE FEED appropriateness, with the best pieces reminding me of artwork from the
early Silver Age of D&D, which only seems fitting given how much
REVIEW: OSRIC Unearthed inspiration this product draws from TSR products of that era, such as
MAY 02, 2009 03:24P.M. Unearthed Arcana and Oriental Adventures. The end result is sober and
workmanlike rather than inspired.

The first part of OSRIC Unearthed (pages 2-22) consists of eight new
character classes. They’re a mixed bag in my opinion, with some being
quite excellent and others fairly banal. They are:

• Barbarian: This class is a nice marriage of the ideas behind the

AD&D barbarian (fear/hatred of magic, commanding a horde, etc.)
with those of more recent vintage (berserker rage), without all the
infelicities of either one. It’s not perfect by any means, but it’s
better than either of its inspirations.

• Bard: This is an interesting take on the class, being much more

closely focused on using music to achieve quasi-magical effects
than was its AD&D counterpart, yet without explicit spellcasting. It
also has the benefit of being a complete class unto itself rather than
a proto-prestige class.

• Brawler: An intriguing class, this one is a Western-style “martial

artist,” an expert in unarmed combat. My main beef with it is that
it pretty much demands the use of the new martial arts rules (about
which I’ll talk shortly).

• Knight: A less egregious version of the AD&D cavalier, it’s

OSRIC Unearthed is a 42-page PDF written by Charles Rice and retailing
nevertheless not a class that I see a great need for. That said, for
for $7.00. Obviously, it’s intended for use with OSRIC, but some of its
referees who do, it’s a well-done option.
contents could be fairly easily adapted to other old school fantasy RPGs
— some but not all. I say that because a goodly portion of OSRIC
• Ninja: The first of several new Oriental character classes, the ninja
Unearthed is devoted to “martial arts” (a broad term encompassing a
is a thief/assassin with a dash of illusionist thrown in. This is a
variety of combat styles and maneuvers, not just Asian-derived unarmed
class I was prepared to dislike on principle, but its presentation
combat) and uses OSRIC’s weapon proficiency rules as their basis.
won me over.
Games like Labyrinth Lord and Swords & Wizardry both lack such
rules, making it harder to introduce these martial arts into those games
• Noble: Like the bard, the noble has the ability to inspire others as
without also importing weapon proficiencies or something akin to them.
its primary class abilities. I’m not at all convinced anyone would
It’s not an insurmountable difficulty by any means, but I felt I should
want to play such a class nor do I see much need for it.
mention that, unlike many old school products, OSRIC Unearthed is
fairly strongly mechanically connected to its native rules set.
• Samurai: This class comes across as just a variant of the knight,
which I suppose it is.
The product is cleanly laid out and easy to read. I encountered no
obvious editorial or layout issues, although I was a bit baffled by the
• Thief-Acrobat: I never much cared for this class in AD&D
extensive table of contents, when an index would probably have been
(another proto-prestige class) and this version, which is a fairly
more immediately useful. The layout itself is reminscent of OSRIC’s own
straight translation of it, didn’t change my mind about it.
without being a direct copy of it. OSRIC Unearthed is illustrated through
the use of black and white clip art that varies in quality and
• Yamabushi: This is a modified version of the traditional monk

1
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR riorio2@rogue-games.net 3 May, 2009

placed within its Oriental context.

There’s a short list of new weapons, almost of them Asian in origin. Then
there’s the new martial arts rules, which take up most of the remainder
of the book (pages 23-35). These rules allow characters to use their This issue contains posts from between
weapon proficiency slots to purchase “styles,” each of which has several May 02, 2009 07:03a.m. and May 03, 2009 03:02a.m..
combat “maneuvers” under it. No more than a single maneuver can be Visit the Rogues on the web:
used per attack and each one grants some combat boon, sometimes in http://www.rogue-games.net
exchange for a drawback. Most of these maneuvers grant very small
bonuses, either to hit or to damage under specific circumstances and
some have special effects, such as lowering an opponent’s armor class for
a time, for example. The styles themselves are very broad, covering
everything from Asian unarmed combat to specific weapon styles. The
author definitely understands the dangers of bonus inflation and deftly
avoids that in these rules, which feel very old school in their mechanics,
if not their conception. Many basically amount to lightly mechanized
“flavor” abilities, which some referees may or may not see as worth their
while.

The remainder of the book consists of a handful of new magic items and
suggestions for how to run OSRIC campaigns with either an Arthurian or
Oriental flavor — no surprise given that its author D20 campaign rules
for both from RPGObjects.

Mechanically, OSRIC Unearthed is superb. I have absolutely no qualms

with its new rules, all of which feel continuous with the approach of
OSRIC itself. In this respect, I’d call it “Unearthed Arcana done right,”
but then I generally feel that the Gygaxian original felt like a break with
what had come before it rather than a logical extension. Content-wise,
OSRIC Unearthed is a bit less sound, not because its ideas are bad ones
— they are not — but because so many are focused on Oriental-style D&D
that they may not be of use to referees who run straight-up Western
campaigns. Of course, some of its contents, like the ninja, as I noted, are
good enough that they almost demand “re-tooling” outside an Asian
setting. I respect that the author made the martial arts rules useful even
in non-Asian settings, but it’s also clear that they work best in that
campaign context.

Consequently, OSRIC Unearthed has a high quotient of “outré” material

that won’t be useful to everyone. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I
think it will limit this product’s appeal, which is a pity given how well
done it is. I’d love to see more OSRIC material from Charles Rice in the
future; here’s hoping his next product might be more “traditional” in its
content so that it will attract the attention it deserves.

Presentation: 7 out of 10
Creativity: 9 out of 10
Utility: 6 out of 10

Buy This If: You’re interested in adding new classes and martial arts to
your games and aren’t put off by a lot of Asian-themed content
Don’t Buy This If: You have no interest in Asian-themed fantasy
and/or see no need for secondary and tertiary character classes, like the
barbarian or the knight.