In July 2023 we presented the Hydra Cooperative Quick Deal featuring many Old School Revival supplements and modules designed by the talented creators in the Hydra Cooperative publishing alliance. Drawn from five early Bundle of Holding offers (2015-2020), these inventive and strikingly packaged titles show graphic inspirations ranging from art nouveau to pulp magazines to Atari game cartridges to Gold Key comics. And the modules themselves are just as flavorful: Face a Zombastodon during the Yambor soldier-bear pilgrimage across the Slumbering Ursine Dunes. Dodge mile-long grubs and Bonegrinders outside the bio-transmogrification Vat Complex of the Eld. Visit the Prismatic Peak of Mount Geegaw in seearch of the Whim-Wham Stone. Run scams and con games with Frantisek the Checkered Mage or Jarek the Nagsman at Marlinko’s Ebon Horse Fair. Save the Village of the Gleaming Fins from Skelephants or the immense pale crocodile called the Bachelor. What Ho, Frog Demons!
There were eight complete titles (plus two freebies) in our Hydra Collection (retail value $74.50) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks:
- Chris Kutalik’s sourcebooks and modules set in his Weird-infested Marlinko Canton, a Slavic myth-inspired, acid fantasy world of Moorcockian extradimensional incursions, Vancian swindlers, and petty bureaucrats: Slumbering Ursine Dunes; Fever-Dreaming Marlinko, plus its free Map Pack; Misty Isles of the Eld; the hexcrawl What Ho, Frog Demons; and the collection that started it all, the Hill Cantons Compendium II
- From another Hydra stalwart, Trey Causey, the Strange Stars SFRPG; the pulp-era rulebook Weird Adventures and its free Weird-West companion Strange Trails; and a deceptively whimsical foray into a wild wizard’s mad magic mansion, Mortzengersturm, the Mad Manticore of the Prismatic Peak
- Zedeck Siew’s Malay-themed sandbox module about river exploration, horrific eternal bargains, and a very hungry crocodile, Lorn Song of the Bachelor
Track current Hydra developments at Chris Kutalik’s Hill Cantons blog and Trey Causey’s blog, From the Sorcerer’s Skull.
Where were they from?
Each of the titles in this Hydra Cooperative Bundle previously appeared in one of five Bundle offers from 2015-2020:
- Old School Revival 3 (November 2015): Slumbering Ursine Dunes, Fever-Dreaming Marlinko, Hill Cantons Compendium, Strange Stars, Weird Adventures, Strange Trails
- OSR 4 (Nov 2016): Misty Isles of the Eld
- OSR 5 (Nov 2017): Mortzengersturm
- OSR 6 (Sept 2019): Frog Demons
- Old School Gold (July 2020): Lorn Song of the Bachelor
