In April 2022 we presented Old-School Essentials Treasures, featuring third-party supplements and scenarios for Old-School Essentials, a landmark of the Old School Revival. Published by designer Gavin Norman through his company, Necrotic Gnome, Old-School Essentials is a standout B/X retro-clone that emphasizes clarity, layout, and ease of use at your table. Gavin funded the original version in an April 2019 Kickstarter campaign, and Exalted Funeral’s follow-up February 2022 campaign for boxed sets scored US$772K from 6,367 backers.
In early 2020 Gavin released an Old-School Essentials System Reference Document and a royalty-free Third-Party License. Now DriveThruRPG’s count of first- and third-party Essentials titles stands at 286 and rising. This new Old-School Essentials Treasures gathered top-line scenarios from Swordlords Publishing and Singing Flame, zines from Planar Compass and The Tabletop Engineer, and the “World-Building Bundle” supplements from Third Kingdom Games.
There were six titles in our Rules Collection (retail value $56) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks, including Necrotic Gnome’s complete Old-School Essentials Rules Tome and Referee’s Screen — both previously in the February 2020 Necrotic Gnome Bundle — as well as Todd Leback’s three World-Building supplements: Into the Wild, Filling in the Blanks, and A Guide to Thieves’ Guilds.
Those who paid more than the threshold (average) price also got our entire Adventure Collection with six more titles worth an additional $59:
- Two adventures by Brad Kerr at Swordlords Publishing: Hideous Daylight and Temple of 1000 Swords
- Two adventures by Vasili Kaliman at Singing Flame: Night Land and Xanadu
- Two installments of the Planar Compass series of piratical Astral Sea sandboxes, funded in successive years of Kickstarter’s “Zine Quest” event: Planar Compass 1 and Planar Compass 2
- The first two issues of Delver magazine, a rich source of scenarios, tables, maps, and play aids: Delver issue 1 and Delver 2
Ten percent of each payment (after gateway fees) went to this offer’s pandemic-related charity, Direct Relief. Direct Relief sends protective gear and critical care medications to health workers, with emergency deliveries to medical facilities across the US and to regional response agencies across the world.
