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The Heroic Legendarium: A First Edition Adventure Gaming CompanionClick to magnify
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The Heroic Legendarium: A First Edition Adventure Gaming Companion

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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.

If you like my products, please also be sure to check out these related publishers and products:

First Edition Society: publishers of free and at-cost 1E products including OSRIC (the original 1st edition "clone" game) and Monsters of Myth, both of which I contributed to

Axe Mental Presents: publisher of old-school-style 1E adventures (which I didn't contribute to but did read and consult on pre-publication)

No ArtPunk Vol. 1: anthology of old-school-style adventures from a blog-contest, including one written by me that placed as the runner-up in the contest

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Reviews (1)
Discussions (8)
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Jason J October 16, 2023 6:56 am UTC
PURCHASER
Purchased the hardback on 9/29 and the order went to the printer that day. Eighteen days later it still hasn't been printed or shipped. Contacted DTRPG about the order status 2 days ago, but have received no response. What's up?
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Customer avatar
Trent S October 20, 2023 10:45 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
I have zero insight into or control over DTRPG's printing and shipping processes. I'm sorry you're having trouble but there's nothing at all I can do about it (other than assure you the delay isn't being caused by anything I did). Hope you're able to get this worked out with them and that you enjoy the book once you eventually receive it.
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Customer avatar
Jason J November 25, 2023 6:35 am UTC
PURCHASER
Got it. Took the printer 22 days to print it. Good stuff! Best wishes, Trent.
Customer avatar
Derek H August 08, 2023 1:03 pm UTC
PURCHASER
On page 129 you used annunaki as a replacement name for a creature that isn't open content. I respect that, but I have no idea what the original is. I can't think of any critter in the original trio of monster books that have that niche, that of manipulating cultures.

So what is it?
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Customer avatar
Trent S August 08, 2023 3:07 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
All of the alternate names for non-OGC monsters and planes come from the OSRIC supplement “Dangerous Dungeons” (which has never been formally released but is available in draft form at Kellri.blogspot.com). Annunaki is the name that product gives to what official D&D calls githyanki. Hope that helps!
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Derek H August 08, 2023 5:15 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Yes it does. Thank you!
Customer avatar
Matthew H May 03, 2023 9:18 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Greetings!

As a newcomer to 1e Fantasy and it's clones I was wondering if you could elaborate on paragraph 4 of page 4: of the 13 rulebooks the first 7 are "canon". My google searching only reveals so much and some of it contradictory for the releases of 1985 - between UA and OA which do you not consider part of the 7 canonical books?

Much appreciated.
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Customer avatar
Trent S May 03, 2023 11:53 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Unearthed Arcana (May 1985) = canon
Oriental Adventures (Nov 1985) = non-canon

Hope this helps, and that you’re enjoying the book!
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Customer avatar
Matthew H May 06, 2023 1:28 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Thank you! That is indeed helpful.
Customer avatar
Ajay S March 30, 2022 7:31 am UTC
PURCHASER
While there is no pictures in this book there is a lot of art in the writing.

I'd recommend this book to anyone no matter what edition, retro-clone, or osr game you happen to be running.

Not only is the advice in the game master's section useful no matter what your playing even the new classes, spells, and monsters have enough to get your imagination that you'll want to add them in your own games. With some conversion depending on what your playing of course.

Currently using this book with a 5e game and incorporating some of the spells like the bard ones to actually make the class feel a little more different from just a wizard that happens to sing and heal and plan to use monsters like the Mirror-Fiend shortly as the description has inspired me to include one in my dungeon.

I look forward to using this proper in a 1e or B/X game.

Overall it feels like I'm reading something from Gygax or the older books again in how it's getting my creativity flowing...See more
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Customer avatar
Trent S March 30, 2022 4:01 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Thanks for this review! Glad to hear the book is still useful and interesting even to people who aren’t playing 1st edition.
Customer avatar
Thomas D May 27, 2021 8:56 am UTC
PURCHASER
A true labor of love and very "Gygaxian", but better organized!
I especially love the art, it's fantastic. (I kid)
I can't review it, I guess because I publish stuff here, but if I could it is 5 stars for sure.
Great work.
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Customer avatar
Trent S May 27, 2021 4:04 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
Thanks! My wife is an artist (and also has a lot of artist friends) and the original plan was to include some of their art (and also get their help on the layout) but 14 months of quarantine pretty well messed that up and I got sick of waiting. She's still planning for an eventual "deluxe edition" with art and more professional layout but don't anybody put off a purchase now waiting for that because it may well never happen and even if it does it's probably a couple years (or more) away.
Reply
Customer avatar
Tamás I June 01, 2021 8:54 am UTC
PURCHASER
Hah! I published a character sheet once and can't rate or review anything here since then on DriveThruRPG.
Customer avatar
Trent S May 20, 2021 4:40 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
I've been asked if I could include the GM Section Table of Contents in the preview. I'm not sure I can (since at least as far as I can tell the preview needs to be a single contiguous set of pages) so for the time being I'll post it here instead:

THE ADVENTURE
Wilderness Adventuring 82
Extra-planar Adventuring 85
Falling Damage 89
Poison 90
COMBAT
Miscellaneous Combat Notes 90
Combat Procedure: Initiative 92
THE CAMPAIGN
Establishing the Campaign 97
Dungeon Designing Tips and Tricks 98
Common Establishments and Other Town Locations 103
Deities and Their Followers 105
Territory Development by Player Characters 106
Racial Preferences Table 113
CONDUCTING THE GAME
Habits of Highly Effective Game Masters 116
Managing Intra-Party Conflicts 118
TREASURE
Random Treasure By Dungeon Level 121
Random Treasure Determination 122
Explanations and Descriptions of New Magic Items 123
MONSTERS...See more
Customer avatar
Nikosz P May 20, 2021 8:17 am UTC
PURCHASER
Picks up right where Unearthed Arcana left off. A must for First Edition aficionados.
Customer avatar
James C May 19, 2021 4:56 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Essential for any AD&D/OSRIC player who endeavours to conduct their game in the esteemed Gygaxian fashion.
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Product Information
Electrum seller
Author(s)
Pages
154
Publisher Stock #
SFP001
File Size:
10.24 MB
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File Last Updated:
May 14, 2021
This title was added to our catalog on May 18, 2021.
Publisher
Storm Fetish Productions
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