WELCOME BACK, DEAR TRAVELERS! — Apostles of the Law, Keepers of the Cults, & Heresiarchs of the Outer Dark — to our Sanctuary of Neutrality we humbly call The MADDER HAG. This zine is designed for use with the basic, expert, (& advanced) editions of the original fantasy adventure game, and is therefore compatible with the vast treasure store of old-school rules such as Old School Essentials, Labyrinth Lord, original A/D&D, and the like.

IN THIS ISSUE
We feature a new Cultist & updated Cleric class, plus an assortment of resources for quickly detailing sanctuaries, folk religions, & deities for the original (basic & expert edition) game — plus toolkits for layering religious details into a setting, like naming conventions, local places of worship, holy days & festivals, & even architecture, without bogging down precious prep time.

• Re-tooled cleric class: With modified & added spells, & options for playing to level 36 (as promised but never delivered in the original B/X editions)
• New cultist class: Designed to be customized for all manner of NPC religious factions, from local village cults up to dominating regional faiths
• World-building toolkits for creating folk religions: Procedures for quickly generating new faiths & cults, regional beliefs, & other religious details
• Sanctuaries: Procedures for creating and running monasteries, temple complexes, & other religious strongholds
• Deities & demigods: Fast generation of deity-level avatars to accompany your folk religions & cults
• Plus: Populating your campaign with cloistered clerics, temple priests, & other faith-based NPCS, and more

Elegantly packaged in a well-designed 35 pages.

PLAYTESTING
The MADDER HAG issues will introduce & explore a new campaign setting: written & run by a designer who started playing the original basic & expert editions (Moldvay/Cook) & advanced first edition (Gygax, et al.) of the Game of Games, back in the early 1980s; & play-tested by a modern generation of adventurers aged 13 to 16 newly introduced to TTRPGs, along with adults aged 40 to 50. More setting material will be revealed in future issues.

FROM the EDITOR: QUESTIONS ANSWERED

• I am figuring out a place to release expanded material, designer notes, & extra resources that don't make it into the 35 pp zines. Most likely a blog; possibly a newsletter. I'm now looking at Patreon and Substack, as well as YouTube, based on some helpful user feedback. Some of this material will be added as extra material to previously released issues on DriveThruRPG.
• An example of expanded material for issue one would include a map of the city suggested (but not yet detailed) in issue one's faction table, and a rogue's gallery of different thief archetypes easily configured from the procedures in the issue, including the: guild thief (default), assassin, bounty hunter, cultist, failed wizard's apprentice, merchant-smuggler, mountebank, ninja, spy, thief-acolyte, thief-acrobat, thief-illusionist, troubador (or 'lesser bard'), treasure hunter, or yakuza; and these are not even including the demi-human variations.
• I get questions about the zine's interior art (which is also created by me). Future issues, especially as this ongoing project expands, will feature quite a bit more art as the zines evolve into more setting material.
• ISSUE FOUR of The MADDER HAG took some time to come together creatively — partly owing to the attempt at balancing new material with the original game mechanics (and within the constraints of this 35 pp format); but mostly because these early issues are laying groundwork for a bigger setting.
• The MADDER HAG will eventually cover a hex-based explorable world, encounter locations, new monsters, divine agents for clerics, & more.
• More of The MADDER HAG will arrive in print editions; ISSUE ONE released in print in November 2024, and the print edition of ISSUE TWO will release in February 2025. These print editions look great at the table (and are easily accessible and useful by design — in size and layout).
• The MADDER HAG is part of an unfolding campaign setting. Each issue will serve as a 'module' fitting together with other issues, or optionally as a stand-alone resource for your own game & setting. The material of each issue is carefully edited to seamlessly integrate with the wording & procedures from the original BX books (assuring compatibility with OSE, Labyrinth Lord, and other old school games).

GET THE ISSUES
Get The Madder Hag Issue Four

Back Issues
The Madder Hag Issue One
The Madder Hag Issue Two
The Madder Hag Issue Three