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OSRIC Unearthed $1.99
Average Rating:4.1 / 5
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OSRIC Unearthed
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OSRIC Unearthed
Publisher: Vigilance Press
by JR S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 07/01/2022 19:56:33

Is there an errata for this out there somewhere? Classes are missing racial class level limits, starting ages/money, etc. Otherwise a great book.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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OSRIC Unearthed
Publisher: Vigilance Press
by Thibaut C. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 05/05/2017 04:19:18

Very good material for his actual price (less than 5$) The OSRIC Unearthed classes are awesome, coherent and fit perfectly with OSRIC. Better than the original attempt of the original book. Not overpowered at all, it's very usefull. 50% of the OSRIC Unearthed come for playing in oriental game, but the Yamabushi is the classical Monk, the Ninja can be a Sicarian or Nightblade. The Pugilist is a good idea for occidental hand to hand brawler. The book present martial arts (with or without weapons) in simple but effective way. It's a must-have addition for OSRIC, if you want to retrieve some of the good points of Arcana Unearthed, but without all the power problems issued by the past.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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OSRIC Unearthed
Publisher: Vigilance Press
by Michael F. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/13/2016 15:39:40

I believe this product should be pulled from publication! Because it is terrible? No! But because it is incomplete! It was never finished! Nor was it ever edited! Any one who tells you it was is a liar! Just one of inumerable examples: pg 33, under Two Handed Swords. A generally confusing description of special bonuses becomes altogether incomprehensible when it devolves into "The only difference is that bonuses of a magical two-handed sword to do improve its armor class as they do with a shield."

True, the artwork is less than flattering, but that is forgivable.

Much of the material is useful, but it is incomplete. The sandwiching of the old UA & OA & a tease of Arthurian mythos into one abbreviated volume does this work no favors. It just creates an incoherent mess.

Expand the UA section with spell lists & descriptions, magic items, & other equipment. Optional Player Character racial templates are always a nice plus as well.

Seperate the OA based material from this, & continue streamlining it, developing it, & developing it &... developing it. The two works deserve to be their own individual supplements! Period!

The same holds true for the idea sketch for the Arthurian style campaign. It is a good direction, but the reader is completely slighted by the brevity of it's treatment. This deserves a supplement all it's own. Period!

All in all, there is good stuff here, & good beginnings of great things, but please send this back to the author, demand that it be edited properly, & most of all, demand that it be finished!

Until it is finished i would not recommend this supplement to any one! Period!



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
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OSRIC Unearthed
Publisher: Vigilance Press
by Jeremy C. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 06/07/2014 19:44:07

I was hesitant to purchase this product because it didn't look like much effort was put into the cover design... However, this is a really good OSRIC reference book that incorporates SOME of the UA book materials and SOME of the OA materials. I would have preferred to see 2 books: one that is an OSRIC conversion of UA and a second that is a conversion for OA. However, I do love the Samurai, Ninja, and the Knight... It is just that this could have been better if it was more focused as a straight conversion of one book instead of condensing and combining two.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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OSRIC Unearthed
Publisher: Vigilance Press
by Matt M. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 11/03/2009 23:33:48

A nice product. Worth the price and shows thought and care in the classes. I like the author's solution in re-creating the Barbarian, though I may not agree with it wholeheartedly. The Ninja class is also nicely done. One concern of note is the use of Martial Art Styles, which may turn out to be a little overpowered for their price, but these are first impressions and not the result of playtesting.

All in all very much worth the price.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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OSRIC Unearthed
Publisher: Vigilance Press
by James J. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 11/10/2007 10:00:59

A solid add on to oldschool gaming. Useful for those running an OSRIC based cmapaign, old AD&D game and adaptable to the retro-clone games available now.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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OSRIC Unearthed
Publisher: Vigilance Press
by Chris G. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 05/29/2007 00:00:00

I guess it is time to start using the term old school in a review. I haven?t reviewed any of the new old school games or supplements though I have been reading many of them. I still fondly have all my old first edition and old D&D books. It gets its use as reference material these days. I?m not sure the group of gamers I have is quite ready to game in the rules of an older edition. But with support like this maybe some day I will get to run one of my old campaigns again. I will have to add that to the list of things in gaming I want to run.

OSRIC Unearthed is a PDF published by Ronin Arts. It is written by Charles Rice and has the look and feel of an older edition supplement. It is in a product line called First Edition Fantasy and is supplement two. The forty two page PDF is superbly book marked and has some good art and a nice lay out. As a supplement of mostly classes and martial arts maneuvers with a few new magical weapons this will be easy to use from the computer.

The book starts off with eight new and easy to use classes. These all cover specific arch types that one will find useful in their fantasy game. Some of them are of an eastern feel while others are typical from other fantasy games. There really is not anything new here but it does offer some missing options. The inclusion of the Bard or Noble will not be seen as overly creative or daring. They are pretty standard as far as fantasy arch types but they are archetypes one would have trouble doing with just the standard OSRIC rules.

The Barbarian is a nice magic hating variety. They have bad saving through verse spells and magical spell like items. But if the Barbarian saves he goes into a super berserk rage an attacks the magic user or illusion who cast something at him. He has no problems with druids or clerics and their spells. The Barbarian has a normal berserk ability and great hit points. The class is slow in gaining levels but at the high level ones becomes a Warlord and can attract over 30d10 first level barbicans plus other leaders.

The bard is also very typical for the archetype. They get some cool mystic music abilities. Many of them imitate other magical spells. They gain some thief abiliti3es as they gain levels. But other then that they do not have anything. So this is not the old jack of trades class that some people might expect.

The Brawler is a class that has always been missing from D&D. It is a western style unarmed fighter. They can take weapon specialization unarmed combat and get access to many of the new martial art styles the book introduces.

The Ninja is a class that only goes up to fifteen levels. It also uses one of the martial arts and they get some cool magical abilities and disguise. It is a good write up of this archetype.

The Noble does best with a group of people. They have abilities that help and aid others out. They get some good followers at higher levels as well.

The book also has the Knight (which they forgot to book mark, Samurai, thief acrobat, and Yamabushi. The Yamabushi is the eastern version of the brawler. But of course with enough different to warrant it being its own class.

The martial arts section is really what separates the book from other class books. The system is easy to use and fits well within the weapon proficiency system the OSRIC system already uses. What I like best is that even though the term Martial Arts usually conjures up traditional Eastern themes OSRIC Unearthed has Martial Art styles for the Bow and Sword and other items that will fit very well with a more typical medical game. Each style gives a small bonus and allows the user to select new maneuvers with proficiency slots they gain through level advancement. It is a simple system that makes an easy add on. And it can really add a good new feel to an old style game.

OSRIC Unearthed is a good and solid product that opens up plenty of new options people will want to play. The classes are all basic ones that have been popular archetypes for years. And the martial art system is simple and seamless with the weapon proficiency system. This is a very solid product.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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OSRIC Unearthed
Publisher: Vigilance Press
by Andrew B. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 04/29/2007 00:00:00

If you aren't familiar with OSRIC, it is essentially first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons stripped down to the bare rules and released as open content. The idea is provide a means for publishers to release brand new content for the original AD&D game. The core rules are free so, if this sort of thing interests you, go hunt down a copy and download it.

OSRIC Unearthed is a collection of rules additions for the OSRIC core rules. It is written in the spirit of 1st Edition's Unearthed Arcana and contains everything from new classes and weapons to spells and martial arts. The book uses art and layout clearly suggestive of the AD&D books of the 70s, a style which adds a definite feel of nostalgia to the product.

The PDF begins with a selection of new classes. These range from typical fantasy fare such as the knight, bard, and barbarian to new classes such as the brawler and the noble. Overall, I thought that the classes were well designed. The barbarian's berserk ability, for example, is a very simple but effective take on barbarian rage that works perfectly within the parameters of the OSRIC ruleset. I also liked the rules for improving a knight's warhorse's hit points. Other rules were less appealing to me. For instance, the barbarian flies into a rage anytime he is targeted by a magic-user's spell and makes a successful saving throw. I know this is a Conan the Barbarian inspired hold-over from the original rules, but this rule seems unnecessarily arbitrary. Pity the poor magic-user who casts a beneficial spell on his friend the barbarian.

I thought that the designer showed a good attention to flavor and detail in many of the classes. I particularly like the ninja's ?nine signs? of ninjitsu, a concept lifted directly out of ninja mythology. The yamabushi is an interesting take on the familiar monk class, while the noble would serve a unique support role in a standard adventuring party. In addition, many old-school fans will be interested to see the return of the thief-acrobat.

Following the new classes is a very brief selection of new weapons and then a very large section on martial arts rules. Martial arts include both eastern and western styles (although the former is far more prevalent than the latter) as well as armed and unarmed varieties. Most of these are taken directly from the real world. The majority grant a better base armor class as well as a bonus to certain kinds of attacks. In many ways, the styles work something like feats, with each selected style taking up a weapon proficiency slot. Once a base martial art is learned, the character becomes eligible for maneuvers: special attacks that open up additional combat options. Maneuvers include familiar things like power attack and disarming attack. The styles and manuevers are balance and add quite a few options in combat to a character willing to devote some time and effort into learning them.

The book concludes with a dozen or so new magic items, followed by a short section with advice on using the OSRIC rules to run Arthurian or Oriental campaigns. The latter portion covers only three pages of the book, and contains very little other than a brief description of the campaign concept and a few notes on how each class fits into the setting. The advice is sound, but it's too brief to serve as anything more than a starting point for a GM willing to do a lot or work and research on his own. The addition of a list of suggested reading would have gone a long way to making this short section more useful.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: OSRIC Unearthed presents a number of well-designed rules in a package that has the right look and feel for a book full of 1E AD&D rules. The new rules strike a great balance of mechanics and flavor, adding to the game's options without dragging things down with too many details.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: I'm afraid that the martial arts rules may not be for everyone. They're well designed, but they add a level of rules-bloat that some OSRIC players may not be willing to deal with. A character who takes karate, for example, suddenly has access to ten combat maneuvers; well beyond the usual array of options available in the OSRIC rules as written. In a game that relies more on GM fiat and less on hard and fast mechanics, this may be too much. Since the bulk of the book deals with these rules, you'll find OSRIC Unearthed less useful if you aren't interested in adding martial arts to your game. Even the class section leans heavily on the martial arts rules, making it hard to justify getting this book if you don't plan to use at least some version of the martial arts rules.

Also, it seems that much of this book is geared toward players interested in adding an oriental feel to their games. There are three classes, three magic items, and about six new weapons with a strong eastern theme. If you don't like to mix your east with your west, OSRIC Unearthed won't be as useful to you.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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OSRIC Unearthed
Publisher: Vigilance Press
by Dominique C. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/19/2007 00:00:00

First of all I need to tell that I bought this product mainly out of curiosity, as I don't play anymore AD&D 1e. However, I collect the material and did play for years.

EDIT: after re-reading the PDF more carefully, it appeared better to me. So, I think it's an excellent addition to the OSRIC game.

This OSRIC supplement is from Charles Rice, the author of the excellent d20 supplements "Legends of Excalibur" and "Legends of Samurai".

The main point is that it presents 9 new character classes: Barbarian, Bard, Brawler, Knight, Ninja, Noble, Samurai, Thief-acrobat, Yamabushi. They are vaguely inspired from UA and OA, but are balanced against the OSRIC base classes. Unfortunately, in some cases they appear a little lackluster compared to their predecessors. In any case, these nine classes should be an excellent addition to OSRIC. Then, the magical items and the martial-arts should greatly add to the game. All of this makes the supplement really worth it.

<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Combat maneuvers and martial arts are the best part of this book. The classes should complete the core OSRIC classes fairly well.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Some classes are a little lackluster.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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