Lucky Friday Mail Call With Monsters of Mayhem #1 & Some Campaign Monster Ecology

Monster mail call on Friday the Thirteenth, so while I've had to change up my plans from a Golden era game Supers to a slightly more conventional early pre WWI ACK's pulp campaign. I got a lovely piece of OSR mail from Mark Taormino over at Dark Wizard Games.

Their latest title is Monsters of Mayhem #1 book which they sent me about two days ago. Here's the unboxing & there isn't a title of theirs that I don't own. Mark does a nice job of packing his material & the book overall is a welcome 'Monster Manual' OSR title full of some mean & nasty pieces of work. I've been looking for a welcome OSR monster race that could function as mercenary body guards in my pre WWI Pulp game, & the 'Astral Drifters' will do the trick. The Astral Drifters are a race of Githyanki stand ins & as a PC optional race. In my own campaign they're the mercenary body guards to the rich  powerful royals of Europe.

So not only are these bastards guarding the royals of Europe but they have access to the most secret & hallowed information of the various influential families of Europe. They are the unnoticed spies & invisible caste of those in power. They're own agendas are unknown at the present.
 If you want a run through of MAXIMUM MAYHEM DUNGEONS

MONSTERS OF MAYHEM #1  the author lovingly put together a full flip through of the book on You tube.

The Astral Drifrers are deadly & a very dangerous predatory race of monsters that seem to be in fashion at the moment in the halls of power. Though they fulfill their contracts to the various royal families of Europe their own loyalties are only to themselves and their mysterious leaders.  What their role in future events in Europe remains to be seen but they preform their dues almost flawlessly and have a well deserved reputation for brutal & bloody efficiency. Standard monster summoning & Astral gate spells will gain their attention with a sacrifice of Treasure type M or better.
Because the monster stat blocks  in Monsters of Mayhem #1 are standard OSRIC or AD&D first edition their easily converted over to a wide variety of OSR retroclone or old school systems including Swords & Wizardry,  Adventurer, Conqueror, King, or Labyrinth Lord.

The artwork is top notch & the interior maps are nicely done along with that middle splash page that lends a bit of a classic TSR artwork styling. Monsters of Mayhem #1 will work quite nicely with original Dungeons & Dragons as well with little issue but the monsters are really dangerous so use with caution in your own dungeons & ruins.
All monsters & stats are open game content something that I will be taking full advantage of in the future. Even Tim Brannan liked Monsters of Mayhem #1 & he's rough on some OSR products.