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by leroy43

Important caveat: This book does not replace respectable local fungi guides for real-life mushrooming. Instead, it gives you all you need for doing so in your made-up, fantastical adventures in tabletop roleplaying. It is, like other books in the series, a work of fiction.

Mushrooms. I can't stop thinking about the people who first ate mushrooms. 
This one is delicious! 
This one kills you! 
This one makes you see god.

The Mycologist's Primer is the third book released by Anna Urbana and this time co-authored with Jakob Wisz.

I love mushrooms. I have eaten many in my life, and the biology of them is quite amazing too. Did you know there's a company in California that grows nothing but mycelium and use it to manufacture everything from vegan leather to insulation materials for new buildings to vegan versions of pulled pork and bacon? YouTube link

This is the third book in the Natural Worlds Library series. Like the two previous books, this one is about 360 pages and is divided into various sections. The opening sections are on the basics of mycology, although the very first line of the introduction states that it's a primer for fictitional mycologists. Although there is a bibliography later that has legitimate sources, I share their emphasis that this book should not be used for the cultivation, harvest, and consumption of mushrooms in the real world. I rely on farmer's markets and my local grocery store for my edible mushrooms, and there are a small handful of local experts I trust that lead foraging walks.

The meat of the book is the beautifully illustrated entries for about 100 different mushrooms and fungi, with each two page entry having an illustration and quick reference codex on the left, and then a listing of categorized information on the right. The uses are evertyhing from how your fictional RPG mycologist player character or NPC might describe them as well as describing where and how to find them, cultivate or harvest them, and how they might be used culinarily or magically. I note here that the (real world) toxic mushrooms omit the culinary uses.

As with the previous tomes in this series, after the entries from Agarikon to Yellow Stagshorn, there is a generously long section on practical mycology, fungal ecology, and how mushrooms, fungi, and lichen are used in a broad array of contexts, from food, medicine, dyes, and so forth. Finally, there are 100 sample magic items linked to each entry. As this a system neutral book, the GM will need to translate how those items would manifest in their particular game milieu.

Of the three books, the artwork in this one particularly delights me. Not that herbs and gemstones aren't cool, but I feel somehow that mushrooms are just more interesting to draw.

If you love mushrooms, or have players at your table that are forever playing halflings/hobbits, this book is a must for your RPG reference shelf.

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by sdonohue

A Selection of Slimes is a self-published 2022 release from the prolific Philip Reed. A number of artists contributed to this illustration heavy book. It is intended to be used with OSR rules.

Presentation
This is available in both print and PDF formats. The print version is POD and is an A5-sized full color book, saddle-stapled. The covers are heavier and the pages are glossy throughout. It is done in portrait orientation with a single column layout. It is 29 pages which includes the inside back cover which does have content.

Content
This book is a collection of 11 slimes for use with OSR games. The inside front cover is an ad for other Philip Reed designs and is followed by a full-size repetition of the cover art with no text. The table of contents and copyright are next, followed by the introduction, which explains the purpose of the book and suggests some options for GMs who use it.

This is followed by the content. Each of the 11 slimes gets a full-page explanation with an illustration on the facing page. Each creature is well-detailed for use including appearance, tactics, damage, armor class, and hit points. The slimes included are Contentious slime which likes conflict and will attack angry people first. Druid-Touched slime are created when a druid kills a slime and it somehow absorbs some powers but corrupts them into animal soul devouring abominations. Hellspawned slime are extra-planar creatures who love fire. Humdrum slime like to cover their victims and are harmed by healing magic. Icky slime are created by consuming too many poisonous plants; they are mindless and seek only to consume more. Merchant's slime is a pack-mule of sorts. Necromancer's slime inflict acid damage and negative levels. Smarty slimes understand many languages and their touch can drain intelligence. Treasure-Hungry slime are attracted to gold and gems and can destroy them. Vine slime are a symbiotic relationship between a slime and a vine; they inflict acid damage as well as using their thorns, which may inflict sickness. Water slime are not as dangerous as other slime, but they are used as potion ingredients and so adventurers may hunt them.

After the slime are listed, we get a table of random slim encounters. It's a 2d20 table with creative ways for GMs to create slime encounters. The descriptions are mostly a sentence or two, so it's mostly a matter of inspiration rather than immediate usage.

Evaluation
There are a lot of interesting ideas for slime here. If your players, like many of them, have memorized the strengths and weaknesses of standard slime and oozes, this will definitely shake things up. Hidden inside are a number of adventure hooks in addition to the actual table. The inclusion of an illustration for each of the slime is also useful, making it easy for GMs to use them in a fight. This is a fun book and while it's aimed at OSR, it could easily be used in any d20 fantasy game.

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