Each image is from its respected blogpost.
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Did I cheat by recommending a campaign structure instead of a full adventure? No. You should know better than to question my opinions. And anyway, this is more original than most adventures! Instead of playing the mercenaries working for the unscrupulous merchant, you are the unscrupulous merchant. Go waste your cash on elephants! Order a clandestine hit on a rival merchant! Gossip! With some simple rules that leave a lot of room for the imagination, the Merchant Campaign wins due to its unique premise.
BEST MECHANIC: Pain by shifty
Hit points are traditional in OSR systems and most mechanics that try to replace them are not to my taste. Not so with Pain, by shifty. The system is explained in-depth in the post, but it basically boils down to this: all creatures have a pain threshold from 1 to 5. If you are hit by a significant attack, roll a d6. If the roll exceeds your threshold, you die. You may use items, blessings, abilities, etc. as Wards, which you may wager instead of your life. A neat idea with neat mechanics.
BEST SYSTEM: A WEARY WORK TO DO by SunderedWorldDM
Weird fantasy all the way with this one. The rules are very good at building a tone and make you want to know more about the world. Played in a small, three-session (?) campaign with the system, so it's tested, if you like that sort of thing. Also there are flyting rules that I suck at. Shoutout to FifthDragon, who has saved me many times with his battle-poetry skills. Not much to say here. I just like it, I guess. Check it out.
BEST SETTING: An Encounter Table for a Weird Napoleonic War Zone by deus ex parabola
This post is an interesting piece of historical fantasy written by deus ex parabola. Napoleon's undying armies march on the kingdoms of Europe, who turn to fairy deals and strange magics to resist the Forever-Emperor. There are three 2d6 tables of decent encounters that, with a little reworking, can be slotted into any generic fantasy setting. This post raises several unanswered questions. Who won the Great War? What the hell is a monkey elemental? How has the war in Europe effected the Americas? Go read it and puzzle out the answers for yourself.
BEST CASTER CLASS: The Heartless by Locheil
I like Howl's Moving Castle, and here's a post based on that movie. It's a beast too: a class, four delta templates, and a few campaign notes at the end. Oh, wait, and 72 spells. That's a lot. My favorite features of this class have to be Transformation and Fog. It's neat that I can transform into a dragon at level 1. Gives a taste of power before I overuse it, become a NPC monster, and am shot to death by several cannons.
About the campaign notes, I would love to see a hypercompetent spirit butler class. And a Heartless Campaign? Loch, bro. I will conquer Outshire. This post wins due to its interesting ability and the sheer amount of spells it provides.
BEST CLASS WITH UNIQUE MECHANICS: The Binder by Phlox
Ah, the Binder. Controlling spirits and shades is a classic concept in fantasy gaming. This is Phlox's swing at the class. Make sure to read the fine print! Binder's have another Ability Score (Decency) that degrades over time due to contact with demons and various shades. I like the idea of venturing around and adding famous spirits to my collection. This class wins because of its presentation and concept.
BEST NON-CASTER CLASS: The Behemoth by Locheil
Loch created a new setting this year, Qal Ashen, a Mesopotamian world infected by a curse that transforms living things into mindless monsters. The only safe place is Qal Ashen, the city of the death god. Many Qal Ashen classes were released, but the Behemoth is the best of the bunch. The ability "The Self Remade" continues its evolution, reaching an even greater state than before. It lets you customize your character with various monstrous features by losing inventory slots. The Behemoth wins due to the versatility of its abilities.
BEST FLAVORFUL CLASS: The Hedge Knight by Locheil
What can I say, Loch has put out consistently good content. The Hedge Knight is a class for FIRMAMENT, a setting described by its creator as an "early-modern setting inspired by Arthuriana, the English Civil War, and the ancient concepts of alchemy, the cosmos, and the divine right of kings." The class is very Arthurian in tone, with great quests and squires and such. The class contains some spells reworked as great deeds performed by five legendary knights. This class wins because I like knights and for general quality.
