Parlez-vous Glantrian?: Dialects and Alignment Languages
Just Say No to alignment languages. Though I have tried using various human/regional languages before, we usually just revert to “everyone understands each other” except for some monsters. Even humanoids and tribesmen usually seem to have at least one available who can act as translator. Not realistic, I know.
Regions Sizes in a setting
Great summary of guidelines about sizing various realms on a fantasy map.
Touch of Pain
Another Bat creation. Nice alternative to shocking grasp. I’d make it 1st-level, personally.
Random Ruins
“No proper ocher wasteland or purple fungus forest would be complete without a smattering of bizarre monuments, relics, and ruins.” Developed for sword & planet but very usable just about anywhere.
OD&D+ Damage & Theory
I love the d6 and simplified monster attack/damage in the original. I will be adapting my LL game to something similar if I can work out a system that I like.
Fudge You
Either roll the dice or don’t roll the dice. But don’t pretend to roll the dice.
Fiend Folio
The FF seems to attract a lot of hate and I can’t really understand why. Plus, I had totally forgotten about a couple of those totally awesome full-page art pieces.
What Killed the Dinosaurs
No, it wasn’t Chuck Norris.
An essay on “Old School Gaming”
A good write-up.
Form-Fillable LL/AEC Character Sheet
The Venomous Pao cooked up a goodie.
Frail boy-king Tut died from malaria, broken leg
Egypt’s famed King Tutankhamun suffered from a cleft palate and club foot, likely forcing him to walk with a cane, and died from complications from a broken leg exacerbated by malaria, according to the most extensive study ever of his more than 3,300-year-old mummy.
Minotaur Quarterly
I have only a passing familiarity with Mazes & Minotaurs at best, but looking more closely at the PDFs of the game and the Minotaur Quarterly webzine, I’ve got to say I’m more than a little impressed. Much more.
The GM Feedback Questionnaire…
I’ve not gamed with a large enough group of people other than close friends to really make something like this necessary, but I can see the potential value in getting concrete feedback from players.
Watchmen HeroClix
I don’t do the HeroClix thing but this Watchmen line looks sorta cool.
Straight from the 1930s – Lizard Men city under LA
Mining engineer G. Warren Shufelt believed he had found the ruins of an ancient lizard man civilization under LA. Here’s a 1934 LA times headline: Lizard People’s Catacomb City Hunted. A lot more info on the story here.
Die-roll Dungeons
A discussion of randomly stocked dungeons, something I’ve always been a fan of. Specifically, the post deals with the Moldvay rules. I think this adventure creation system is based on the Moldvay tables, though I’m not 100% sure.
UPDATE: Repeated runnings of that random program appear to show a few oddities. Most results appear to be in line with expectations then you get something totally outlandish. Like:
3 Halflings (Lawful, AC 7, Damage weapon, Morale 7) HP: 7 3 1 XP: 15
70,000 platinum piecesWowza.
Traveller Tuesday: 1977 Edition Experience
The excellent Traveller series at The Sandbox of Doom continues with a discussion of experience and improving skills. I’ll admit that I never really envisioned it correctly, and we mostly ignored it. This thread at Citizens of the Imperium is a real eye-opener for me.
Legend (Editorial by Roger E. Moore, Dragon #144)
I had never read this. Great stuff. I’d like to note that I don’t think it would have been any lesser of a legendary incident had the paladin been defeated in the end. It might have been an even greater story, to tell the truth.
PC Events: Illusionist
I really like this series of tables for unusual events. From this list I particularly like 6. A new door has appeared in your room, invisible to all save you. Dare you enter it?
Random Chart: Quick NPC Concepts…
Three d66 for a basic visual hook to add a little flesh to NPCs.
Bow Ballistics and Scale
Analysis of longbow ranges at Delta’s D&D Hotspot. Very much worth looking at.
Deities & Demigods: A Christian Perspective
A good quick post on this topic, and I’ve thought the same thing for a long time. A lot of people complain that D&DG is just a “super monster manual” and I’ve always thought that was what should be expected.
“O” is For Old School: Review of The Dungeon Alphabet
A good review of The Dungeon Alphabet on Gnome Stew. It’s particularly interesting because Gnome Stew focuses almost entirely on New School games, so their take on something with roots so solidly in the Old School, and their effort to describe such things to their readership, is enlightening.
Give and take combat
Using one “to-hit” roll for both sides of a battle.
Dragon Age RPG: Dark Fantasy Roleplaying
A series of level-based boxed sets from Green Ronin Games. It’s an “all-new game system that’s both easy to learn and exciting to play,” at least according to the web site. Looks like a paper-and-pencil adaptation of a computer game, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
The Essential Dungeons & Dragons Starter
Speaking of level-based boxed sets, WOTC is putting out an “introductory” version of 4th Edition in a red box. It appears to be a severely cut-down version of the game, and not just a level-limited set like the Red Box of yore. I understand it’s only levels one and two, which takes only a pitifully small number of encounters to max out compared to the amount of playing that could be fit into levels 1-3 in B/X, for instance. This strikes me as a sort of “psst, kid…first one’s free” except that it’s not even free. I realize you can’t give away boxed sets for free, but I’m having trouble seeing how this is anything but a cut-down freebie intro in a box that costs $20.Still, it’s tough not to see OSR-type influence on some of the things going on in the industry.
New Middle-Earth Roleplaying Game Coming Soon!
Interesting, though I must admit I certainly see no need for such a thing.
Narn i Hîn Húrin and D&D vs Tolkien
Speaking of Middle-Earth, Monsters & Manuals has a great post on the incomplete version of the Tale of the Children of Hurin from Unfinished Tales and how the concept and setting are more akin to D&D than the Third Age Middle-Earth of LOTR. I have long been a fan of Narn i Hîn Húrin, enjoying it more than other versions of the story, but had never really made that connection. I think it’s spot on. Go read.
The Hobbit Might Be Delayed Until Late 2012
Final Middle-Earth link.
Old School Emphasis: Character vs. Adventure
A “Rosetta Dungeon”?
One time at D&D camp…
Are you kidding me? There was a Dungeons & Dragons summer camp?
Giant statues reveal red hat secrets
Archaeologists think they’ve discovered the source of the red hats on the Easter Island statues.
Interview: Ed Greenwood (Part I)
and
Retrospective: Forgotten Realms Campaign Set
The 1e Forgotten Realms and the first few supplements were, overall, quite good and very intriguing. I bought the boxed set and a few of the supplements, though I never actually played them. I still have them, and briefly considered using them as the setting for my Labyrinth Lord campaign. I think a lot of baggage comes with FR, though, and I passed.
Relzar’s Animated Rope
Manipulate rope. Cool.
Blank Wilderlands Map
Another setting which I considered for LL but decided against. Nice map, though.
Old School Armor Class Systems Comparison (Tables)
A look at things across various systems. A result of the Labyrinth Lord change of leather armor to AC8 from AC7.
Tech Levels for Fantasy Sandbox Settings
I’ve simply ruled various arms, armor, or equipments was “unavailable” before in certain campaigns or certain areas, but using a Traveller-esque TL system could be a good way to address that.
Swashbucklers of Mars – 1 page Pulp Sci-Fantasy
I can rescue the Martian princess in one page or less…
D&D in Spielberg’s 1982 “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” movie
Video clip of the scene. I’m not sure if I realized they were playing Dungeons & Dragons when we saw this when it came out.
House Rule: Energy Drain
I’ve never been a huge fan of energy drain attacks. Though I’m not sure Save vs. Poison’s idea is exactly what Kilgore’s looking for, it provides some great food for thought.
Sage Tree
Because you can never have enough talking trees. I like this approach.
Perilous Mazes has been shelved
The Holmes clone won’t be published. I never played Holmes and didn’t have much more than a passing interest in this particular clone, but I’m sure that a number of players will be disappointed. Greyharp’s reasoning makes sense, though.
Lost Minis Wiki
Sorted photos of figures from the good old days. Many photos are still needed, so sign up and contribute if you can.
Willem Dafoe Joining Andrew Stanton’s John Carter of Mars
He’ll play Tars Tarkas. Shooting begins next year.
Wizards and Swordry
Save vs. Poison writes about weapons and armor for magic-users. I am at a loss about what to do about this, myself. I had planned to allow any class any weapon in S&W White Box, but now that I’m probably going all Labyrinth Lord all the time, I’m not sure where I stand.
He Wants to Hold Your Hand, Hand, Hand, Hand…
The, um, Octopus class for PCs.
Sandbox Accessories – Empire Ruins
Roads, bridges, watchtowers, and other remains of an earlier age. Personally, I’ve always thought Hadrian’s Wall was about as cool as it got.
The Doom of RPGs: The Rambling
James Mishler on why no one will be able to make money publishing for the RPG industry. Does this mean Kilgore should shelve his plans to get a few things into print? I haven’t read parts II or III yet, though.
Gaming Room
Very amazing room, though it looks to be better for showing off a collection than for actual gaming.
Painmistress
Women who have been tortured to death by priests and are not immediately cremated may ‘return’ as Painmistresses. Also very usable for Ruins & Ronin.
Announcing the Swords & Wizardry Quick Start module
I’ve always though that quick starts made the most sense as intros to heavy games, sort of a test-drive opportunity. That said, this looks to be a pretty good product.
Table of Random City Events
I love tables of random events for cities.
