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.

Shadow Cobras
A top-notch new monster from Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets.

The Sorcerer
A top-notch class proposal for a pulp swords & sorcery spellcaster over at Wasted Lands. I like it, but I suspect that the cumulative effect of failed saves when casting spells, though cool, could make it a tough class to play. Definitely have the S&S vibe, though, and I wouldn’t mind giving it a go. Also being discussed on the OD&D boards. UPDATE: There’s actually been a slight change that makes the cumulative effect slightly less onerous. Again, the effect is very cool and very much in line with S&S lit, but it would be a bit tough to play if the gamemaster ruled hard against the player.

Urutsk: World of Mystery
The beta release is now available.

6 Artifacts of the Ancients
Good stuff. I particularly like the Iron Scorpion.

Ruins & Ronin
The Swords & Wizardry White Box expansion for the medieval Japan of the cinema is out. I checked out a beta release and really liked what I saw. Not sure if I’ll use this for a full-blown R&R game, but I will certainly be nabbing bits and pieces.

Hengeyokai character option for R&R
And there’s already a new character class available.

1066 – The Game
Takes a bit of time but isn’t half bad. I should have read about how to use archers since my army was based on archers. I didn’t figure it out until half-way through.

Ant mega-colony takes over world
Seems that a number of huge ant colonies around the globe are actually all part of the same colony.

In Praise of the Rules Cyclopedia
Maliszewski looks at the D&D-in-one-volume that I’m seeing has really got a lot going for it.

Random Starting Gear for Mutant Future
Besides Traveller, I’m also wishing I had time to start up a Mutant Future game. My current Labyrinth Lord and Swords & Wizardry White Box games are barely staying afloat, so I don’t have any clue how I could actually start up another game or two. But if/when I do hit MF, I’ll probably use these tables.

Creature Works for Dungeonslayers
A free PDF of monster cards for Dungeonslayers. It’s apparently the first Dungeonslayers product developed outside of Germany and the first being published in English first. I finally gave the game a good read a while back and must admit that I think it’s got a lot of potential. I may have to put together a one-shot game for a trial run. The cards (with some blanks ready for your own creations) are available on the Dungeonslayers download page.

A couple of works-in-progress have unveiled new cover artwork. Both are by Peter Mullens and both are, unsurprisingly, pretty awesome.

Check out the cover for Urutsk: World of Mystery RPG over at The Grand Tapestry. It’s on the right sidebar.

And also the cover for Ruins & Ronin over at Sword +1.

Metagaming, combat length, and the death of roleplaying:

When one of the guys, a guy that loves roleplaying, tells me he just goes from encounter to encounter without really ropleplaying; well, then I know something is off. And I think this may be it. I think combat length may be the key to the problem.

Talking about, no surprise, 4th Edition D&D. But the point applies to all versions.

Dracula revisited: Some observations on an old classic
The original remains one of my favorites. I recently listened to a very well done audiobook with different readers for each part. Most excellent. A while back I started reading it aloud to my wife, but that’s sort of petered out for the time being.

I’m also quite a fan of Francis Ford Coppola’s film version.

‘Cities of Swords and Sorcery’ now available !!!
Looks good. I may have to pick this up.

Monsters of the Red Planet!
Al’s upcoming Warriors of the Red Planet RPG is looking pretty awesome.

Dispelling a myth – Sandbox prep
Chgowiz explains that it isn’t as hard as many make it out to be. I agree. I know this. I believe it. I preach it.

Now, if I could just put it into practice. My Forbidden Jungle has languished of late. My son doesn’t think we’ll ever start playing.

First of all, I’m tardy in congratulating Mythmere Games for winning the Lulu competition for the month of May. Knockspell #2 and the Monster Book were a wicked one-two punch.

Also, Swords & Wizardy will soon be making a Major Announcement. I’ve got to admit that I’m a bit leery of where this could lead, but it’s a well-deserved boost for a great system.

Life with Lulu: Jeff Reints shares some of his experiences publishing on Lulu. Kilgore is thinking of getting a few things out there in the near future, and this is invaluable info.

Tavern: Gaming’s Most Tired Cliche: The local alehouse isn’t the only place to gather information or “look for adventures.” Also see: You All Meet in a Tavern…

The 1981 TSR Catalog: I think I might have one of these in a box somewhere, but it sure was fun looking through the catalog of how things were. The thing that I enjoyed the most was seeing that the entire line of AD&D core rulebooks consisted of four (count ‘em!) volumes.

Trollsmyth writes about Learning to Play. I taught myself to play RPGs using Traveller, and was taught D&D specifically by a guy who played it in college. It really is amazing how many different paths can be taken after that initial introduction to the world of gaming.

I’ve had a lot on my plate the past couple of weeks, and posting has been slow. My apologies.

Gobsmacked
I can see this nifty little spell coming in quite handy. Makes me wonder if I should consider dabbling in the arcane arts, myself. It’s like a “magic missile of STFU.!”

Underlord of Cold Mountain, Pt. I
Underlord of Cold Mountain, Pt. II
Underlord of Cold Mountain, Pt. III
Rust Monster Ate My Sword always has good oldies.

Rituals for Swords & Wizardy
Robert Conley proposes an alternative spell casting system that might address some of the things I’ve always notliked about the Vancian fire-and-forget system.

I’ve been considering using ritual casting as a way for Swords & Wizardry White Box spellcasters to reach spells that the 10th-level limit of WB precludes. My son has a few ideas, and we’re going to hash it out in the near future.

Fast Packs
Dungeons and Digressions talks about B4: The Lost City’s starting equipment system and includes a scan from the module. That’s great, because though I was familiar with it I don’t think I’d ever actually seen it before.

Also on the topic: Beyond the Black Gate’s Standard Starting Equipment Package and my own take on starting equipment called, um Starting Equipment.

Retrospective: The Lost City
Speaking of The Lost City, Grognardia looks back at the module. I’ve never even looked at it. It was on my list of things to get in PDF, but we all know how that story ended.