Exceptional Blog

[captainjapan]

I would like to know what are some resourceful blogs? Specifically I want to know what posters have found in the way of rules explainers, printable content, table tips, etc. on other blogs. I know many here keep blogs so I won't fault you for linking your own content if you think it's resourceful in one of the ways listed above. Also, it is probable that not all blog content is spun gold, so if all you can pick out is a series of indispensable posts from an otherwise "just ok" blog, that would be perfectly acceptable.

I have found many excellent blogs, but the one that inspired me to write this post was Expeditious Advance. There is a series of half-a-dozen or so posts here that track the core mechanics of OD&D from Chainmail to the Perrin Conventions, and more. Call it a primer, if you will. Long ago I printed these and added them as an appendix to my own rules binder.

Now, I'd be excited to hear what essential resource you have found in a blog.  

[captainjapan]

before I forget, I'd also like to give a shout out to paleologos . While I've been focusing on some other of his OSR Grimoire posts, I would like to direct attention, now, to his Appendix O. It's sort of the culmination of a discussion from not to long ago which he kindly linked back to on his blog. The list is to only the material directly referenced in Chainmail and the 3LBBS, I believe. There are also bonus lists of Arneson mentions and Gygax film favorites. Finally, there is a link through to the Appendix N Book Club podcast( Now, I know that's been mentioned on the boards.)Apologies, paleo, if you already announced the post and I missed it.

[Scott Anderson]

Check my sidebar. My own blog is only intermittently interesting but the sidebar is always good: treasurehuntershq.blogspot.com

[captainjapan]

I'll keep this going.

On Semper Initiativus Unum, Wayne Rossi compiled his outdoor adventures posts into a PDF including a version of the Outdoor Survival map by James Mishler. This resource has been around for some years, but I don't know of a better interpretation of Gary's envisioned wilderness. It turns out that Gygax' castle and wilderness encounters, from volume 3, describes a gameworld with some very weird transitions. From the Lost World of the dinosaurs to the red sands of Barsoom to aerial jousts astride hippogriffs, Rossi seems to have covered it all. There's a lot of inspiration here.

If you missed it in the post, you can follow this link to Mishler's Adventures in Gaming, where he posted the full size Hexographer map of Outdoor Survival.

[derv]

Years ago Alex Schroeder, I think it was Alex, had a blog feed page. That was my go to for all the latest ideas and buzz in the hobby by some great bloggers.

He ended up taking it down for some reason that l no longer recall and many of those early bloggers stopped, petered out, or even nuked their pages.

And I guess I just stopped reading them too.

There are still some good one’s floating around worth looking at, but I really don’t have any links to offer. My best advice is to look at the sigs.of some of the posters here.

[doublejig2]

Here's Alex Shroeder's planet work: wiki planet. There are perhaps a hundred OSR blogs listed. Which ones are the most relevant for a given person's purposes requires some blog mining - but is worth it.

[derv]

Your link doesn't work doublejig2 . I think this is the page you meant.

Some general info, Alex was an editor of the One Page Dungeon Contest that started in 2009. Not sure if he's still involved. But basically there was a period in the hobby when everyone was interested in a minimalist approach to RPG's. As a result we got things like Microlite20 and the one page dungeon.

There were a few bloggers who spearheaded this project. They were Sham's Grog & Blog, Society of the Torch, Pole, & Rope, Critical Hits, The Chatty DM, and chicagowiz 's Old Guy blog.

There you go, there's five blogs worth checking into.

edit: Actually I think this is the site doublejig was linking to>>> Old School RPG Planet.

Nice! looks like he resurrected the old blog feed. I was unaware of that.

[doublejig2]

It's fruitful time permitting to dig up solid old posts on good blogs - that much is certain.

[paleologos]

Dec 30, 2019 13:35:50 GMT -6 captainjapan said:

before I forget, I'd also like to give a shout out to paleologos . While I've been focusing on some other of his OSR Grimoire posts, I would like to direct attention, now, to his Appendix O. It's sort of the culmination of a discussion from not to long ago which he kindly linked back to on his blog. The list is to only the material directly referenced in Chainmail and the 3LBBS, I believe. There are also bonus lists of Arneson mentions and Gygax film favorites. Finally, there is a link through to the Appendix N Book Club podcast( Now, I know that's been mentioned on the boards.)Apologies, paleo, if you already announced the post and I missed it.

Hey, thanks!  Sorry, only checked back, now - I've enjoyed getting the blog rolling, which is more of a place for me to compile references on subjects over the past decade or so.  There are lots of things I've read here and there, so I decided to pull them all together into one place, along with my own contributions.  I'm working through topics in roughly chronological order.  It's been fun!

In terms of my favorite blogs - they're in my sidebar, but special mention goes to Delta's D&D Hotspot, grodog's AD&D blog, Havard's Blackmoor Blog, Daniel's Hidden in Shadows, Jon Peterson's Playing at the World, and of course Zenopus Archives.  These guys are into historical analysis, which I'm also interested in.

[Alex Schroeder]

For a while I was also pretty actively collecting cool blogposts in a collection called Links to Wisdom.

[cadriel]

Jan 22, 2020 10:08:00 GMT -6 captainjapan said:

I'll keep this going.

On Semper Initiativus Unum, Wayne Rossi compiled his outdoor adventures posts into a PDF including a version of the Outdoor Survival map by James Mishler. This resource has been around for some years, but I don't know of a better interpretation of Gary's envisioned wilderness. It turns out that Gygax' castle and wilderness encounters, from volume 3, describes a gameworld with some very weird transitions. From the Lost World of the dinosaurs to the red sands of Barsoom to aerial jousts astride hippogriffs, Rossi seems to have covered it all. There's a lot of inspiration here.

If you missed it in the post, you can follow this link to Mishler's Adventures in Gaming, where he posted the full size Hexographer map of Outdoor Survival.

Thanks! I haven't been active in OSR or older D&D lately (my current game is 5e) so I haven't kept writing for the blog, but I'm glad that people still see it as a useful resource for their OD&D games.

[captainjapan]

I wonder if Nathan Mahney, of the Save or Die! blog, posts here. The reason I ask is that I recently made a pdf of his series on the Monster Manual. This seemed like quite an achievement to me, but it looks like he does these series quite often. I wanted to give him a shout out. Here is the introductory post, part 1 of 60. For four years, off and on, he re-catalogued every monster, tracing the origins of each and finding differences in the stats and descriptions. It's a very handy reference for some of the discussions here. Some posts covered three or four monsters. And some monsters, like the Vampire, get full page write-ups. At any rate, what a feat of endurance! I know there are bloggers, reading this, who will appreciate the effort. His latest was a four-parter on Judges Guild First Fantasy Campaign. I guess he's slowing down

[captainjapan]

Apropos of the current conversation on editing the OSR wikipedia page, here is the fourth installment of "A Historical Look at the OSR" from the Simulacrum blog, by Keith Hann. And, it is extensive! Hann hits all the major points of divergence from old school play, starting way back with the publication of the first tournament modules. Part two of the series covers the issue of the insinuation of skills systems into D&D. Next comes a review of 2nd Edition with commentary on the lack of dm guidance and relegation of mechanics to optional status. Second edition is where TSR courts the average consumer right from launch, further alienating segments of the base. Next, Hann makes an interesting choice to end coverage of the official D&D books and move on to the OSR proper. The history of the term is tracked in part 4 (linked). DO check this series out. It is well thought out and heavily footnoted. Don't forget to read the comments for additional info by foster1941. I think several familiar old school bloggers are already following Simulacrum. As soon as the fifth (and final) installment of this series is published, I will be clipping them all into my binder. Highly Recommended.

[rsdean]

That was an interesting read…

[tetramorph]

captainjapan, who is Keith Hann?

Is he on these boards? K&KA?

I just feel like I know about or have heard about almost everyone OSR at this point, so I'm always surprised when someone new and interesting shows up.

Has he published anything?

[captainjapan]

If he IS on the forums, I don't know who he is. His first blog post is from 2017, where he calls out delta 's blog as an inspiration, so maybe he comments there. Keith contributed some tables to Battletech before this. He has a page at BoardGameGeek that corroborates this. His retroclone is also named Simulacrum. You can download it from his site. You can also download a pdf of 17 pages of designers notes for the game. Looks like a serious effort, even if he has no intention of publishing.

[palindromedary]

Hi, I'm the Simulacrum blog author.  Up until now all my publishing has been with Battletech, which I've been involved with professionally since about 2008; I was the main writer and lead dev on a few rulebooks, head the official rules team, and handle errata for the line.  I'm here and on other old-school/OSR spaces under various names, but I'm not much for posting, as while I played a bunch of old-school D&D back in the day I gave D&D up after getting burned out on 3rd ed and was pretty late to coming back, so I rarely feel I have anything to add compared to people with literal decades of adult old-school experience and generally feel it's best to just sit back and be quiet.

As for my OSR system, I've always been just sort of making it for myself rather than expecting anyone to care about yet another OSR ruleset, though I've tried to make it to a complete and professional standard because that was the arbitrary goal I set for myself. Other than it being what I use in my own campaign, it's mostly been a vehicle for me to post about wider issues of D&D theory and design alongside my attempts to puzzle out what I like and don't like for myself (which is why a lot of my articles have been cross-edition or cross-clone comparisons). The history stuff that you've been kind enough to speak well of came in because I'm a historian in the real world and I thought that was a niche not yet explored; fandom and journalists tend to make spotty chroniclers (see the history of rock music, mostly written by journalists, for a good example).

Anyways, work on the 5th and final part of this history series continues, but it's been a beast to wrangle and will probably be significantly longer than the other four. Thanks to all who have been interested so far, and the comments and feedback have been appreciated and put to good use (the articles have been regularly edited to take into account fresh sourcing and the like).

[captainjapan]

palindromedary ,

I don't know what to say except, thanks for being so rigorous in your writings. The blog has been a pleasure to read. And, boy did I ever underestimate your credentials. Sorry. Now, that you've identified yourself; if you ever need a sounding board for your ideas, please don't hesitate to comment. Welcome aboard!

[waysoftheearth]

Jun 25, 2021 14:48:36 GMT -6 captainjapan said:

His retroclone is also named Simulacrum. You can download it from his site. You can also download a pdf of 17 pages of designers notes for the game.

Links please

[captainjapan]

Jun 25, 2021 17:46:17 GMT -6 waysoftheearth said:

Jun 25, 2021 14:48:36 GMT -6 captainjapan said:

His retroclone is also named Simulacrum. You can download it from his site. You can also download a pdf of 17 pages of designers notes for the game.

Links please

I guess that would be helpful. Here ya go:

osrsimulacrum.blogspot.com/2021/06/simulacrum-beta-release.html?m=1

[tetramorph]

palindromedary; I’m so glad you’re here on this forum. Welcome! I benefited from your historical blog posts. I appreciate your perspective, and I think your voice would be welcome here. I do hope that you will contribute to our conversation more robustly. If you have the time and energy, please poke around and look at some of the threads we have going here, even resurrecting very old ones, and add your perspective. I think we would all benefit.

[captainjapan]

What are the odds that a player rolling d10 will match or beat the score of a player rolling d6? How effective are opposed rolls of d4 at not resulting in a tie? If the average number of fives and sixes expected from a hand toss of 8 dice is 2.67, how many actual fives and sixes should we expect to see on the throw? How many will a player net if his opponent is allowed saving throws against all 8 dice? How many dice would you have to roll before the chance of getting a six on at least one die was statistically guaranteed?

When I first paged through a copy of the Dungeon Masters Guide, I have to say that I was intimidated. Only ten pages into the hefty volume were line graphs and calculations for ways to use dice like I had never required, before. Gary talked of modifying and averaging and the bell curve distribution. It was all too much and I didn't revisit this, relatively short explainer, until many years later. I skimmed past much of the Dungeon Masters Guide in those days, truth be told.  

Today, I have good reason for wanting to manipulate the outcomes: to deliberately rebalance the mechanics that my players rely on. I want to know the how and the why of throwing dice; and there are so many different methods to choose from. I'm only just discovering. 

This brings me to a blog I've recently started reading, to educate myself. It is Phil Dutre's Wargaming Mechanics. Phil Dutre is a professor of computer science at KU Leuven, Belgium, but he is also a miniature wargamer and a Tolkien fan. I think I found Prof. Dutre's blog (one of several) through a comment he posted on Jon Peterson's blog. I came for the hidden movement articles, but I stayed for the dice probabilities. The attraction of Dutre's posts lies in the approachable, laymen's terms, style of his writing. The blog is a perfectly brief introduction to a few of the design issues in traditional wargames that I think a certain sort of fantasy roleplayer might be interested to learn about.