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Post by captainjapan on Dec 29, 2019 23:59:10 GMT -6
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.
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Post by captainjapan on Dec 30, 2019 13:35:50 GMT -6
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.
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Post by Scott Anderson on Dec 30, 2019 18:34:11 GMT -6
Check my sidebar. My own blog is only intermittently interesting but the sidebar is always good: treasurehuntershq.blogspot.com
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Post by captainjapan on Jan 22, 2020 10:08:00 GMT -6
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.
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Post by derv on Jan 22, 2020 14:25:37 GMT -6
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.
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Post by doublejig2 on Jan 22, 2020 16:17:23 GMT -6
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.
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Post by derv on Jan 22, 2020 17:29:44 GMT -6
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.
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Post by doublejig2 on Jan 22, 2020 19:26:03 GMT -6
It's fruitful time permitting to dig up solid old posts on good blogs - that much is certain.
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Post by paleologos on Jan 22, 2020 20:09:04 GMT -6
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.
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Post by Alex Schroeder on Feb 5, 2020 1:24:56 GMT -6
For a while I was also pretty actively collecting cool blogposts in a collection called Links to Wisdom.
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Post by cadriel on Feb 5, 2020 7:00:23 GMT -6
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.
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Post by captainjapan on Nov 17, 2020 21:53:49 GMT -6
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
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Post by captainjapan on Jun 24, 2021 10:56:56 GMT -6
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.
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Post by rsdean on Jun 25, 2021 5:57:04 GMT -6
That was an interesting read…
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Post by tetramorph on Jun 25, 2021 10:36:22 GMT -6
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?
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Post by captainjapan on Jun 25, 2021 14:48:36 GMT -6
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.
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Post by palindromedary on Jun 25, 2021 16:44:40 GMT -6
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).
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Post by captainjapan on Jun 25, 2021 16:54:02 GMT -6
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!
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Post by waysoftheearth on Jun 25, 2021 17:46:17 GMT -6
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
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Post by captainjapan on Jun 25, 2021 18:05:33 GMT -6
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Post by tetramorph on Jun 26, 2021 8:12:03 GMT -6
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.
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Post by captainjapan on Jul 20, 2021 22:30:35 GMT -6
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.
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Post by captainjapan on Jun 26, 2022 10:41:29 GMT -6
I have discovered an OD&D scholar who bares little resemblance to the members of this forum. She is young and socially conscious and an indie gamer. However, she has taken up the procedural generation and 'order of play' aspects and put some fresh spin on them. I'm just going to post some links relating to her projects, for now. Please excuse the seeming randomness. --Below is a page from the appendix of Marcia B.'s OD&D retroclone, Fantastic Medieval Campaigns. You may recognize it as a reformatting of Chainmail --Turn - contemporary dungeoncrawl procedure.
This is a pamphlet, not unlike a Perrin convention, that randomizes torches and rest on the same d6 that indicates wandering monsters. Marcia B. said something in one of her posts, once that stuck with me. She thought that the length of a game turn might be thought of merely as the opportunity to act between wandering monster rolls rather than corresponding to any particular in-game time simulation. I like that line of thinking --Bread & Circuses - a roman gladiatorial combat game which also includes naval actions and rules for the hunting of wild beasts. A picture of the ToC: --Her creative output revolves around these itch.io game "jams", as much as anything else. Is this where games are developed, nowadays? I'm unfamiliar. I believe itch.io is primarily an Etsy-style storefront for indie pc games --Finally, here is an online world generator based on book 3 of classic Traveller Somewhere on that Traverse Fantasy blog there is also a fairly comprehensive osr timeline, following the community from Dragonsfoot through G+ and collecting links to the blog posts that preserved some of "big ideas" discussed in those circles. I'll see if I can find a link. Edit: here it is chiquitafajita.blogspot.com/2022/06/the-osr-should-die.html?m=1chiquitafajita.blogspot.com/p/keystone-readings.html?m=1Marcia B.'s blog reminds me of delta 's in focus, which is to say, analytical. Check her out.
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Post by hamurai on Jun 26, 2022 13:53:45 GMT -6
Turn - contemporary dungeoncrawl procedure.
This is a pamphlet, not unlike a Perrin convention that randomizes light and rations consumptio,n on the same d6 that indicates wandering monsters. Marcia B. said something in one of her posts, once that stuck with me. She thought that the length of a game turn might be thought of merely as the opportunity to act between wandering monster rolls rather than corresponding to any particular in-game time simulation. I like that line of thinking While I do appreciate a simple take on things, that seems too unreliable for me. With a d6 as event die, you might roll 2 4s in a row, meaning you burn through the first two torches within 20 minutes in the dungeon. Similarly, you might search the first room, taking 10 minutes, then roll a 3 - you're tired. You then move to the next room, search 10 minutes, roll a 3, you need to rest. When you're used to keeping track of torches and stuff, it's not a big chore at all. You can easily have the players keep track of these things.
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Post by captainjapan on Jun 26, 2022 14:53:29 GMT -6
hamurai, Obviously, this is a matter of personal taste. The Turn pamphlet makes the dungeon crawl more "gamey" than it would be played at most tables. A couple of questions, if you wouldn't mind: 1)How long does a torch otherwise last in resource management terms? When do you decide that a strong gust of wind has extinguished a character's torch? 2)By my reckoning, this Turn procedure prescribes a 1 in 12 chance of needing to rest after 2 turns, but that might also be interpreted the same as resting 1 turn out of ever 7, which is slightly more favorable than by-the-book. Is that a fair assessment?
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Post by howandwhy99 on Jun 26, 2022 22:58:10 GMT -6
Maze positioning and movement square counting makes up much of the most basic action for me behind the screen as a DM. Limited duration effects, like torches or spells, work easiest for me as counter dies next to the dice clock. Torches are d6, 1 hour, so i set them up next to the hour die with the same number. Once the number comes back around again I'll check off a torch (I don't need them to keep saying new torch over and over). I find this is a nice system the players can refer to to keep time. "We're over 3 hours in this dungeon! This is torch #4!"
Ironically variable torches would be harder for me. But I like the initiative.
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Post by captainjapan on Jun 27, 2022 9:10:05 GMT -6
Since we're talking about torches and such, here is an excerpt of the discussion of some alternatives to using the Hazard Die *, from Traverse Fantasy: *https://www.necropraxis.com/2014/12/23/hazard-system-v0-2/
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Post by hamurai on Jun 27, 2022 11:15:15 GMT -6
hamurai , Obviously, this is a matter of personal taste. The Turn pamphlet makes the dungeon crawl more "gamey" than it would be played at most tables. A couple of questions, if you wouldn't mind: 1)How long does a torch otherwise last in resource management terms? When do you decide that a strong gust of wind has extinguished a character's torch? 2)By my reckoning, this Turn procedure prescribes a 1 in 12 chance of needing to rest after 2 turns, but that might also be interpreted the same as resting 1 turn out of ever 7, which is slightly more favorable than by-the-book. Is that a fair assessment? Of course it's a matter of taste and I know other players who'd love the idea. Personally, when I'm playing a game where resource management is quite important as it is in "old school" D&D, especially at early levels, I prefer a system which is reliable - that is, where I can count on my torches lasting for a more or less set amount of time. Same goes for resting. When I play a dungeon delve, I'd like to be able to prepare for a certain time. Wandering monsters, traps and all that are enough uncertainty in my book, so let the resources be as reliable as possible. And I find it hard to get my mind around the idea that my character gets exhausted by pure chance and not depending on what they've done. A "professional adventurer" will be able to keep a pace where they know when to rest. When you're climbing a mountain you plan your breaks accordingly and don't climb till you're drained. (Thinking about it, simply ruling that a rest will reset the "tired" status in the Turn system would solve the issue for me.) I have the same issue with the hyped Resource Die from The Black Hack and similar games, where you roll your resource die when using resources, and on 1 (sometimes also 2) you downgrade the die to simulate waning resources. It's all fair until you reach d4 and you light a torch and only afterwards discover it was your last (because you roll a d4 and get a 1, in this example). Same goes for arrows in this system. Absolutely not my cup of tea for essential resources, both systems. If you're playing with resources being a secondary or more or less unused system, then it's no problem. Concerning your 2nd question: As far as my maths say it's a 1:36 chance (1/6 * 1/6) to roll the exact same number twice in a row, and I know it's statistically not unfair, but as we all know, it happens. And for me, this kind of stuff would be an immersion breaker. By freak chance I might be required to rest twice in a row, even if the odds are low, we all know, this stuff happens.
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Post by captainjapan on Jun 27, 2022 21:37:54 GMT -6
hamurai said: Exactly right. Wow, that was some embarrassing math! Thanks for the correction
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Post by hamurai on Jun 27, 2022 22:08:35 GMT -6
No worries, sometimes our thoughts just fall down a slope trap and end up in some dark dungeon
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