A History of My Complaints, and More Lessons
But before I go on to the OSR, let’s take a look at the lessons learned from the last blog:Lesson #6 – Too many rules is too many rules.I like rules, and reading rules, as much as the next gamer, maybe...
View ArticleThe OSR, Part I
There has always been a disconnect between the manufacturers of Dungeons & Dragons and the people who regularly play the game. The reasons for this disconnect are simple, and have to do with the...
View ArticleThe OSR, Part II
In many ways, the history of the OSR movement is bound up in the games they have helped create.When 3.0 debuted, one of the first publishers was Necromancer Games, whose PR tagline was “Third Edition...
View ArticleYour Comments and the Old School
As a way of introducing the OSR to some of my friends, I recommended to them Matt Finch’s excellent “Quick Primer for Old School Gaming”, available here.Matt Finch has been involved with a great many...
View ArticleImprovisation and the One-Page Dungeon
Greg Stafford notes that fully 50% of the work of game mastering lies in making it up, improvising to meet the needs and desires of your players as expressed by their characters.For the longest time...
View ArticleSo you have been doing what?
As I have recently returned to college as a full-time student, the last three weeks or so were taken up by the painful process of writing term papers for three classes. No excuse, perhaps, for letting...
View ArticleSo, what do I want? Part I
I have spoken a lot so far about the sort of elements of D&D I don’t like. So I thought I would begin to discuss the sort of D&D campaign that I do want.To begin with, a game with simple rules....
View ArticleMore Stuff I Want Part II
A ‘sandbox’ style campaign. For those of you unfamiliar with old-school play, there were two different sorts of play styles. The first involved dungeons, and only dungeons, which players serially...
View ArticleVisualizing Your Campaign
I believe that it is fairly important to rehearse what one is going to do on that first session, even it if it is only in one’s mind.I do want to DM in a more spontaneous way, but especially for that...
View ArticleTime, Travel, and Exploration
One of the most ignored and overlooked aspects of original Dungeons & Dragons (besides encumbrance) is the emphasis on time, traveling and exploration.Yet, as Davis Bowman...
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For Those Not in the Know: Resources I
I have had a few requests from those unfamiliar with the OSR for information about resources that I have been referring to. So if you are already familiar with the OSR, these next few pots might seem a...
View ArticleThe First Session: Success!
Last night inaugurated the first session of my OSR D&D campaign.I’ll get to the action in a moment, but the first thing I have to say is that it was a bit of a struggle at times to not interrupt...
View ArticleWilderlands Campaign write-up, Sessions 2 - 4
Well, it’s been a long time since I posted, which I blame on my return to the university as a student. That isn’t quite true, but it did burn enormous amounts of free time, which were not then...
View ArticleWilderlands Campaign House Rules
I know I said I would continue the saga of my players today, but got caught up working on my list of house rules. You will note influences from other games, as well as some new character classes. I'll...
View ArticleAnother Old-School Rant...
I just happened on a link to older Grognardia blog entry, where James M. talks about rhetoric used in describing the 'Old School' movement/renaissance/phenomena/whatever. In one of the comments, Carl...
View ArticleGM Questionnaire
Zak S of D&D with Porn Stars posted this questionnaire for GMs, so while I am working on a long review of Isle of the Unknown, I thought I would take a crack.1. If you had to pick a single...
View ArticleVariants in Swords & Wizardry
When Gary Gygax took Dave Arneson’s original notes, and created what became OD&D, the first variant on the game was created, and despite AD&D’s original intention of formalizing inviolate rules...
View ArticleVariant Weapon Table for Swords & Wizardry
Weapon Table: Ranges are in feet, Cost is in gp.WeaponTypeDamageCostNotesAxe, battle 1, 2Noble1d810+1 damage vs. ShieldAxe, hand 3Peasant1d63Range 5Bow, long 4, 5Yeoman1d82513+ Str, Range 50Bow, short...
View ArticleVariants – Amateurs are influenced; Dungeon Masters steal.
This re-purposed quote, variously attributed to Picasso, Lennon and Eliot, holds as true for campaigns as it does for art. There are plenty of good ideas out there and no good reason not to steal them...
View ArticleVancian Magic – How is this a Variant?
It might seem strange to declare that your variant magic system for D&D is Vancian, but bear with me a moment.As most of you reading this probably already know, the magic system of D&D is based...
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