As I get older I'm finding it harder and harder to wrap my head around new game systems the further they stray from my D&D roots. I kinda look at D&D, it's offspring and variants as something akin to German dialects. It's pretty much the same language, but many things don't translate well betweenthe dialects. Still, if you know one dialect, you can probably communicate with the speaker of another dialect. So it goes with D&D, 3.5, the retro clones and such. 4e is more like the break between German and English... you can see many German roots in the English language, but they are far apart and totally different.
Anyhow, these days, the retroclones and other variants that are published these days I have no trouble wrapping my head around. True20 still makes my head hurt, as I know that it is close to what I know, but it's like talking to an Irishman from County Donegal - I know he is speaking English, but I'm still stuck scratching my head half the time ;) I'd like to understand True20 better, as there are some damn nice settings for that system.
Same goes for Savage Worlds... I've yet to play in a session using the rules, and something tells me until I do, it just won't click. FATE is another system that I really like, but I don't feel like I really know. Guess my problem is that I'm a native Dungeons & Dragon's speaker ;)
My weakness in High School and College was Foreign Languages - who would have guessed? heh
(don't forget, there is a contest going on thru 6pm 9/6//10 - Win a free PDF copy of Realms of Cthulhu for Savage Worlds - check out the contest here)
RPGNow
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Blogs of Inspiration & Erudition
-
-
Review & Commentary On Mad Scribe Magazine Issue #11 For OSR Games By Mad Scribe Games - " In our eleventh issue, Mad Scribe dives deep into the heart of tabletop culture and beyond! We sit down with legendary D&D artist Erol Otus, chat with Gr...7 hours ago
-
October Horror Movie Challenge: The Living Dead Girl (1982) - [image: The Living Dead Girl (1982)] Toxic waste is weird. Sometimes it can give you superpowers, like it did for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or The...7 hours ago
-
Pesky Divine Meddling - We now have a Oldschool scene in my city with lunch meetups and a second minicon called Gazzacon I'm running Goat Quest ...8 hours ago
-
Flak 36-38 88mm (15mm) - This is the 3d printed 15mm Flak 36-38 88mm gun that I've been working on the last couple of days. The crew are all *Command Decision* 15mm metals. O...11 hours ago
-
Math in Hitting - Everytime I use math, I get some sort of "I don't think that's true." In part, it's because it's impractical to use functions on blogger. In any case, now...15 hours ago
-
Miskatonic Monday #377: Moonglow - Much like the Jonstown Compendium for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and The Companions of Arthur for material set in Greg Stafford’s masterpiece of...18 hours ago
-
To Do List: Middle-earth and Greyhawk campaign notes; a new Lyonesse character - I’ve sadly neglected this blog over the past two months. But I have not been (entirely) idle – indeed, I’ve been quite busy running my two campaigns. [...1 day ago
-
October Horror Movie Challenge - Helloween (2025) - SynopsisDuring Halloween 1997 young Carl Cane commits several grisly murders. He is locked in a maximum psychiatrics institute. Jump forward to the pre...2 days ago
-
Stygina: The Land of Ice and Plunder - By Christopher WilsonSelf PublishedOSELevels 9-12 During the War of the Heavens, it is said that an acrchangel of Janu deseneded from the skies like a grea...3 days ago
-
At the Earth's Core and Pellucidar - *It was a huge tiger—such as hunted the great Bos through the jungles primeval when the world was young. In contour and markings it was not unlike the nobl...3 days ago
-
The Last Temptation of the DM: Why a Living Breathing World Needs Systematising - Is it possible to create a sandbox that is a 'living, breathing world'? No. It is possible to create one that to all intents and purposes *resembles* suc...4 days ago
-
On Bounty, Questions worth asking. - Well? Will we? Available Now! https://sinlessrpg.com ------------------------------ *Hack & Slash* Follow, Twitch, Support, Donate to end Cancer (5 ...5 days ago
-
Strange Knights - You’ve probably met knights from other realms, but these are different. While they resemble familiar knights in many ways, they have a different oath and...6 days ago
-
Rob Kuntz at Lucca Comics & Games 2025 - If you are planning a trip to Europe (like right now) and wish to catch up with me in person, make sure to book a detour via *Lucca Comics & Games*, ...6 days ago
-
Community Greyhawk – The Song of Iara - Today’s community Greyhawk takes us to The Song of Iara, a sequel/expansion of 2019’s Ghosts of Saltmarsh. It’s a 117 page pdf, with a standard 5E interior...1 week ago
-
ChatGPT seems to have opinions about the sort of games I want to play - I've been continuing my experimentation in using AI to code games/game aids by playing around with a character generator for the various threads of gamin...1 week ago
-
The Follow Me, And Die! Kickstarter Is Now Live! - Follow Me, And Die! The Card Game is now Live on Kickstarter! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1587147156/follow-me-and-die-the-card-game1 week ago
-
Random Links for 10/10/2025 - - AD&D Asassination. Seems straightforward in the PHB, and then the DMG comes and takes it away. Thanks, Gary. - Next game is in 3 weeks.1 week ago
-
Stonehell: B-Team Meets the Chosen of Zunbar & Rocky - Session 290 was played on 7/27/25 Sonara, Wizard 3 (Rob) Adorellen, Elf 2 (Me) Glimmer, Kobold 3 (Lanse) Kessaren, Cleric 3 (Cindy) Loahn, Halfling 3 (Josh)...1 week ago
-
What is the point of the OSR? - Over on Reddit, Kaliburnus asks What the point of the OSR is? He concludes his post with some questions. So, honest question, what is the point of OSR?...1 week ago
-
Ten Marlinko Townies To Annoy Your Party With - # Name Description 1 Mother Feketa Mummified, animate matriarch who rules her tenement block from a tub of heated mud. Gives quests in exchange for...1 week ago
-
Tombs: Fantasy Made Mortal... - So Gregorius 21778 has released *The Tomb of Ferkhat the Dreaded* for Blood of Pangea, complete with an excursion into an Egyptian-inspired burial. We lo...1 week ago
-
A review of The Golden Peaches of Samarkand - by Edward H. Schafer tldr; this book has a whole sub-section on Dwarfs Its 1962 and Edward H Schafer delves into ream upon uncounted ream of scholarship ...1 week ago
-
Unboxing the 2025 D&D Starter Set - I grabbed the 2025 Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set at Barnes & Nobles on Friday. An 'undented' copy. Because it is a Starter Set and meant to assist he...3 weeks ago
-
Musings on the OSR Blogosphere and Forums - Link to discussion There are some posts on the historical OSR blog scene that I’ve read recently from the Grumpy … Continue reading →4 weeks ago
-
How do you do piracy… in SPACE!? - Interstellar space travel in Iridium Moons was always going to be a form of hyperspace jump like in Star Wars or Traveller. Simply because it’s the one for...4 weeks ago
-
Free GM Resource: Freep!k Icon Generator - [image: Free GM Resource: Freep!k Icon Generator] Last week I mentioned a *secret project* and while I'm not going to divulge the project yet, I am bringi...5 weeks ago
-
The line has been crossed - I hope all you fuckers enjoyed your Blue Sky. It is coming. You reap what you sow.The right to free speech is a hill I will die upon.Slight update: Anyone...5 weeks ago
-
Zock Bock Radio return engagement - German AD&D superfan and podcast host Settembrini (who already had me on his show a couple-three years back) recently completed a two-year-long run thro...1 month ago
-
Greyhawk News You Can Use - Harvester 2025 Edition - I’m well-overdue for another Greyhawk news roundup, and a recent post by /u/talktoh in /r/Greyhawk prompted me to complete catchup on Greyhawk news for the...1 month ago
-
Tomb of the Blind and Deaf Dead - So the cat is out of the bag thanks to Tobias Schulte-Krumpen, who posted the above image to the Lamentations of the Flame Princess facebook group. I ...1 month ago
-
Eyes of Idola, Part 2 - This is Part 2. Here is Part 1. *Concept 1: Entering the Dungeon* Descending the stairs into B1, the party reach rooms that are dark, crowded, flooded, a...2 months ago
-
[BLOG] News on the March! Episode X. - This post continues the series of brief play reports I have been posting on Discord. This does not cover every single session (sometimes, recon and setup...2 months ago
-
The First Dungeon Crawl in History - Mapping a Lost Session Report, Part II - Today detailed reports from game sessions are common. Until recently, some of the oldest I knew of were to be found in Alarums & Excursions, but only ra...2 months ago
-
A long overdue hobby update! - Welcome back to the Vault everyone! 2025 is going by in a blur; I last posted in February, almost started a post in March and now it's the end of May. W...4 months ago
-
Pulp: Adventure Location: Trindade & Martim Vaz - History is fractally interesting. Start examine any event, or following any citation, and interesting facts emerge. But some places, for whatever reason,...5 months ago
-
All Work and No D&D Makes Homer Something Something - I have a problem. I haven't played an RPG in about a year. Circumstances in my life are such that I have precious little free time. Now that I've written...5 months ago
-
Playing at the World 2E V2 Arrives - With the release of its second volume, the second edition of *Playing at the World *is finally complete. The two books combined total well over 1,000 ...5 months ago
-
Blogs on Tape season 6 has begun! - Hi everybody! Its been a minute. How are you? Everything is awful all the time? Horrors never cease? You’re being driven mad by the weight of the unfathoma...5 months ago
-
Lexicon of Klarkash-Ton, Hierophant of Atlantis: Lupanar - This time, we follow the good High Priest to the far future, to the final continent of Earth, Zothique, for a a tale of ennui and love: Morthylla. Witho...7 months ago
-
Articulations - Creating house rules, custom rules specific to a local group or campaign, has been common throughout the history of D&D. What makes an effective house rule...9 months ago
-
Writing playlists for all occasions - Hello again! Going off the idea of inspiration elaborated on by the prior post, I also have music playing while I write my various games and fiction pieces...10 months ago
-
The Tarot of Pips - Somewhere in your dice collection is a die like this one, the humblest of dice. Although you don't know it, this small white die carries with it a secr...10 months ago
-
Pirates and Necromancers, a Play Report - Over the Thanksgiving weekend we did a lot of gaming ranging from “off-table” domain level stuff to some solo adventures to spell and magic item rese...10 months ago
-
It's been a bit - Hey everyone, I hope you are doing well! I've had a lot going on and haven't had much time to blog lately. Heres a recap of gaming events and other st...1 year ago
-
*'s in SpaaaaaAaaaace - A lot of SF (including a certain 2D6 RPG grandaddy) deal with ancient aliens taking humans from Earth and dropping them, fleas and all, on one or more w...1 year ago
-
Last move - to self-hosting! - As my vote regarding Substack in the “marketplace of ideas”, I’m moving to self-hosting. I’m now at (and hopefully staying for a long time at) Blog: ht...1 year ago
-
Osamu Tezuka (1928 - 1989) - [image: Osamu Tezuka - Shonen Magazine Cover, 1970]Shonen Magazine Cover, 1970 [image: Osamu Tezuka - Shonen Magazine Cover Illustration 1970]Shonen Maga...3 years ago
-
Clean Your Room - Looking back at my little blog here. That last post… wow, I was having fun playing WOW Classic! That was August of 1999 and I was having a blast… it was ...3 years ago
-
-
Steve Jackson Interview - James Maliszewski recently did an interview with Steve Jackson over on his Grognardia blog. Steve chats about the beginnings of The Fantasy Trip and upcomi...5 years ago
-
The Hero’s Journey 2nd Edition, Campbellian roleplaying at its best! - (this review done using the reviewers own purchased copy) I have been a James Michael Spahn fan since he wrote his Swords & Wizardry Companion. His writing...5 years ago
-
ToAD Monster of the Week: Crocoman - Now that I'm back doing the blog thing I thought I would use Tome of Adventure Design to create monsters for The Black Hack. Using the monster tables in th...5 years ago
-
More Arden Vul Art - Another great piece from Del, this one's the Forum of Set: a place that the PCs may spend quite a bit of time within.5 years ago
-
OCHRE SAND - Init +0 Ranged Atk • fire burst +3 (1d14+1, 20') AC 17 HD 3d6 MV 60 Act 1d24 SP 'breath' weapon, sideslip, perfect silence, morphing Fort +5 Ref +8 Will...5 years ago
-
Strange, Dangerous, and Inhuman: The Fey and Fairie - When I was a boy I loved fairy tales. Jack and the Beanstalk, Puss in Boots, Rumpelstiltskin - I devoured all of it. My fascination that there was a strang...5 years ago
-
The Faithful - An Optional Archetype for Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells Revised Edition - Work on the revised edition of Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells is moving along. This will be a hefty tome, with a LOT of tools and new options to customiz...5 years ago
-
Dungeons & Dragonmead Fall Schedule - *As you know, I run public classic Dungeons & Dragons games at **The Loaded Die**/Metro Detroit Game Night's Board Game Nigh at **Dragonmead**, in Warren...6 years ago
-
Fiction in Airhde - On a whim this weekend, I picked up some fiction off the TLG store. *A Houseless God & Other Tales* and *The Mirrored Soul & Other Tales*, both by the T...6 years ago
-
-
Ravensburg Reboot: Streamlined City Map - I mentioned in my last post how I was tweaking and reworking parts of my Ravensburg setting. Today I streamlined the city map. The old map had lots of redu...6 years ago
-
The Withered Crag available now - I just enabled the sale of the PDF version of The Withered Crag at DriveThruRPG a few minutes ago, and the custom print version will be available startin...6 years ago
-
Annihilation Rising Goes live - The latest in Fail Squad Games’ Quick Kick projects has gone live and needs your support!! This project is only running 11 days and ends on 5/28/2019! ...6 years ago
-
James's Celebration of Life - We could not have asked for a prettier day for James's service. It was a bit chilly and windy but gorgeous. A heartfelt thank you to all that joined us tod...6 years ago
-
Trap Tuesday: A step back - I will get back to Tomb of Horrors soon. I found a topic that was interesting enough to take a break. While interacting in a 5E group on Facebook I talked ...6 years ago
-
Let's Talk About Pacing! - The idea, I think, is that the RPG is ultimately about the long game. Even rolling back to the early days of Basic & Expert, the goal of the player was...6 years ago
-
Profane and Profound Prep Part 2 - This is part 2 of my work to edit my magic items for a DMsGuild release, along with adding cursed items along the way. Here is part 1. Bone of a Saint 8000...6 years ago
-
MIDDLE DUNGEONS LEVEL FIVE 158 STAIRS. - 158 STAIRS. These stairs descend thirty feet to Area 79 on Level 6.6 years ago
-
Please, I don't do paid advertisements - don't ask. - A little note since people have asked me about this. My video channel's *not* an advertising platform, so I'm not available for hire if you want to promote...6 years ago
-
New website! - Slowly but surely, all the content here will make its way — in updated form! — to my new website: timbannock.com. For fairly obvious reasons, that site wil...6 years ago
-
Please Update Your Link! - If you're seeing this, it means your link to the Greyhawk Grognard blog is out of date. Please update your link to www.greyhawkgrognard.com (RSS feed is h...6 years ago
-
Total Sales for WB:FMAG - Hi Folks, It's been a long time since I provided an update for the sales of White Box: Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game. *LULU* Print: 396 PDF: 433 *OBS*...7 years ago
-
How can We Destroy this Campaign World? - d12 1. You must trick a bard into strumming the *Chords of Fate* on the *Lute of Annihilation* 2. Legends tell of thermonuclear weapons beneath megadunge...7 years ago
-
Mord Mar - Session 5 - We had another successful delve into the dungeon yesterday. The delvers: Moira, the Magic-User Radovan - Human Cleric (of Odin?) Khazgar Stonehand - Dwarf ...7 years ago
-
Yodeling For Yokels or The Further Misa(d&)dventures - This is the one of those posts that points out the lack of current posts. Over the last week or three, there has been postponed Labyrinth Lord (twice, one...7 years ago
-
Bundle of Fantasy Age - Bundle of Holding: Dragon Age/Fantasy Age: Available until March 12. PA Presents: Fantasy AGE Freeport live play Green Ronin in 2018 The Fantasy Age RPG ma...7 years ago
-
New Free PDF Module: The Hyqueous Vaults - A new dungeon module—written in celebration of OSRIC's 10th Birthday—by Rebecca Dettmann, Allan T. Grohe, Jr., Jimm Johnson, Matthew Riedel, Alex Zisch, a...7 years ago
-
Session XCIII: One Pissed Off Dragon! - Our ongoing Swords and Wizardry sandbox campaign... *Current Player Characters:* *Thenus* (Ranger) *Wang Du* (Monk) *Wolfheir* (Viking) *Arg* (Half-orc) ...8 years ago
-
Swords & Wizardry Light: Session # 6 - Two months after our last session (thanks to things like 8th grade finals, a 4 year-old's birthday and party, Father's Day, etc.), we finally had our next ...8 years ago
I feel the exact same way
ReplyDeleteThe trick with Savage Worlds is indeed playing it. Reading it reveals some interesting bits, but nothing that looks all that great. But when you play it, and see how it all fits together, then you might find something you'd enjoy playing. It is my go-to game for non-DnD gaming.
ReplyDeleteSteve, i am sure you are right. Maybe i'll find my way into a FG2 game of Savage Worlds
ReplyDeleteI find Savage Worlds to be a versatile game system that contains a surprising amount of depth. For White Haired Man I create both OGL and Savage Worlds creatures and NPCs.
ReplyDeleteThe 3.5 rules often feel like a labyrinthine straightjacket, especially for creatures. There are so many types and templates and rules to being consistent in creature abilities. On the other hand, Savage Worlds allows me to create creatures and NPCs closer to my vision more quickly. I feel that Savage Worlds gives me freedom.
But my favorite system of all time is EarthDawn, which many people seem to find very confusing.