Amazing Thing About the OSR

Is that there are always new products hitting the Virtual Shelves. Or old products that gets rediscovered.

Course, if you are like me and want just about every new product that is Old School in presentation price, and space becomes an issue. PDFs tend to cost less then print and consume no space... tastes great AND less filling.

So I say thank God for access to PDF publishing software. And PDF distributors. And PDF publishers, writers, artists and fans. Without all of them I doubt much of the OSR would have taken hold.

PDF publishing lowered the cost to enter the market. Yet with little overhead for PDF distributors the D20 Implosion won't be an issue.

Oh, and Lulu isnt all that bad... except when the US Post Office loses your stuff... but that's a rant for later.

Enjoy the Holidays / Holy Days all!

Are You a Fan... zine?

It seems like this little thing collectively known as the Old School Renaissance (wow, spelled that w/o the spell checker)has spawned another fanzine. We have two print / PDF magazines so far (Fight On! and Knockspell) and two PDF only magazines / fanzines. OD&DITIES is a fairly recent resurrection and bang for the buck has been good so far. Really, at 2 bucks an issue its hard to go wrong.

The newest addition is Oubliette. Again, bang for your 2 bucks is pretty good. My personal highlight? Subdual rules for LL. My low? The gobbie themed adventure. Sorry, too far from the norm for me to take to it.

4e has one print mag, and its not even from WotC.

Long live the OSR ;)

I Was a Teenage Gamer

Hey, I made the big time! ;)

Anyhow, last nite my son (soon to be 17... oh those teenage years) was looking over my shoulder as I was blogging / reading blogs. He says to me "people are still playing those games?" and later asked "how many people play those games?". These questions are leaps and bounds past the usual "You call Fantasy Grounds graphical?"

That and he's looking to read novels based on the TV series The Unit. My kid HATES reading. I think I might turn him in to a gamer yet. At least, he's thinking about it... in that of so frustrating teenage way. Me, I was so taken in my Lord of the Rings I was ready to get my gaming feet wet in 8th grade.

In the meantime we still have Star Trek Online together... and he's outleveling my ass in that game.. god bless him ;) Oh, and its very graphical... heh

Mythmere’s Adventure Design Deskbook

This is gonna be a quick and dirty review of Mythmere’s Adventure Design Deskbook, Volume One: Principles and Starting Points. Damn, how's that for a long ass title?

Anyhow, to some extend the introduction reads like a college textbook about RPG adventure design. Don't let that fool you or deter you. The meat of this product is its charts... and yes the do deliver.

This is NOT The Dungeon Alphabet. That was a slick production with amazing art and themed charts. Some people even complained about the scarcity of charts and tables in the The Dungeon Alphabet - 26 letters in the alphabet should have given most of those interested in the product a general idea of the number charts and tables they could expect to find.

Mythmere’s Adventure Design Deskbook takes a more practical or workman like approach of its presentation of tables and charts. This 46 page long, sparsely illustrated book is packed with charts that will flesh out the who, what, where, when and why of the latest adventure you plan to subject you group to. Motivations, twists, hidden history.. its all there.

5 bucks for the PDF version is a steal! Well done... this is dying to be put in a small program that will kick all the chart results out to the DM in waiting. Already looking forward to the next volume.

By the Letters...

There have been a good number of reviews of The Dungeon Alphabet since its release.  I even did one on the PDF version, which I liked alot.  I found the dead tree version on Amazon for 10 bucks, free shipping, so I had to bite.

As much as I enjoyed the PDF, the dead tree version is a killer with its artwork.  Any one of these pieces would look fine on my wall as a framed print.  They are that good, and that evocative of my gaming years when I was a teenage gamer.

If you can find yourself a copy in hardcover, do yourself a favor... grab it!

On a side note, this is day two of my country getaway.  Wheee!

Tomorrow I may give a short write up of Friday nite's C&C game I played in via Fantasy Grounds 2.  Or perhaps another review.