Don't some people run more than one genre of D&D? Sill campaigns are just as fun as grimdark or serious campaigns. And I've actually used the Al'mi'raj as a serious monster, actually and not yet as a silly monster although it could work that way, too. Be creative! We don't need more slaad, we have a lot of slaad already, and they are not as flexible (or fun) as the more creative or interesting stuff.
The Carbuncle is straight out of Borges' Book of Imaginary Beings. Kind of like how the Gorgon is from Topsell's History of Four-Footed Beasts.
Not to say that the Fiend Folio doesn't have its share of bad monsters in it. Personally my least favorite is the Magnesium Spirit, which doesn't even have the ecological excuse the Denzelian (also not that great) has.
I enjoy the broadchurch mixed bag of the old D&D products. As a proponent of Dolmenwood I have no problem with bunny rabbit unicorns, or flying spaghetti monsters if it comes to that. Our resident cleric isn't finding Bacchus a particularly easy ride, maybe pastafarianism would suit him better...
Fokker D-VIII
-
The next teensy aeroplane in the queue is this 1:144 scale Fokker D-VIII,
nicknamed "the Flying Razor". It appeared late in 1918 with spectacular
perfo...
Development of the Majestic Fantasy RPG, Part 3
-
I find it useful to include a brief note on the assumptions behind why I
design things the way I do. In the case of the Manual of the Three
Adventuring A...
Witchcraft Wednesday: The Three Laws of Witchcraft
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[image: Photo by Ferdinand Studio:
https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-in-a-costume-reading-a-book-3922111/]
*"Let it be remembered that witches shall kee...
Stronghold of the Mad Dwarf
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By Ian HickeyGravity Realms2eLevels 1-2 Do you dare venture into the
Stronghold of the Mad Dwarf? Its dark corridors and forgotten halls hold
horrors beyon...
Starpath - Archive of Cosmic Truth
-
From the inscription “The Four Wonders” commonly displayed at Starpath
facilities.
Wording and attribution varies between systems.
*We built temples w...
Upgrading the Common Orc...
-
The common (some might say lowly) orc is ubiquitous in fantasy gaming, and
while clearly dangerous in numbers, they can become stale with repeated
use, e...
DF Felltower - Rumors running dry
-
We're scheduled for Felltower on Sunday. But I've hit a bit of a wall for
rumors. The PCs have repeatedly hit the same area over and over. There
isn't much...
[Fanzine Focus XLIV] High Passage Number Two
-
On the tail of Old School Renaissance has come another movement—the rise of
the fanzine. Although the fanzine—a nonprofessional and nonofficial
publication...
Vanishing Blogs From The Old Days
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There are so many RPG related blogs on every genre and category of RPG.
Periodically I discover that another blog is no more when an app on my blog
reports...
Subscribe to Dragonne
-
Dragonne is the free journal of BRW Games, featuring referee resources,
random tables, design articles, previews, and news for fans of old-school
fantasy r...
Single saving throws
-
It's been a while now that my D&D-style games have used a single saving
throw.
Original D&D's saving throws, with their more concrete categories like
spel...
Murder mystery
-
The local adventurers guild named "fernleaf and associates" is basically a
sleuthing agency. The patron is an older elf named Flynn fernleaf. He
pays wel...
The Common Store of Monsters
-
I am slowly grinding my way through the re-writes for Veins of the Earth.
As part of the re-write I have re-organised the ‘Pariahs of the Earth’
monsters ...
Young Washington and 1753
-
I saw Young Washington last weekend and absolutely loved it. If you know
me, you know the Revolutionary War era is my favorite time period. I have
always f...
The Old School (Hyperborean) Renaissance
-
Are these poorly-masked adventure hooks? Yes, yes they are.
For the last century a peculiar fever has gripped the learned societies of
Marlinko, Kezmaro...
Micro-Adventure - #114 RATS!
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Dungeon tropes are a thing to embrace, not to dismiss. It's simple to
handwave the storm the orc infested tower to save the princess, evil wizard
in a t...
Moldvay Basic D&D now Available in Print
-
Just a quick note that (finally) Moldvay Basic D&D is available in POD from
DTRPG – previously, only the Cook/Marsh …
Continue reading →
Abstraction in My Liege,
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I think the aspect of *My Liege,* that could potentially put off the most
people is its lack of accounting granularity. It does not track Court
wealth in...
Consolidated AD&D Weapon Characteristics List
-
Having spent the last few days down a research rabbit hole, I ended up
compiling a chart of AD&D weapon characteristics, adding some "missing"
entries an...
Referee Sabotage
-
It is an old saw that players are bad at executing their plans. Imagine
this common scene: the party have some big job that requires planning;
perhaps robb...
The March 1636 Lantern is Published
-
Okay, The March Lantern is available. Those fast on the draw may have
noticed that I mistakenly published it as free access for 56 minutes. I
was just so ...
On a Happy New Year
-
We are about to experience the most social upheaval since industrialization.
What will that look like in sixty years?
Sinless is starting it's third yea...
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*,
...
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...
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...
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 ...
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...
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...
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...
*'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...
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...
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 ...
The Worm Ouroboros
-
The Worm Ouroboros is a proto-fantasy (the in the genre sense) novel by E.
R. Eddison, originally published in 1922. It is an amalgam of mythological
tradi...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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!
...
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...
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 ...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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*...
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...
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 ...
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...
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...
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 ...
I mean, it's not like it is an actual mythological creature.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't make it any less silly:)
DeleteWhat about the Carbuncle, the armadillo with a ruby on its forehead. It shares the name with a cluster of boils...
Don't some people run more than one genre of D&D? Sill campaigns are just as fun as grimdark or serious campaigns. And I've actually used the Al'mi'raj as a serious monster, actually and not yet as a silly monster although it could work that way, too. Be creative! We don't need more slaad, we have a lot of slaad already, and they are not as flexible (or fun) as the more creative or interesting stuff.
DeleteThe Carbuncle is straight out of Borges' Book of Imaginary Beings. Kind of like how the Gorgon is from Topsell's History of Four-Footed Beasts.
DeleteNot to say that the Fiend Folio doesn't have its share of bad monsters in it. Personally my least favorite is the Magnesium Spirit, which doesn't even have the ecological excuse the Denzelian (also not that great) has.
I enjoy the broadchurch mixed bag of the old D&D products. As a proponent of Dolmenwood I have no problem with bunny rabbit unicorns, or flying spaghetti monsters if it comes to that. Our resident cleric isn't finding Bacchus a particularly easy ride, maybe pastafarianism would suit him better...
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-mi%27raj
ReplyDelete