Are you a busy GM? Does session prep take too long? Do you never have time to work on the cool little details that bring your adventures, dungeons and campaign to life?
Fear not.
This dread compilation gives you, the time-crunched GM, the tools to effortlessly add verisimilitude and detail to 100 different types of monstrous lairs. Use the material herein either before or during play and bask in your players' adulation.
You can use the lists herein before or during your game to help breathe life into a monster’s lair. Adding depth and verisimilitude to your game helps the players’ (hopefully willing) suspension of disbelief and leads to a better game.
Use the system-neutral material herein either before or during play and bask in your players’ adulation.
This product is a Dual Format PDF and comprises two versions, one optimised for printing and use on a normal computer and one optimised for use on a mobile device such as an iPad. The download for this book now includes individual text files complete with markdown formatting for each of the Monstrous Lairs instalments presented within.
This book is compatible with every edition of the world's most popular role-playing game!
"For the sun gave forth its light without brightness, like the moon, during the whole year.” So wrote Byzantine historian Procopius of the year 536 A.D., the year the first of three catastrophic volcanic eruptions in Iceland would drop global summer temperatures by 1.5 to 2.5 degrees Celsius and herald the beginning of the coldest decade on record in 2,000 years. Migrations of Germanic, Hunnic, and Slavic tribes have swept aside and now pick over the remains of the Western Roman Empire, sacking Rome itself and establishing a network of “barbarian kingdoms” across the west. Crop failure, famine, the Justinian Plague will devastate a fractured Europe for the next hundred years. Of all the time periods called the “Dark Ages,” this is surely - both literally and figuratively - the darkest.
This historical context is interwoven with both “authentic” medieval folklore and the classic elements of 19th- and 20th-century fantasy fiction found in your typical Appendix N. This ‘Dark Year’ and all of its tumultuous events provides players and Judges a compelling backdrop upon which to project historical fantasy adventures. While based upon historical context, these are works of fiction: liberties have been taken where doing so would be entertaining. Weave fiction and fantasy as you please, and above all: Fight On!
This book contains 95 pages of rules for: expanded character creation, cultures, languages, soubriquets, mass combat, social status, equipment, estates & strongholds, trade goods & services, crime, punishment & trials, medicines, poisons, and retainers - - everything referees and players could want to set their old-school fantasy role-playing campaigns within a 6th century Europe historical fantasy setting.
I seem to collect RPG settings. Ever since AD&D 2e, with its endless proliferation of settings, it seems like I collect more settings than I'll ever use in multiple lifetimes. I have a special affinity for darker settings, like Dark Sun and Midnight, because they make heroic characters seem even more heroic in nature, as they try to hold back in the inevitable tide.
Rune & Relic Press invites you to the Lands of Formoria; a campaign setting in the world of Asterra with a rich history that has been developed through decades of game play. This guide offers a detailed milieu in which to place your adventures. It has a particular flavor, detailed locations, cultures, religions, politics, npc’s, and history. Although this book was written for use with Shadowdark the RPG. Most of the content here is system agnostic and entirely usable in other systems.
The setting of Formoria echoes 4th century dark ages Europe in flavor and theme. It lies on the northern fringes of “civilization” having been settled and colonized by civilized peoples from the Katalian Empire roughly 150 years ago. The world of Asterra was developed and written by Bryan O'Doherty over the span of two decades of actual game-play. The history of heroes and great deeds, magical items and artifacts and the current state of cultures, kingdoms and empires is the result of actual at-the-table gameplay since '99.
THE FORMORIA MAP PACK IS NOW INCLUDED WITH YOUR PURCHASE OF THE PDF!
OSE is probably "Thee" OSR Ruleset, having unseated Labyrinth Lord (or rather, LL simply fled the field of play). I have everything in the OSE Advanced Fantasy Bundle. If you don't, grab this bundle now!
Adventurer! This Old-School Essentials Advanced Fantasy Bundle presents Old-School Essentials Advanced Fantasy, the complete and definitive version of the Old-School Essentials tabletop roleplaying rules set from Necrotic Gnome. Old-School Essentials Advanced Fantasy is a complete "best of" retelling – it's the Basic/Expert Dungeons & Dragons rules, streamlined and expanded with reams of new character options, monsters, and magic inspired by Advanced Dungeons & Dragons First Edition (1978): assassins, poisons, drow, half-orcs, mimics, xorns, vorpal swords, ioun stones, and even the dreaded tarrasque. Presented in the clear and elegant Old-School Essentials style, and 100% compatible with the Basic/Expert rules, these voluminous digital tomes are perfect for anyone new to Old-School Essentials. And if you already love OSE, check the twelve complete adventures in this lineup, designed by old-school luminaries like Brad Kerr, Diogo Nogueira, Luka Rejec, and many more.
For just US$7.95 you get all three complete rulebooks in this offer's Starter Collection (retail value $37.50) as DRM-free ebooks, including the Old-School Essentials Advanced Fantasy Player's Tome, Referee's Tome, and Advanced Fantasy Reference Booklet, along with several free play aids.
And if you pay more than the threshold price of $19.98, you'll level up and also get this offer's entire Bonus Collection with six more titles worth an additional $65, including Old-School Essentials Adventure Anthology 1 and Anthology 2 plus four full-length adventures: Halls of the Blood King, Holy Mountain Shaker, Incandescent Grottoes, and Isle of the Plangent Mage.
Not only are the rules for Hulks & Horrors PWYW in PDF, but they are also PWYW in Print!
Are you looking to play some science fiction, without straying too far away from classic dungeon crawls and/or hex crawls? (unless you want to!) Hulks & Horrors may be the very game for you.
We are not alone in the Universe, but we have few friends. As we emerged on the galactic stage, we found a universe stripped bare of sentient life by a great Plague, leaving only the wild beasts and twisted plague horrors wandering the ruined hulks of lost civilizations.
We are the Surveyors. We explore the uncharted sectors of space and hunt these ruins for the treasures they contain and the riches they might bring to what sentient life remains. We are not brave, merely foolhardy and desperate. Those who survive become rich beyond dreams. Very few survive. Hulks & Horrors is a science-fiction roleplaying game of galactic exploration and adventure for 2 or more players ages 13 and up. Inside you will find:
Complete rules for characters up to Level 6 and beyond
7 character classes: Pilot, Scientist, Soldier, Psyker, Hovering Squid, Omega Reticulan, and Bearman.
Easy to learn old-school inspired game rules and combat system
Weapons, armor, and equipment inspired by classic science-fiction
Spaceship construction and combat rules
Random tables for creating whole sectors of space
Loot generation rules
Dozens of alien monsters as well as guides for designing your own
Dungeon-mastering advice for sandbox space exploration
A bit of an OSR Kitchen Sink of a supplement, Tarnhelm's Tome of Wonder is a collection of optional rules for the OSR ruleset of your choice. New classes, new magic, psionics, super powers, and much, much more. Make sure this is in your toolbox, and use what you like and ignore the rest.
Tarnhelm's Tome of Wonder: An Original Edition Toolkit is large collection of optional rules and subsystems for the original 1974 (0e) version of the world’s most popular tabletop fantasy roleplaying game (and modern clones), with a selection of new monsters, treasures and ideas for dungeon and wilderness hazards tossed in for good measure. Many of the optional rules are modern renditions of the better house rules the author used with his Original Edition games in the 1970s. This volume may be considered a revised and greatly expanded edition of our free Tarnhelm's Terrible Tome (from 2014) presented entirely as optional modules instead of as a supplement revising the game.
Tarnhelm's Tome of Wonder is full of options -- some of them mutually exclusive as they provide different ways of doing basically the same thing. It's a toolkit for an Original Edition Referee to select from to use as written or as a starting point for homebrewed material that better fits their needs.
Section I provides many optional rules and systems for Backgrounds and Talents, Heroic Characters, Psychic Gifts, Variant classes, Combat Stunts, Mobs, Hit Point Powered Magic, Common Magic, Divine Intervention, Funerals and Tombs, Mooks, Property and Finance, Psionics, Death and Dying, Encumbrance and Movement, Allegiance (replacing Alignment), Wound Points, and about 40 more!
Section II covers the “endgame” where PCs run their own domains and provides two systems: one simple and one more complex. Basic rules for mass combat are also provided.
Section III has more monsters (mythos monsters and human cultists) and guidelines for NPC adventuring groups.
Section IV provides over 18 pages of new treasures, including some designed for use with some of the optional rules in Section I.
Section V talks about “hazards” for both dungeons and wilderness areas.
Section VI provides two different system for mutations -- one simple, one complex. Although these guidelines are mainly intended for Referees to mutate monsters, these rules can work for mutated player characters.
Section VII gives a selection of comic book style superpowers designed to work with the Original Edition. While brief, experimental rules for superpowered PCs are included, this section is really for the Referee to model comic book superheroes should the PCs ever encounter any.
Section VIII gives some simple rules for firearms of different eras.
Wow! Return to Fel'Valashar [Swords & Wizardry] was written for Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day way back in 2017. I kinda forgot that was a thing for a couple of years, even if I was the one to think it up. I'm curious what the flavor is now - a particular system, or maybe an OSR Appreciation Day...
Written in celebration of Swords and Wizardry AppreciationDay 2017, Return to Fel’Valashar picks up where Dungeons of Fel’Valashar left off. In this book is a collection of mini dungeon adventures with a small region called Fel’Valashar that they take place within. Each of these adventures is written in such a way that they don’t have any ties to each other or to Fel’Valashar. This means you can easily drop them into your own world with no fuss.
Includes:
Details of the south-western region of Fel’Valashar.
Okay, everything I've read about Pestilence at Halith Vorn is that it is one of those rare modules/adventures - rave reviews across the board and written for that sweet spot for the party, where their powers are coming into focus but aren't overpowering just yet. This looks to be a fun one, not just to play in, but to run.
An Adventure for six to eight 4th to 6th-level characters:
In the days before the rise of the Jade Empire and the rule of the serpent men, the enigmatic axolittians reigned in Halith Vorn and there built their cities amongst the reeds in the swamps and caverns below. They mastered sorcerous arts and paid homage to devils and terrifying elemental beings. In the end, their serpent men slaves rose up and rebelled against their rule, driving the axolittians into the lower caverns; there they lingered on, slowly degenerating to a primitive and base level. In turn the Jade Empire was cast into ruin, and the former slaves of the serpent men occupied parts of the once great city. Finally came the Cultists of Thul, worshipers of disease and inheritors of serpent man sorcery, enemies of civilization and the Baron in Longfelt, searching for a weapon of great power...
This is an adventure of warring cults and lost civilisations. This module presents a time—and exploration-focused site that can be used with existing Gunderholfen campaigns or slotted easily into any other milieu. It consists of 300+ keyed areas detailing a disease-afflicted and doom-laden village under assault by corrupted, power-hungry cultists; a hex-crawl region; and a main adventure site of ruined temples, tombs, a five-level dungeon, and two planar complexes.
Review:
"I’m a big fan of this. I wish I could better convey all that makes it work. The factions, the cultists proper. The interactivity and variety of types of things to do and explore. It’s really all of the components integrated as a whole, working together to bring something more than the sum of its parts. Design.
Generally, I think, I might find one adventure a month or so that is not terrible or even good. Then something like this comes along; something that is not just good but is F*$&ING GREAT." Tenfootpole.
I am a HUGE fan of Raging Swan Press. If you are an improv-style GM, their releases should be in your toolkit. Raging Swan's Dressing Collection for 14.95 is an amazing deal! Grab it now!
Overworked gamemaster, does prep for your tabletop fantasy roleplaying game sessions take too long? Do you never have time to design the cool little details that bring your game to life? Turn to the Dungeon Dressing system-neutral gamemastering resources from Raging Swan Press. "Dungeon dressing" is the art of adding small, evocative details and minor points of interest to your dungeons, cities, and wilderness encounters. These details help you breathe life into your creation – to set the scene and tell a story. Dungeon dressing helps your players suspend their disbelief and immerse themselves in your game. No matter what fantasy game you're playing, add color to every scene with the themed lists, flavorful characters, names, items, and riddles in this all-new Dungeon Dressing Bundle of fully bookmarked .PDF ebooks compiled from Raging Swan's Dungeon Dressing series.
For just US$14.95 you get all four complete compendia in our Dressing Collection (retail value $63.50) as DRM-free ebooks, including GM's Miscellany: Dungeon Dressing, Wilderness Dressing, and both Urban Dressing I and Urban Dressing II.
It appears that Greg Chistopher, AKA The Chubby Funster, has a birthday, and he's celebrating by putting damn well near the whole Chubby Funster Store Fronton Sale! There's a ton of amazing releases for ShadowDark and more!
The Companion Expansion (not to be confused with the B/X Companion) is an add-on for OSR rulesets with new classes, new spells, new creatures, new magic items, and more. Did I mention it was PWYW?
Presenting additional creatures and magical items for fantasy roleplaying games for basic- and expert-level players and gamemasters, including 7 additional character classes (bard, druid, gnome, half-elf/half-orc, half-ogre, illusionist, scout), expanded experience tables up to 36th level, two additional types of magic (druid and illusion) and additional magic-user and cleric spells (90 in all), over 130 new or additional creatures, dozens of new or additional magic items, and a complete treasure generation system!
Also includes expanded spell lists for three free "retro-clone" rulebooks and expanded combat, saving throw, and other tables. Use these rules to expand your campaign in the WORLD OF STRONGHOLD or wherever your games are set! Note: this free download version does not contain art. Print version available at www.barrataria.com.
I prefer low-level adventuring (and lower-level campaign play overall). Once you get to high-level play, off-the-shelf adventures often fail to be an appropriate challenge for your group of players (too easy or too difficult), and things can get a bit swingy. Low-level play is where it is at IMHO.
Winds of the Ice Forestis a low-level (levels 1 to 3) adventure for Labyrinth Lord. The fact that it is a J.V. West-written (and drawn) adventure has me downloading as I type! ;)
The dreaded Ice Forest! Once a safe passage to the north, now the forest's evil magic seeks to trap and confuse travelers with ever-shifting paths full of terrible dangers. New monsters, new magic items, new magics!
This adventure for character levels 1-3 was designed for Labyrinth Lord but can be used with any old school dungeon-crawling RPG. It is a drop-in locale that can be played through in a few hours or in a much longer session...per the needs of your gaming group.
Cavern of the Creeping Terror is an OSR adventure, loosely based on "The Glus from Deltora Quest, the arctic horror of The Thing, and Grendel’s mother’s lair from Beowulf". I can reference two out of three (Deltora Quest is new to me). For PWYW, I've added Cavern of the Creeping Terror to my collection of Ready-To-Go adventures.
Undead frost pirates, mad imprisoned fae, and a pile of loot guarded by a monstrous slug...
A third level OSR adventure featuring a three-tiered, 22 cavern dungeon adaptable for fantasy roleplaying systems with a light horror aesthetic. Includes:
A system neutral bestiary
A horde of loot for greedy adventurers
Possibility for diplomacy, betrayal, and a seaside village on the precipice of destruction
Inspired by Beowulf, The Thing, and Deltora Quest.
"This adventure delivers that evocative style over and over again...This one has the spirit of D&D..."
It has been over 20 years since Necromancer Games first unleashed the Tome of Horrors, and our philosophy has not changed... everybody needs more monsters! Necromancer Games has always been known for its monsters, and with the Tome of Essential Horrors, we would like to introduce those unique and mysterious creatures to your Old-School Essentials table.
This beast of a book contains over 100 monsters and brings classic monsters from Frog God Games and Necromancer Games to OSE referees and players. Each entry includes a full OSE stat block, classic black-and-white art, and an interesting encounter that highlights the creature.
The Tome of Essential Horrors contains all you need to gleefully exceed your players' expectations. Can the heroes escape the clutches of the witch tree, the riptide horror, or the cave fisher? Will they survive the pyrolisk’s conflagration gaze? We cannot guarantee a TPK every time, but you’ll have buckets of fun trying!
I'm always a fan of Gamma World-esque hacks. Metamorphosis BX had escaped my attention before today, but I noticed it as today's Deal of the Day. Until tomorrow morning, Metamorphosis BX is priced at $3, 50% off its regular price.
Metamorphosis BX is a post-apocalyptic MiniBX hack in which you'll roleplay a hybrid survivor in an ever-changing world in which a cataclysm has fragmented time and space. It is light both in mechanics and tone, aiming to be fun above all.
With the release of version 1.0, the game is complete with many character origins (like alien-insect, primal-animal, nano-machine, etc.), mutations (benign and malign), powers (hacking and psychic), artifacts (ancient, alien, and planar), creatures (from Alien Artificial Intelligences to Radioactive Zombies), and a setting, called Atropicalypse (inspired by Brazil), with its regions and factions.
All the cool kids are playing Mörk Borg. Or at least, that's what they tell me. I have the rules and a number of their third supplements, and it is as much about style as it is about substance. For most folks I know, it seems to be a very polarizing game to be exposed to - they either love it or hate it. I'm one of the few impressed by what it is, but not fawning over it to the point I trip over my own feet. I will say this much, for me to get a fuller appreciation of the rules as I read them, I've found playing a little Ramones (a live album, of course), or the Sex Pistols, and maybe mix the Dead Kennedys into the playlist, puts me more into the mood to appreciate Mörk Borg for what it is - an old school gaming vibe with the soul of classic punk. YMMV - the authors claim a Doom Metal Vibe, but classic punk is a better match for me. Showing my age, I guess- Tenkar ;)
Here's the pitch for Mörk Borg from the core rules sales page:
A doom metal album of a game. A spiked flail to the face. Light on rules, heavy everything else.
MÖRK BORG is a pitch-black apocalyptic fantasy RPG about lost souls and fools seeking redemption, forgiveness or the last remaining riches in a bleak and dying world. Who are you? The tomb-robber with silver glittering between cracked fingernails? The mystic who would bend the world’s heart away from it’s inevitable end? Confront power-draining necromancers, skulking skeletal warriors and backstabbing wickheads. Wander the Valley of the Unfortunate Undead, the catacombs beneath the Bergen Chrypt or the bedevilled Sarkash forest. But leave hope behind - the world’s cruel fate is sealed, and all your vain heroic efforts are destined to end in death and dismay. Or are they?
MÖRK BORG is a complete game in the OSR genre, that can be played as is or be picked apart for use in your own homebrew. The rules are easily made compatible with most of the editions of the world’s largest role-playing game. Within the book you’ll find:
A brief look at this dying world. From The Two-Headed Basilisks’ gothic cathedral in Galgenbeck and Blood-countess Anthelia’s limestone palace, to the fields of death in Graven-Tosk and the barren wastes of Kergüs.
The Calendar of Nechrubel, that decides the speed of the world’s demise.
20 occult Powers that let you bend reality, and just as many magical catastrophes for when you disastrously fail.
Optional rules which brings more depth to the game. Omens let you turn bad luck into a slightly better one. Classes with unique traits and quirks, and tables that will bring life into your character.
12 creatures to be murdered by.
Game master tools such as tables for corpse plundering, occult treasure, adventure sparks, dungeon generating and other devilry.
The introductory dungeon crawl scenario Rotblack Sludge, where you investigate a forgotten part of the Shadow King’s enormous ruin palace. Cannibal warlocks, poison peddlers from beyond the void and hungry gutworms await.
MÖRK BORG is constructed by Pelle Nilsson (Ockult Örtmästare Games) and Johan Nohr (Stockholm Kartell). The game is published by Free League Publishing and is available in Swedish and English - the English text is edited and cursed by Patrick Stuart (Veins of the Earth, Silent Titans).
Blood & Treasure is the fantasy role-playing game for people who want to spend less time arguing over rules and more time playing! Compatible with most old school games but not shy to dip into the new school, it keeps the rules simple and the play quick. Includes easy to learn rules of play, including mass combat and naval combat rules - All the information you need to create fantasy characters from one of seven fantasy races and one of thirteen fantasy classes - Over 600 magic spells - Rules for building strongholds and running a domain - helpful guides to creating dungeons, wilderness, cities and other dimensions for your adventures - over 400 monsters and scads of magic items. Desert the edition wars and play a game with Blood & Treasure!
Six-Shooters & Wagons is a Swords & Wizardry Continual Light hack that lets move away from dungeons and into the saloons and wagon trails of the old west. This pdf is everything you'll need to make a posse and become a legend of the west. In the pdf you'll find.
Complete light rules for playing in the old west.
4 new classes: Gunslinger, Scout, Soldier, and Swindler
The BX Advanced Gold Edition rules are based on the 1978 advanced first edition edition of the world’s most popular fantasy roleplaying game with the less complex game systems of the 1981 B/X edition. In other words, this is a modern version of the fantasy roleplaying game many people played in the 1980s. They started playing with the B/X edition and just added the races, classes, spells, monsters and treasures from the first Advanced edition, instead of using all the more complex rules from the Advanced Edition. All of the first advanced edition fun without all the often complex and fiddly rules.
In BX Advanced, you may play a first edition style assassin, barbarian, bard, cleric, druid, fighter, illusionist, magic-User, monk, paladin, ranger, or thief in an old school game of exploration, treasure-finding, and fast to play combat. While B/X systems are used instead of the more complex first advanced edition rules, many of the limits of B/X have been removed: there are 20+ levels instead of 14; race is separate from class, spells go to 9th level instead of 6th, and there are many more monsters and treasure items than in B/X. Be a hero or a rogue: your decisions determine whether your character will retire rich, rule a kingdom, or die before his time.
This modern version also includes many optional rules: psionics, some of the house rules the author used in the 1970s, and selected ideas from other roleplaying games. While a sample adventure and campaign setting are included, these rules can easily be used with all of the old adventures designed for B/X or 1e and the many new adventures published for these games in the last few years – or you can easily create adventures of your own.
The Guidebook to the Duchy of Valnwall is a FREE Labyrinth Lord™ supplement that expands on the critically acclaimed Guidebook to the City of Dolmvay and details the people, layout, and government of the Duchy of Valnwall. The Duchy is presented in broad strokes and is open to customization. It was specifically designed to give Labyrinth Lords a convenient and familiar fantasy setting to place their adventures.
The Guidebook to the Duchy of Valnwall is largely open content. Small Niche Games would like to encourage professional and amateur publishers to use the Guidebook as a shared fantasy setting and set their commercial adventures within the Duchy of Valnwall. Labyrinth Lords (and publishers) should feel free to change, add, or remove any of the information in this book to better suit his or her own game.
The Guidebook to the Duchy of Valnwall contains:
-A breakdown of Valnwall adventure themes
-History of the Duchy of Valnwall
-Detailed overview of the Duchy of Valnwall including government, religion, commerce, and laws and punishment
-Descriptions of over a dozen major festivals
-An overview of the citizens of the Duchy including a breakdown of social classes, daily life for commoners and nobles, style of dress, arms and armor, rumors and gossip, and common gestures, curses, and phrases
-Geography of the Duchy including details on cities, towns, mountains, forests, other terrain features, and more. . .along with an amazingly detailed set of maps by cartographer Tom Fayen
-Descriptions of numerous factions and stat blocks for NPCs
-Descriptions of different types of settlements
-Over a dozen unique Valnwall random encounters
-Over two dozen new plants and monsters native to the Duchy
-More information about the massive seawall and megadungeon known as the Great Valnwall
The Guidebook to the Duchy of Valnwall is available now for FREE so check it out!
The DOOM of the DARK is coming...
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The Black Casket of Night has indeed been opened beneath our feet, soon,
only days will remain!
I have been posting here and there about ‘Doom of the Dar...
Jackson, IL: Am I Evil? NPCs of the Satanic Panic
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Last week, I talked about running two different 80s-style teenage horror
campaigns. My Sunny Valley, OH game with Dark Places & Demogorgons and my
curren...
Free GM Resource: 1shotadventures
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[image: Free GM Resource: 1shotadventures]
I came across this blog consisting of adventures written by J.C. Connors.
The adventures are for a variety o...
Jonstown Jottings #106: Marsh Attacks!
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Much like the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition,
the Jonstown Compendium is a curated platform for user-made content, but
for ma...
Music Monday - Go Monkey Go
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This one is a blast from the past. Released in 2000 and performed by Devo,
Go Monkey Go is a tribute to Mojo Jojo, the primary antagonist of the Power
Puff...
The Singing Lake
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By Nicole Mattos, Icaro Agostino, Davide TrammaAngry Golem GamesOSELevels
2-4 After being denied recognition as the supreme lord, Severo cursed the
region,...
Dungeon Crawler Carl (book review)
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This was a fun read if not particularly meaningful. It takes place in an
RPG world that works like a televised tournament, similar to The Running
Man and...
d100 Worst Weird Inn & Guest Rooms
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My current map with player exploration of my D&D5.5 game
Yellow is where players been and exploration has been fun
While we had 3 clerics nobody really imv...
The Great Nobility of Harry Potter
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I am of the view that there is no pursuit that is more noble and no task
that is more worth doing than writing novels. Call me romantic; call me
delud...
Circuits and Rallies
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I'm back from holiday! I guess coming back to familiarity after a few weeks
of novelty got me thinking.
Sometimes you repeat the same stuff over and over...
AD&D's Demi-Foot Forward...
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AD&D's demi-humans are primarily known for their multiclassing abilities.
After all, what adventurer doesn't occasionally dream of casting spells
from th...
Adventures Dark and Deep (Lite)
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This arrived for me today, a PoD hardback via DriveThruRPG.
Including postage, it cost me about $40 yankeebucks, so about $65 Kiwibucks.
I got it purel...
[BLOG] News on the March! Episode XIV
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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...
Moldvay Basic D&D now Available in Print
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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...
SoloDark: Four Drunk Priests
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Dabbling into some solo play using SoloDark. Rolled up the party last
night. 3d6 down the line and pick the best class for the results. It was
tragic.
ht...
Consolidated AD&D Weapon Characteristics List
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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
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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
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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 ...
Gary Con 2026 Registration
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Silver Badges get to register for events at Noon Central today (February
21, 2026). Somehow I thought I failed to register for running games this
year and ...
On a Happy New Year
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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...
Mutants and Wizards
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Heya folks, long time no see.
I've just started working on something new called Mutants and Wizards. It's
going to be an OSE/OSR post-apocalyptic game t...
Ten Friggin Hill Cantons Wizards
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10 Wizards of the Hill Cantons
#
Name
Description
1
Magister Dobromil the Cauterizer
Specializes in magical “cleaning” of reality leaks. Wears fou...
Rob Kuntz at Lucca Comics & Games 2025
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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!?
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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!
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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
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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 ...
Articulations
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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...
Writing playlists for all occasions
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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
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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
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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...
It's been a bit
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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...
*'s in SpaaaaaAaaaace
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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!
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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
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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 ...
Steve Jackson Interview
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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
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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
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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
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*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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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!
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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
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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.
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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!
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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!
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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
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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?
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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 ...
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