I remember first seeing Ravenloft in 84 (it was released in 83). It was an exciting change of pace from the other adventures I was running then, and the Ravenloft setting that was released later became one of my favorite settings in the 2e era.
Under raging stormclouds, a lone figure stands silhouetted against the ancient walls of castle Ravenloft. Count Strahd von Zarovich stares down a sheer cliff at the village below. A cold, bitter wind spins dead leaves around him, billowing his cape in the darkness. Lightning splits the clouds overhead, casting stark white light across him. Strahd turns to the sky, revealing the angular muscles of his face and hands. He has a look of power - and of madness. His once-handsome face is contorted by a tragedy darker than the night itself.
Rumbling thunder pounds the castle spires. The wind's howling increases as Strahd turns his gaze back to the village. Far below, yet not beyond his keen eyesight, a party of adventurers has just entered his domain. Strahd's face forms a twisted smile as his dark plan unfolds. He knew they were coming, and he knows why they came - all according to his plan. He, the master of Ravenloft, will attend to them.
Another lightning flash rips through the darkness, its thunder echoing through the castle's towers. But Strahd is gone. Only the howling of the wind - or perhaps a lone wolf - fills the midnight air. The master of Ravenloft is having guests for dinner. And you are invited.
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I own Vaesen, and I'm impressed with it. However, it may never be used, as it doesn't fit my current group all that well. It uses the Year Zero Engine, which may or may not be a selling point for you.
Welcome to the Mythic North – northern Europe of the nineteenth century, but not as we know it today. A land where the myths are real. A cold reach covered by vast forests, its few cities lonely beacons of industry and enlightenment – a new civilization dawning. But in the countryside, the old ways still hold sway. There, people know what lurks in the dark. They know to fear it.
Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying is written by Nils Hintze and based on the work of Swedish illustrator and author Johan Egerkrans. Vaesen presents a dark Gothic setting steeped in Nordic folklore and the old myths of Scandinavia. The game mechanics utilize an adapted version of the awardwinning Year Zero Engine.
Key features:
· Ten ready to use archetypes let you create a character in minutes – or use the included life path tables and let the dice decide.
· Quick and flavorful rules for combat, investigations and horror.
· Rules for developing the player characters’ headquarters during campaign play.
· A detailed gazetteer of the Mythic North setting and the town of Upsala.
· A score of bloodcurdling vaesen to encounter, all beautifully illustrated by Johan Egerkrans.
· An introductory Mystery called The Dance of Dreams.
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While the DCC RPG and its various offspring games work best as convention games, many groups play DCC as a campaign game. For the latter, let us present Elfland: Beyond the Fields We Know for the DCC RPG.
Elfland: Beyond the Fields We Know is a zine that provides everything that is needed to bring your game to Elfland! It has 6 adventure locales that can be used for one-shots, over a dozen fey traps, priceless relics, new monsters, and more! It's also written in a way where the reader can use it as a solo-journaling game. That way you can create a unique NPC for your campaign, or simply have some fun on your own!
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Castle Falkenstein is a modern-day classic. I remember grabbing a copy of this back in 2006/7 in print, and wishing I had a gaming group to run it. I may need to revisit Castle Falkenstein.
When computer game designer Tom Olam found himself sorcerously shanghaied by a rogue Wizard and a Faerie Lord, little did he suspect that he would soon become the pivotal force in the struggle to control an alternate Victorian Universe. But before the deadly game could end, he would first have to battle gigantic Landfortresses, outwit Dragons, romance a beautiful Adventuress, and defeat the Evil legions of a Dark Court determined to destroy him at all costs.
Then maybe, just maybe, he could find a way home again ...
It’s a novel. It’s a game. It’s both. It’s Castle Falkenstein™, an amazing journey into another universe just a few steps away from our own: a place where Dragons and Steampower rule the skies, Faerie Lords duel atop the battlements, and where the forces of Wizardry and Magick meet the gaslight streets of the Victorian Age. But with Castle Falkenstein™, the story never ends, as you too take up saber and spell to adventure in a distant world on the other side of the mysterious Faerie Veil: a world of Swashbuckling Fantasy, High Romance, and Magickal Technology. The world of—Castle Falkenstein™
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As stated earlier, Greyhawk has opened up to third-party publishers via the DM's Guild, and one of the first releases is the Greyhawk Campaign Guide by the OSR's very own Joe Bloch.
The Greyhawk Campaign Guide hit "Copper" on DTRPG in six hours. When it hits Gold, it can be offered as a POD. The Greyhawk Campaign Guide is 14.95 in PDF.
Behold, Greyhawk!
A land of magic, mystery, and mayhem, where ancient dungeons contain vast treasures and infinite dangers, where great armies march across the land, and where bands of adventurers seek to maintain the balance, or help the innocent, but are never above making a quick profit.
This book gives the dungeon master a wealth of information to run a campaign in this venerable fantasy setting, with information on history, the calendar, weather, the inhabitants of the land, descriptions of the lands and wildernesses that make up the Flanaess, and more.
The accompanying Greyhawk Player's Guide will be published soon.
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It's October, and that means a month of deals on Horror RPGs. Here is one I had yet to hear of before - The TEETH RPG. I may just have to pick this one up ;)
Adventurer, open wide and say aaaaaaughhhh! with this all-new TEETH RPG Bundle featuring TEETH, the fantasy-horror tabletop roleplaying game of occult crime and monster-hunting in a cursed corner of 18th-Century England. A grotesque tragicomic meld of Blackadder and The Witcher, TEETH adapts the Forged in the Dark rules for monster-hunting in the benighted Vale of the Deleuth, which glories in revolting mutations, occasional insurrection, murderous Hogmen, and also-murderous pies. You're supposedly a Hunter, charged with driving back monstrous incursions and protecting the trade in occult artifacts. But that is subterfuge! Your Outfit of bruisers, scholars, trackers, and sappers (explosives experts) share a Secret Agenda, and a one-year time limit before occult contamination corrupts you. If you execute your mission and escape the Vale before Winter ends, you can claim victory – however horrible the cost.
We know you're already champing at the bit to pay just US$7.95 for the complete, DRM-free 320-page TEETH: A Roleplaying Game core rulebook (retail price $27.50), along with the pay-what-you-want scenario Night of the Hogmen and the False Kingdom campaign.
And you'll get a second bite at the apple with our More Teeth Collection, including the aptly named expansion More Teeth and the standalone introductory scenarios Stranger & Stranger and Blood Cotillion. That's an additional $26 retail value, yours if you pay more than the threshold price of $15.43.
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I've followed Unknown Armies over the past few years without ever taking "the dip." I've been intrigued by the system and default setting, but I have never committed to buying into the system before now.
The Starter Collection for Unknown Armies, at 7.95, fits my needs perfectly. At just under 21 bucks as I type this, the Complete Bundle intrigues me, but it may be beyond my current level of interest.
Adept! This all-new Unknown Armies 3E Bundle presents Unknown Armies, the 2016 Third Edition of the acclaimed Atlas Games tabletop roleplaying game about broken people risking everything to change the world. Reality as we know it is shaped by a group of 333 people so dedicated to certain attributes that they become the archetypes of the Invisible Clergy, who are locked in an eternal struggle for power. Your characters are pawns in this power struggle – and you're hoping to join the ranks of the Clergy itself. You might struggle against the New Inquisition, the Sect of the Naked Goddess, or your own deteriorating sanity. You might face vampires, godwalkers, or fellow practitioners of magick. Against unrelenting opposition, will you win through?
Created by Greg Stolze and John Tynes, Unknown Armies is a game of postmodern occult intrigue, transcendental horror, and furious action. It's about driven characters who gain the power to alter reality until it aligns with their fevered desires – about obsession and identity – about revealing the horrible truth we don't want to see, and claiming that truth for yourself. It's about being relentlessly, hopelessly human.
For just US$7.95 you get all five titles in our Starter Collection (retail value $35) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks or MP3 music tracks, including the first rulebook (Book 1: Play) with all the rules for players, plus the introductory scenario Maria in Three Parts and three sets of ambient music tracks composed by James Semple: Upsetting Anomalies, Unnatural Artistry, and Uncanny Acuity.
And if you pay more than the threshold price of $20.82, you'll level up and also get our entire Complete Collection with twelve more titles worth an additional $64, including four more rulebooks – Book 2: Run, Book 3: Reveal, Book 4: Expose, and Book 5: Mine – along with the full-length scenario Bring Me the Head of the Comte de Saint-Germain and seven "Campaign Starter Kits": Derby Girls Destroy DC, Heroin Highway, Karmic Ties and Fifth Wheels, Raiders of the Lost Mart, Sacred Pharma, Violence Inherent in the System, and Young Practicals.
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A Halloween Sale is going on at DTRPG. One of my favorite picks is the Horror on the Orient Express for Call of Cthulhu. I own this in print, as I backed the Kickstarter, and Oh My God, I want to run this as a GM! Sadly, I don't have a gaming group that would do an extended Call of Cthulhu campaign, let alone a single session or two. Horror on the Orient Express is literally "that good."
A puzzling headline begins a front-page article found in the Times of London. Three men, all identical in identification, were found dead in the same room of the Chelsea Arms Hotel. All were dispatched in a similar manner stabbed through the heart.
Then the home of a valued friend burns to the ground, severely injuring him in the process. An odd summons, a surreptitious meeting, and a thousand-mile journey begins on the legendary rail service carrying the investigators to Constantinople, the Gateway of the Orient.
HORROR ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS contains a massive and legendary campaign, of up to nineteen adventures and more than 1100 pages, for the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game. Beginning in 1920s London, the investigators journey to Paris and thence to the ancient city of Constantinople. With luck, they also return home.
Optional episodes are set in ancient times or special places (Roman-era, Dark Ages, Gaslight-era, the Dreamlands), so that the players can experience the founding, creation, and discovery of crucial elements of this campaign. Also included is a modern-day coda to the storyline, an alternate ending for those wishing a shorter campaign, and a built-in survival guide to aid beleaguered investigators.
There are seven books and more: the Campaign Book, Through the Alps, Italy & Beyond, Constantinople & Consequences, Strangers on the Train, and The Traveler's Companion. In addition, there is a book of handouts for the investigators, a European Route Map, three era-inspired luggage stickers, two era-inspired postcards, a matchbox, the Scroll of the Head, four U.S. passports, a bumper sticker, six pages of train plans that can be laid end-to-end, the Mims Sahis ceremonial knife, and fragments of the Sedefkar Simulacrum collected along the journey.
What the Critics Say
"Truly fantastic"—Diehard Gamefan
"The biggest and most grandiose campaign ever composed for any game… a must-own campaign. It is not just the grandeur, the scope, the high-quality writing or the fact that it epitomizes many of the values of Call of Cthulhu and the horror genre overall. It is the sheer immersion, the entertainment value it provides when played to the level it deserves…"—Antonios S. review, RPGNet.
"The most ambitious Call of Cthulhu adventure ever created… a high water mark for CoC."—Blackgate.
2015 ENnie Awards - Best Adventure (Gold)
2015 ENnie Awards - Best Production Values (Silver)
1992 Origins Awards - Best Roleplaying Adventure (1st ed)
1992 Origins Awards - Best Graphic Presentation of an RPG (1st ed)
With this purchase you receive these downloads (in these formats):
Campaign Book, 72 pages (pdf, epub, mobi, prc)
Through the Alps, 264 pages (pdf, epub, mobi, prc)
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Dramatic fantasy setting and Success Level System built for speed, detail, and immersion! Live (or die) with your choices.
The Broken Empires RPG Kickstarter will likely surpass half a million dollars in funding (it is currently around $370k with 12 days to go). It's an intriguing Kickstarter, but I will likely back only at the digital level (39 bucks, which is a bargain) instead of physical books. I figure if I go beyond simply reading the rules to actually running the game, I can snag a physical copy later.
It ships with solo rules, mass combat rules, and an intriguing d100 system that avoids levels and classes. Yeah, it sounds a bit like Chaosium's Basic Fantasy system.
The Roleplaying Game Where Decisions Are Forged in the Crucible of Conflict!
Designed by Trevor Devall, professional GM and creator of the popular YouTube TTRPG channel “Me, Myself & Die!”, The Broken Empires RPG™ frees you to pursue any character goal you can imagine using an innovative, Sim-Lite, d100 core system inspired by over 125 classic and modern roleplaying games.
A Vast Open World Brimming With Possibility
Developed over 4 seasons on “Me, Myself and Die!”, The Broken Empires is an expansive mid-fantasy world, alive with adventure. From the high mountains and dark forests of the Westlands, to the disappearing banished lands north of the Iron Veil, to the emerging imperial sea-faring empire of Tical Dondala — the setting of The Broken Empires is now yours to explore and expand.
The character sheet of an RPG tells you much about the flavor and depth of the game, and characters in The Broken Empires RPG™ are as rich in detail and nuance as they come! Everything on the character sheet has been thoughtfully designed and arranged to deeply connect you to your character and to facilitate in-game decision-making.
No stats, classes, or levels. Everything is skills-based.
Develop your character with Personality Traits, Expertise, Talents and Life Events.
Easily track Resolve and Fatigue.
Assess Wounds by checking specific Hit Locations.
Detailed blocks for Armor, Weapons, Combat Maneuvers and Shield stats.
At-a-glance tracking of all Skills: Combat, Adventuring, Social, Lore and Magic.
Improve your character by pursuing meaningful goals.
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I'm not a massive fan of the Fate System (I had high hopes when I backed the Kickstarter for the core rules many years ago). Still, there are some significant fans of the Fate System, and the Fate of Cthulhu Bundle is probably a perfect fit for them during the month of October.
Hero! This Fate of Cthulhu Bundle presents Fate of Cthulhu, the tabletop action-horror roleplaying game from Evil Hat Productions. In this standalone "Cthulhu Mythos meets The Terminator" RPG based on the flexible and fast-playing Fate Core system, you're a soldier from the future who travels to our time to stop the arrival of the Great Old Ones. Horrible things will still happen, and you may give in to corruption (to gain powerful "corruption stunts"), but you'll use your foreknowledge to punch the apocalypse in the face – or die trying.
For just US$14.95 you get all ten titles in our Fateful Collection (retail value $62) as DRM-free ebooks, including the complete standalone 256-page Fate of Cthulhu corebook (previously in our July 2021 Fate Worlds and Toolkits offer) and nine terrifying Timelines: The Ascellan Conspiracy, Rise of Azathoth, Rise of the Basilisk, Rise of Hastur, Rise of the Quiet, Rise of Tsathoggua, Rise of Yig, Rise of Yog-Sothoth, and Zombie Apocalypse.
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Trailhand! We've resurrected our October 2022 Weird Frontiers Bundle featuring Weird Frontiers from Stiff Whiskers Press, a standalone Lovecraftian horror-Western tabletop roleplaying game based on the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG from Goodman Games. In an alternate 1865, cultists of Nyarlathotep brought on the Seven Days of Night to awaken long-dormant Elder Gods. Now, heroes with extraordinary abilities stand against an ever-growing evil in a wounded country still recovering from the bloodiest war in American history. You can turn tail or take the fight to the night, and you ain't about to be called yeller! Saddle your horses and clean those irons, 'cause there's something slithering across the dark frontier, and it's dead set on making vittles out of you and your ragtag posse.
For just US$5.95 you get all three titles in this revived offer's Starter Collection (retail value $23) as DRM-free ebooks, including the massive 908-page Weird Frontiers RPG corebook, the Trail Map, and the Weird Frontiers Judge's Screen.
And if you pay more than the threshold price of $17.99, you'll level up and also get this revival's entire Bonus Collection with five full-length Weird Frontiers modules worth an additional $50, including Dig Three Graves, The Malevolent Seven, Nest of Snakes, Never Swallow the Worm!, and Not So Fast, Billy Ray!
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Approved Official Settings for Dungeon Masters Guild Products
DMsGuild creators are allowed to use the following official Dungeons & Dragons settings:
Forgotten Realms
Ravenloft
Eberron
Spelljammer
Planescape
Dragonlance
Radiant Citadel
The Magic: The Gathering settings of:
Ravnica, Theros, Arcavios/Strixhaven
Greyhawk
Other official settings cannot be used in DMsGuild products at this time. This list includes but is not limited to Dark Sun, Mystara, etc.
If an NPC, location, monster, or item from an unapproved setting appears in an approved setting it may be used in your DMsGuild product as long as it is set in an approved setting.
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It's October, so it's the perfect month for a Call of Cthulhu Bundle at Humble Bundle. I bought this exact bundle earlier in the year (check to see if you already have it). Note that there are several Solo Adventures, and at the $25 Level Bundle, there are three solo adventures.
Bring a taste of terror to your game nights with this bundle from Chaosium, complete with everything you need to run the dreaded (yet beloved) Call of Cthulhu RPG system! On top of the Call of Cthulhu Starter Set, you’ll get the Investigator Handbook, replete with expanded rules for creating player characters, as well as the Keeper Rulebook, brimming with all the information you need to keep things orderly as your table descends into madness. You’ll also get tons of adventures, including some aimed at first-time game masters, as well as entire campaigns! Pay what you want for over 25 books and game aids for this seminal RPG and help support the World Wildlife Fund with your purchase!
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Basic Fantasy RPG is an oft-forgotten pillar of the OSR. An excellent presentation of the "classic D&D ruleset," BFRPG is now available in a 4th edition under the Creative Commons CC BY-SA licensing.
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Bloody and Alone in Appalachia is a solo tabletop RPG about rural horror, set in the Appalachian Hills of Eastern Kentucky.
In Bloody and Alone in Appalachia, you will play a lost city dweller who has foolishly ventured off the highway into a backwoods, small Appalachian town, holler, and county where nothing is as it seems. Like flies into the mouth of a Venus flytrap, this town and its inhabitants are ready to gobble you up.
This game is an adaptation of Bloody Appalachia, a multi-person horror game also available from Bloat Games. That game is excellent, but it suffers from one key problem: the players have each other to rely on. Bloody Appalachia is available as an add-on with this campaign.
We all know the best moments in any horror movie: it's the moment where everyone else is gone. There's just one remaining hero, and they know their goose is hopelessly cooked. Your heart pounds as you watch them, flailing around desperately; you hold your breath as you wait for them to stumble, wide-eyed, towards their inexorable, horrific demise. Any. Second. Now...
In Bloody and Alone in Appalachia, that's the entire game. You are alone, help isn't coming, and death is waiting around the next corner. Listen... ! Is that a chainsaw, out there in the woods?
I have a good grasp of the OSR games on the market but have missed Wulfwald. I am correcting that right now!
Outcasts all! For a limited time, this all-new Wulfwald Quick Deal presents Wulfwald, Lee Reynoldson's old-school tabletop roleplaying game from Glasgow-based publisher Lost Pages set in a low-fantasy world inspired by mythic Anglo-Saxon tales. Lost Pages is offering the complete five-book set of Wulfwald core rulebooks, funded in a March 2022 Kickstarter campaign, for a special promotional price.
This all-new Wulfwald Quick Deal gives you non-watermarked, DRM-free .PDFs of all five Wulfwald core rulebooks – Wolfsheads, Magic, Campaign, Monsters, and People – a US$13 retail value for just $5.95. Your purchase includes a high-res .PDF of the beautiful black-and-white Wulfwald regional map, one of the last works by legendary British illustrator Russ Nicholson (Fiend Folio, Warhammer, Fighting Fantasy).
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Alright, here's the part where I reveal my connections. I first met Joe Bloch in person at the premiere of Gygax Magazine at the Brooklyn Strat back in January 2013. Of course, we'd known each other online before that. Joe has been a guest on The Tavern's live streams, and we often hang out at conventions together. I consider Joe a friend.
Joe wrote and published Adventures Dark & Deep, essentially a "What If EGG Actually Wrote AD&D 2e". The Book of Lost Lore was written for ADD, AD&D 1e, and other OSR games.
New options to expand your old-school roleplaying game!
This book contains new playable races, new character classes, new magic, alternate combat and treasure systems, and much more for GMs and players alike. You'll find classes including the musical bard, merry jester, studious savant, and the villainous blackguard. Scores of new spells and magic items, and much more.
Written for the First Edition of the world's most popular RPG, this book will also be useful to anyone running a game using old-school rules.
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First, Mazes & Perils (2012) is a solid OSR game; there's no taking away from that. I'd expect nothing less, as it is based on the work of R.C. Pinnell and their Holmes77 retroclone from 2011. That's the link for the freely available source material right there.
Heck, Vince even credits R.C. Pinnell as "Additional Contributor" because of Pinnell's work on Holmes77 in the credits, but somehow Mazes & Perils came first?
Dude, you won an ENnie with Mazes & Perils (2012). Isn't that enough? Why pretend Mazes & Perils is something it isn't?
Faraway Fantasy
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From the Hintherdale and the North Star Region with their high, rugged
mountains in the north, the lands of Easten Faraway stretches over a
thousand mile...
Auldwood or the Wild North? EMO Gamelog
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A game of my homebrew today.
Ive got the skeleton of character classes built but now I'm getting
equipment lists and a ...
The Green Ooze King
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By M. Allen HallSelf PublishedOSELevels 2-3 The disappearance of Old Ilfen
has left the wizard’s tower at the center of a power struggle. Lord Cargan
wants...
October Movie Challenge: Fear No Evil (1981)
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[image: Fear No Evil (1981)]
This movie is a little outside my time frame, but it is a foundational
movie for my ideas of Jackson. I used to have this po...
Crypts and Things: Deal of the Day at DriveThruRPG
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I thought that I would mention that my favourite OSR ("Old School
Renaissance") RPG -- *Crypts and Things* -- is currently on sale (60% off
the PDF!) at ...
Why Nerd Games Matter
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I was born in the opposite of a crossfire hurricane. My home town, New
Brighton, lies at the end of a peninsula, and in the 1980s it felt like the
end in...
September ‘26 In Review
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It sucked. I lost my friend Rob, and it sucked. It still sucks. I miss him.
While that was the thing that overshadowed everything else, it wasn’t all
th...
[NEWS] Arrival
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"The stone cannot know why the chisel cleaves it; the iron cannot know why
the fire scorches it. When thy life is cleft and scorched, when death and ...
Intergalactic Flow
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Normally I’m bad at earnestly acknowledging that a thing I made is good,
and would rather point to my next idea and talk about how that’s going to
be bet...
100 days of B/X (part II - B1 to B10)
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Part I.
We have all read B/X many times. Now I'll re-read it with a critical eye,
looking for things I don't like and have house-ruled away, to create my n...
What will people learn from the GFS II fighting?
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This post is a connected followup to Boss/Worthy/Fodder ranking the GFS II
guys.
*Meta-gamey concerns I have as a GM*
The Master/Gith almost solo'd the wh...
Mutants & Wizards, Gray Wizard Class
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Here's one of the 5 wizard classes. The first glance at the spirit system
that's built upon the undead turning table. No turning undead in M&W, so
watch...
Why is the Ogre there?
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Joe's post on the Quantum Ogre raises an old question about sandbox play:
when does moving an encounter around interfere with players' freedom to
decide...
Dragonne #2 now available
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The second issue of Dragonne is now available! BRW Games’ occasional
journal of old-school gaming is back with two new features; To subscribe
for free, and...
Upgrading the Common Orc...
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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...
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...
Murder mystery
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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
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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 ...
The Old School (Hyperborean) Renaissance
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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
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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,
-
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
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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...
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...
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!?
-
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
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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 ...
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...
*'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
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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 ...
The Worm Ouroboros
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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
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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
-
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
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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
-
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 ...