gmkeros.wordpress.com

gmkeros.wordpress.com, 19 days ago to DnD

https://gmkeros.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/image_editor_output_image-1764679351-17162378285968006979768458696354.jpg?w=437Troy under Siege by François-Louis Schmied> Play your PCs like they’re stolen cars. Die horribly. Roll up a new one.

— Enthusiastic Skeleton Boys Blog

Good Stuff

TTRPGs for Trans Rights – West Virginia (itch.io) – 529 TTRPG items for a good cause

Free Stuff

Warlock Class for OSR (PWYW on drivethrurpg)

Muster: a primer for War (PWYW on drivethrurpg)

Random Tables

(Weird) Fantasy world automated generator collection (Lizard Man Diaries)

d20 Random Button and Lever Effects (Whose Measure God Could Not Take)

Grotesque Gains (Weird & Wonderful Worlds)

d100 Carousing (Luke Gearing)

Player Aid

d20 Character Icebreaker Questions (Traverse Fantasy)

New Player Advice: Try to learn the rules (Stargazer’s World)

GM Aid

Black Snakes Gang – an AD&D Bandit group (Eldritch Fields)

1D20 Dungeon Merchants (Coins and Scrolls)

D6x6 Simpering Serpentmen (Archons March On)

D12 Anomalous Orbs (Alone in the Labyrinth)

5 Ways To Make Combat (More) Fun in OSR (Castle Grief)

Why Are You So Emaciated and Your Face Half-Crazed? (Whose Measure God Could Not Take)

Wizard Diss Tracks (Prismatic Wasteland)

100 Thieves’ Guild Quests (OSR Vault)

RPG Theory

Ten Unanswerable Evergreen Discourses (The Indie Game Reading Club)

Kafka and his precursors (ars ludi)

D&D isn’t fun enough (Enthusiastic Skeleton Boys)

The True Birth of Roleplaying (Grognardia)

Emergent Characters vs. Bespoke (What a Horrible Night to have a Curse)

TTRPG Rules Reading as Play (Trollish Delver)

RPG History

An unlikely source for early D&D rules drafts: Court records (Chance and Circumstance)

With His O’ertaking Wings (d20 Ships and Captains) (Whose Measure God Could Not Take)

Worldbuilding

Dragons: The Great Victims of Worldbuilding (Sheep and Sorcery)

A Campaign Where there is One of Anything (Rise Up Comus!)

Cool Stuff

Legojam: Castle Hexcrawl (Rise Up Comus!)

100 Thieves’ Guild Quests (OSR Vault)

Grimoire Handout Zines (Idraluna Archives)

Special Plug

Few Lovecraftian inspirations from real life and beliefs (Zapieski Adeptusa)

And let me leave you with a song…

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https://gmkeros.wordpress.com/2024/05/20/a-monday-miscellany-of-links-pt-xviii/

#blogospherefind #dnd #rpg #ttrpg

gmkeros.wordpress.com, 22 days ago to DnD

https://gmkeros.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/20240517_1604402166264976056152798.jpg?w=707Cover of Grenzland #3

Issue 3 of Wanderer Bill’s https://lkh.sdf-eu.org/wandererbill/grenzland/ just landed in my mailbox yesterday, with, among other things, an NPC class written by me (“The Anointed of Abyssal Slaughter”). It mostly was me combining the given topic of the issue with an interest in NPC classes a while ago.

The ‘zine also contains a one-page dungeon by Alex Schroeder (“The Crown of Neptune”), a game report (“Schiffbruch”), rules for sailing ships (“Salt’n’Tar”), and another scenario (“Eingekerkert”), the latter three all by Wanderer Bill. The ‘zine is a mix of German and English, and you can get it for the phenomenal price of free at the website.

(he does have a few more physical copies for 7 Euros left over though)

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https://gmkeros.wordpress.com/2024/05/17/grenzland-3-worse-things-happen-at-sea/

#3 #dnd #fanzine #osr #rpg #ttrpg

gmkeros.wordpress.com, 23 days ago to DnD

https://gmkeros.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/fantasy-wargaming.jpgThe Highest Level of All: The Story of Fantasy Wargaming by Mike Monaco, is a free pdf download published at CMU Press under a CC BY-NC-ND license, and dealing with the history of the eponymous (if a bit incongruously titled) Fantasy Wargaming roleplaying game system. Yes, it turns out you can write whole books not only about DnD. At least if it’s something as weird as that game at least.

https://gmkeros.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/715s3mfunvl._sl1360_.jpg

The original game Fantasy Wargaming: The Highest Level of All (or just Fantasy Wargaming in some editions) was a 1981 book by Bruce Galloway, a clear variation on Dungeons and Dragons, based on Galloway’s home rules. Unlike it’s competition it was not afraid of using actual historical concepts like astrology and occultism in it’s descriptions, although it also was written so densely it was hard to make sense of it in any shape or form by someone not already familiar with roleplaying games. And, well, it was called Fantasy Wargaming.

Which made this a problem, as the game was published both in the UK and the US by mainstream publishers obviously trying to break into the nascent TTRPG market. The most available version was most likely the one published by the Doubleday Science Fiction Book Club, which made the game available to many people who did not have any experience with roleplaying games before.

Unfortunately one has to say, as the game’s size (300pgs) and conceptual denseness made parsing the book quite a feat, meaning if people used this as an introduction to roleplaying, it might not have been very successful.

The Story of Fantasy Wargaming goes into this, and into the development of the game. It could have been a bit more thorough and a bit more critical, but for what it is it’s a nice look into the environment that created it. And well, it’s free.

(I learned about this book from an episode of the Vintage RPG Podcast which had the author on and talked about this project. Well worth a listen)

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#book #dnd #Fantasy #gaming #news #osr #rpg #ttrpg #wargaming

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gmkeros.wordpress.com, 24 days ago to DnD

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2024/05/warlocks_and_witches_in_a_dance5238827366399506857.jpg?w=1024John Faed, Warlocks and Witches in a dance (1855)I am not a fan of Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition. In fact I am not a fan of the 4th edition either, or the 3.5th edition, or Pathfinder (the 3.75th edition) for that matter. Actually I burned out running 3e and that was the impetus to go back to older edition, retroclones, and the OSR.

Which means I only really was touched by the introduction of warlock peripherally.

It didn’t help that I first saw them done in 3.5 and was not impressed. I still am not. It took them a while to get them into a state where players might intuitively grasp what the class is about. The 5th edition one seems to have managed that though, and I think I get why: warlocks are fun.

They are the kind of power fantasy that has all the hallmarks of a chugging half a quart of vodka with Red Bull and stealing a car. Maybe in the back of your mind you know that this is a bad idea, but right now you are intoxicated and it’s fun and who knows if morning will ever come and who cares about those flashing blue lights behind you?

Warlocks are the bad example your parents warned you about. It’s what lazy kids become when they grow up. But why, do the fighter and the magic user say, do they have so much fun being lazy? What about training? What about studying?

To which the Warlocks answer: “Eldritch Blast!”

But no, I think Warlocks as a character concept are really wonderfully OSR: you sell your soul to… not necessarily the devil, but SOMETHING, and then you can do all kinds of stuff you never learned. That sounds overpowered, and it is. But there is the implicit end of the warlock, which most people seem to forget because they treat it as just another class: this is a class that is completely dependent on some other unknownable being and their whims. There is not really a good ending for the warlock. Whatever actually happens with them when they die, in most cases it shouldn’t be pretty. If you have pledged your soul to the devil you won’t end slurping ice cold drinks at the shore of some scenic lake of fire. If you pledged it to an archfey you might end up as furniture.

I think what is missing from the class as written a bit is that there should be marks of what you are doing on you as well. You don’t become level 5 with no outside mark. I would say that every level there should be a possibility of a new pact marker. Cloven feet? Horns growing? Ears start looking like leafs? Something like that.

Reaction rolls should be affected. People might fear you, but they won’t respect you. You took the easy way and when people know they KNOW. Animals will look at you funny. You might not be able to pass under a horseshoe anymore. Mirrors shatter. That stuff.

Also ages ago I wrote about how to do multiclassing in my opinion. Every level, even the first, should cost as much as the next highest level of your other classes. That still holds up, but I think Warlocks… don’t follow that rule. Because learning another class when you spent your life doing something else shouldn’t be easy. Unless, well, you sell your soul or something. New warlocks just become warlocks.

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https://gmkeros.wordpress.com/2024/05/16/thinking-warlocks/

#dnd #osr #Roleplaying #ttrpg

gmkeros.wordpress.com, 1 month ago to chat

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2024/05/erebor1.pngI have been futzing around with my old Raspberry Pi lately, and a lot of my energy went into that. That and talking on the usenet. My main project actually started out as making a nntp-based forum, but on the way I got distracted by all those other shiny terminal apps that I met along the way.

Well, I say shiny.

I mean, they are CLI apps.

I am just interested in some of those older kinds of applications that do not necessarily demand sending all your data to some big corporation. And there’s a bit of nostalgia in there as well. When I was a kid we did not have the internet connectivity or the spare computers to just have a server run at all times, and now with the rise of single board computers exactly that has become quite trivial. If you want a functional server for some applications you just need an RPi or any of the other equivalents, install a Linux system on it, and have it run.

Oh wait, you might want to have a public IP for your device as well. Luckily my ISP was able to provide me one for free on request.

So what did I decide to run on it? Multiple things actually. But the one that right now works without issues is a small IRC server.

What’s IRC?

It’s the Internet Relay Chat. The chat protocol that used to be the main way of chatting in chat rooms before first instant messengers and later things like discord and teams sidelined it. It originally was created in 1988, and found widespread adoption all over the world due to it’s rather open and convenient way of setup. It valiantly managed to keep chugging on even as closed instant managers and more open alternatives became available, although it is rather less popular than previously. It’s rather simple to create interfaces for it though, and there is a plethora of both server and client programs that work with it. I for example am mostly using the integrated chat in Thunderbird on my Windows machine lately, although I also have multiple other programs on other machines (mostly irssi, for my phone I use RevolutionIRC).

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2024/05/erebor-6.pngThe server is using ngircd, which is rather lightweight and easy to configure. I also have a bouncer (znc) that keeps connected with this and other servers at all times, and The Lounge as a web interface. And an eggdrop bot which I don’t know what to do with yet. It’s not really needed so far as ngircd has the ability to make channels persistent.

!schreenshot of #talk channel with sample chatterMost of this stuff can be installed from the Debian package manager in the Raspberry OS, but I found the need to compile the current version of eggdrop from source (it’s easier to configure) and The Lounge can just be installed as a docker container (although that one as well is available as a .deb package).

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2024/05/erebor5.pngYep, that one has image uploads and link previews integrated as well, which is neat. It also would have an integrated bouncer (the ability to read things written while you were offline), but that would need user accounts and passwords to work.

I even connected this with Alex Schroeder’s IRC server, creating effectively the world’s smallest TTRPG chat network. (disclaimer: I don’t have a clue if that’s true)

If you want to check it out you can access it under ereborbbs.duckdns.org at port 6667, or you just go to this link to access the web interface. It’s not much to look at, but it does the job and basically doesn’t strain the server at all. Yet.

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https://gmkeros.wordpress.com/2024/05/02/other-distractions-internet-relay-chat/

#chat #irc #Linux #rpi #talk #Tools

screenshot of Thunderbird chat interface with multiple channels on left, chat in middle, participant list and previous conversation menus on right
schreenshot of #talk channel with sample chatter

gmkeros.wordpress.com, 1 month ago to DnD

https://gmkeros.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/the_violet_fairy_book_1906_14730393436.jpg

A Monday Miscellany of Links pt. XVII

I haven’t done a link post for a while, so this one is a bit bigger than usual. Maybe I should imply in the title that it’s some monthly thing instead of weekly. On the other hand I might just miss a self-set monthly deadline as well.

Free Stuff

Liminal Horror (itch.io)

Wanderer Bill’s Grenzland Fanzine

BLUELITE: A Holmes Basic Hack (Troy Press)

Random Tables

d100 – Magical Spears (d4 Caltrops)

d100 – So You’ve Been Brought Back From The Dead… (d4 Caltrops)

TTRPG Thought and Ideas

Joy and Devilry in the Films of Terrence Hill and Bud Spencer (Taskerland)

The Tactile and Generic TTRPG – Boardgamey tablefeel using bits and bobs (The Lizard Man Diaries)

Toybox Creativity: The Genius of Dragon Ball (Prismatic Wasteland)

The Benefits and Tradeoffs of Random Generation Tables (Grumpy Wizard)

THE KNIGHTS OF THE (OD&D) TABLE: Application to Arthurian Myth (I Cast Light)

Some thoughts on Charisma (Ruprecht’s RPG Blog)

The brilliance of unrealistic hit points (DM David)

Dungeons and Dragons may improve mental health (James Cook University)

FKR Simply Defined (Flintlocks and Witchery)

Your OSR Setting is a Deathworld (Den of the Lizard King)

Level Drain and Loss Aversion in D&D (The Psychology of Video Games)

The Truth About Magic-Users (Doomslakers)

Care and Feed of Hirelings (Back in the Labyrinth)

Literary Archetypes and Encounter Design (Welcome to the Death Trap)

Hobby History

‘Theatre of the mind’: celebrating 50 years of Dungeons & Dragon (The Guardian)

WHAT’S IN A NAME? That Which We Call A D&D By Any Other Name Would Delve Just As Deep (I Cast Light)

DM Aid

A forgotten 0D&D Rule for Fighters (Hall of the Grymlorde™)

Keep Dungeons Weird! (The Hungry Dungeon Master)

Asking The Right Questions (Worldbuilding By Bibliomancy) (dungeonfruit)

Morale & Guards & Patrols (Elfmaids and Octopi)

Way Shrines and Holy Sites as “Civilization” (Welcome to the Death Trap)

Nymphs in your Area! (Traverse Fantasy)

The Same Page Tool (Deeper in the Game)

New Campaign? Finish the Old One with a To-Do List (Alphastream)

How to Run a D&D Heist for Players that Love to Steal (Cats and Dice)

Beginning Of The End (How To Finish A Campaign) (dungeonfruit)

Tips and Tricks: DIY Dungeon Tiles (TTRPG Kids)

The Official OSR D&D Skill List (alch3mist nocturn3)

Four Interesting Reward Types in D&D (RJD20)

Player Aid

Ye Olde Fantasy: Family Matters (Aboleth Overlords)

How To Play A Cleric (The Tao of D&D)

Other Bits and Bobs

Rocksolid Light web gateway to rec.games.frp.misc and rec.games.frp.dnd

campaignwiki.org newsnet forum (available via web and nntp)

Dragon’s Lair (Vintage RPG Podcast)

Medieval Cappadocian dungeon design! (Eldritch Fields)

The only living master of a dying martial art (BBC News)

Bardic Inspiration

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https://gmkeros.wordpress.com/2024/04/22/a-monday-miscellany-of-links-pt-xvii/

#dnd #Music #rpg #ttrpg

gmkeros.wordpress.com, 1 month ago to DnD

https://gmkeros.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/screenshot-2024-04-16-130258.png[Labyrinth Lord] Tomb of the Serpent Kings Session 1 (also MapTool)

A while ago I started playing with some people on an online server. That was about the time when I decided that I should maybe be playing more often than just GMing. Unfortunately life intervenes a lot, and lately there haven’t been that many games in the main campaign to keep me busy. I am also co-DMing a Shadowrun game lately, so there’s that, but I am missing the OSR fantasy fare. So I decided to run a game on the server, specifically with MapTool, which I have been hovering around for a while, but never actually used. In fact I never used a proper VTT to play, so this would be a first.

I decided to use Tomb of the Serpent Kings for it because it’s nicely done and available for free, and I already had it played before, and Labyrinth Lord as a game system because that has been my basic system for a while (yeah, I never updated to OSE even though I use some of the material for it).

Game Report

The group consisted of 2 elves (Damion and Eltariel) and a MU (Frondo) with his torchbearer/muscle (Big Boris). They originally were rustled up by the local bailiff to apprehend the bandit Wild Man Roberts and his two not-so-merry-men, who were seen digging somewhere at a hillside a short way off.
The bandits were easily located inside a hole they opened in the hillside. This turned out to be a hallway going into the dark, with the bandits lying dead just a short way in. Having determined they were done in by a simple poison trap in the ceiling they decided to investigate a bit further (and do some not-graverobbing) when they encountered sarcophagi with clay statues of snake-men inside. Inside the statues were small amounts of treasure and snake skeletons (turning it to actual graverobbing). Also poison gas.
A large door at the end of the hallway was trapped by a mechanism, which they devised to disable with various methods, giving them access to a larger room with three wooden coffins. Soon enough those turned out to have skeletons of snake-like beings inside that started attacking the newly minted graverobbers. Unfortunately a series of good attacks cost the life of two of the party (both elves), and the unlife of two snakes, while Frondo and his torchbearer took off almost immediately.
Out of sight of the skeleton the two decided to rearm the trap outside and trigger it after baiting the last skeleton into it’s area. The giant stone hammer coming out of the ceiling took care of the last opponent.
Frondo returned to give his companions a proper burial (and loot their bodies), then turned back to civilization to collect the bounty on the bandits.

Notes regarding MapTool

• MapTool worked great until it didn’t. At the end we had some issues when two of us got disconnected while the others still could see things move around. I think I should have restarted the server in that case, but as it was in the very end of the 2-hour time slot we just played out the rest without it.
• MapTool now has a function (marked as experimental) that allows to create a server and connect to it directly from other clients. No more futzing around with port forwarding in this case. Unfortunately maybe not as stable as it could be (see above). Still, the lack of such a function was one of the reasons I did not use the software before, as it would have been too much work to get it running with my network setup. Now that problem is gone, it literally has become a matter of creating a server, having players connect (they are prompted for a PIN), and their computers downloading the media files from my computer.
• Speaking of media files, MapTool allows to use media files from the players computers to use in the game. Those are also added to the campaign file automatically. In fact it even allows to run a remote server where the campaign file is stored, I just haven’t been able to try that one yet. But other than that? Want to have a new token? Drop a picture in the related TokenTool, make a suitable token, then just add it in a folder and use it as you will. Nice.
• I do find the use of MapTool surprisingly convenient. There are a few things that one can’t do in the tool (e.g. animated maps would be nice, but can’t be done in the current architecture), and some stuff that can be done but needs to be configured properly (no one has bothered to create a script framework for OSR games yet it seems), but I have a lot of options to show the players exactly what I want them to see. Still there are a few things that I still have to figure out.
• The dynamic lighting in the dungeon is of course the star of the show. One can add a vision blocking layer and have PCs walk through the dungeon and have them see whatever it is that they have a) lit and b) what they can see. This can make for some interesting tactical gaming where some monster or character can see some things, but cannot see others. I noticed that it also takes a lot of mental strain from me as a DM as I don’t need to track either light or walking order in this case.
• The other thing that helps a lot is the way one can organize a scenario here. Players can generally see 3 layers on the screen: tokens, objects, and background, and they can interact only with the first one. Another hidden layer is present, but is only available to DMs. This is useful, as it allows you to drop information (e.g. attached to a numbered token) at the appropriate places, and just call it up by going over it on the token layer. As it’s hidden it is not actually visible for players, and you can have your whole adventure in there, slowly following along as the PCs explore. Incredibly useful.
• That said, there was an annoying issue with players moving tokens over specific (invisible to them) GM tokens with information, and me not being able to access them then. I think this might have a button that allows DMs to get a hold of tokens under others. but if it has I haven’t found it yet.
• Not every part of the lighting system is perfect though. I still can’t make head nor tails out of elevations and depressions. I don’t quite know what to think about them. They don’t update in ways that I would expect from either. I would for example depressions with a light source inside expect to be lit inside, but they aren’t. The lighting system also takes a little to register someone has updated settings. More than once we got stuck in a place with a newly lit lantern not lighting anything because we didn’t move.
• Doors are one of the things I will have to get into more. It is possible to create movable doors, but how is still a bit of a mystery to me.

Notes regarding Labyrinth Lord

• we were playing by the book, but that might have been a mistake. The game might need to become a bit less deadly, so next time we should use the splintering shield rules, a death and dismemberment chart, and some rule about helmets I should first figure out (stock LL doesn’t seem to have a bonus for helmets
• one house rule I already used for XP is XP for exploration: every new room discovered/mapped gives 50xp
• I do wonder if I should have used Labyrinth Lord or maybe have gone even more minimal with White Box Fantasy.

Notes regarding Tomb of the Serpent Kings

• I already played this one with another online group at the beginning of the pandemic. Unfortunately that didn’t last long, and we never managed to get to some of the more interesting parts of the dungeon.

Note: I did post a previous version of this article on the campaignwiki.org newsnet forum.

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https://gmkeros.wordpress.com/2024/04/17/labyrinth-lord-tomb-of-the-serpent-kings-session-1-also-maptool/

#dnd #labyrinthlord #maptool #osr #totsk #ttrpg #ttrpgs #vtt

gmkeros.wordpress.com, 1 month ago to templeofelementalevil

https://gmkeros.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/stirring.jpg

This is a 28 page “temple-crawling adventure” written by Munkao ostensibly for Into the Odd and Cairn (but actually largely system-agnostic), and set in the South-East Asian inspired world of Kala Mandala. I don’t think transferring it into other settings should be that much of an issue, as long as one can come up with a reason why there’s a vaguely Asian-coded monastic community around to set this at. My personal setting is set around a sort of crossroads of cultures so I have absolutely no issue with that), and this might fit in great in some of the areas I haven’t worked out that much yet.

The mission as it is is not one that lends itself to the usual loot and pillage gaming: Het Thamsya is a fledgling temple school in a larger collective, dedicated to the path of Automata. The founder of this school has nearly finished a decade long meditation, but giant (belying the title) wasps have created a nest in the back of the building while everyone else was busy not disturbing the meditator. Your mission now, if you should accept it, is to carry the meditating monk out of there, without waking him.

The complications arise from the guards set by your mission objective (automata of various kinds), the wasps, and a bunch of other intruders that have entered without anyone knowing. Interestingly the wasp nest is detailed much more than you’d think, and there are things going on in there that are way more complicated than what you’d expect, as there’s some bizarre bio-horror twist lying in wait. Which makes for a fascinating chart of faction relations based on the instincts of the wasps and the commands left for the automata and how they interact with one another.

I do feel like I am missing some context for the world of Kala Mandala, as I am not quite sure what some of the things reference. On the other hand it’s easy to just plug in whatever association comes up and go with it. The scenario offers a compelling mission and plenty of complications to make for some interesting play. I think this might be interesting to play with multiple groups to see how either of them make it through.

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https://gmkeros.wordpress.com/2024/04/16/review-stirring-the-hornets-nest-at-het-thamsya/

#Adventure #cairn #intoTheOdd #kalaMandala #RolePlayingGame #rpg #Scenario #ttrpg

gmkeros.wordpress.com, 3 months ago to DnD

Velociraptor with sword and shieldBob Walters 1982, published without context in Dragon 63Dungeons and Dragons was published 50 years ago, and almost immediately afterwards ‘zines and magazines appeared to give players and DMs more material to work with. And even beforehand things were published in Diplomacy zines and even mainstream magazines.

And there have been a lot of attempts by fellow bloggers to go through these magazines systematically, although in a lot of cases they focused almost exclusively on the holy trinity of Dragon, Dungeon, and White Dwarf. Which after all were the biggest RPG magazines there were in the English language.

So I decided to write down some articles when I find them. Mostly as a way for myself to remember them (I keep coming across useful articles that don’t quite fit with what I am working on, only to half-remember them months later when I could use them). But also because some stuff should not be forgotten just because it’s only in some magazine published halfway across the world 40 years ago.

I am going to use a small rating system for now:

A – for good articles with good game use

B – for articles with some use

S – for articles that are so good they could sustain a whole campaign or at least multiple sessions on their own

H – for articles of historical interest but maybe no actual game use

C – for campaign specific articles with barely any use outside that particular campaign

F – for fiction of note

I – for some general interest stuff that doesn’t fit anywhere else, also stuff that is neither good nor bad but maybe has an interesting idea

J – for jokes, cartoons, and humor of note

T – for things that are so terrible I just have to point them out

That… should be enough for now. I don’t think this will be done systematically as I mostly want to note down when I come across some stuff. If an article is not on the list I didn’t think it was interesting.

So lets begin.

Dragon 63 (1982)

G. Gygax, Featured Creatures: Deva, p.5 H – preview to MMII I guess
G. Gygax (?), Where the Bandits are, p. 14 C – details on the Bandit Kingdoms in Greyhawk
Tom Armstrong/Roger Moore, Bandits! p. 23 B – bandit NPC class, I mentioned before I have reevaluated the use of those. This one might be a bad guy, or it might be Robin Hood. I can see some use for that.
Roger Moore, …but not least: The humanoids. Goals and gods of the kobolds, goblins, hobgoblins, & gnolls, p. 25, B – some interesting ideas for minor gods and spiritual beings of the humanoids. Might be useful for fleshing out some humanoid tribes. Misogynist vibes though.
Larry DiTillio, Chagmat, p. 33, I – adventure level 1-4, arachnid antagonists, very mediocre dungeon, overwritten, slightly misogynist vibes (why do spider care about abducting maidens specifically?), but has an old one-armed swordsman NPC I wanna steal
G. Gygax, A Couple of Fantastic Flops, p.72 H – Gygax trashes the Schwarzenegger Conan movie and promises a D&D movie with the quality of Star Wars or Raiders of the Lost Ark by 1984/85. Gee, I wonder how that turned out?

Dragon Magazine 74 (1983)

Leonard Lakofka/Brad Nystul, Bureaucrats and Politicians, p.8. I (maybe J) – two NPC classes, overwritten and not very useful, although both read more like a joke I don’t quite get
Ronald Hall, Landragons. Wingless wonders of a faraway land, p.12, B – creature feature about wingless dragons, notably the third entry manages to mess up the notation for inches and feet so bad it requires multiple rereadings
Lewis Pulsipher, A player character and his money…, p. 50, A/H – first appearance of the silver standard conversion, otherwise lots of ideas to part the PCs from their money

Dragon 104 (1986)

[OH wow, I was thinking about it, and there was absolutely nothing notable or useful in this issue. The closest was this:]
Christopher Wood, A plethora of paladins, p. 45, I – expands the “holy warrior” archetype from Paladins and Anti-Paladins out into the other 7 alignments. All are NPC classes and all kind of useless. I don’t see any immediate use for this.

Dragon 114 (1986)

Bill Muhlhausen (and others), The Witch, p.8 I – this is the at least third incarnation of the Witch NPC class. Unfortunately it still is barely usable as the class still is predicated on being an evil overpowered demon-worshipper.
Nick Kopsinis/Patrick Goshtigian, Grave Encounters. Creatures that lurk in cemeteries and crypts, p. 22, B – bread and butter article with graveyard encounter tables
Margaret Weis/Kevin Stein, Running Guns. Ground Vehicles for the BATTLETECH game world, p. 78, H – I’d rate it higher, but seriously all that is covered in the core rules by now
Randal S. Doering, High-Tech Hijinks. Integrating technology into an AD&D game campaign, p. 84 B – a bit overwritten

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https://gmkeros.wordpress.com/2024/03/04/rpg-magazine-recon-pt-1-dragon-magazine-63-74-104-114/

#dnd #magazine #Roleplaying #rpg #ttrpg

gmkeros.wordpress.com, 3 months ago to DnD

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2024/03/dragon_by_henry_justice_ford.jpgA Monday Miscellany of Links pt. XVI

100 Village Notable Features (OSRVault)

d10 Graveyard Dressing (Azukail Games)

d12 Mysterious Vapours & Miasmas (Elfmaids & Octopi)

DnD turns 50 and something else turns 200 (Playing at the World)

‘The hobby is only just catching up to what Greg did 40 years ago’: Pendragon 6E, ‘ultimate’ edition of an RPG legend’s masterpiece, reclaims its crown (dicebreaker)

Using TTRPGs to change the narratives around Autism (Roll for Kindness)

Tips and Tricks: DIY TTRPG zines and booklet props (TTRPGKids)

Save the Day: How Young Chinese Are Role-Playing Their Way to Wealth (Sixth Tone)

How to make a monster (Medievalists.net)

Grimoire Of The Pale (d66 spells) (Another Hamsterish Hoard)

A Generator for New Words, Or: Automatically Grafting Prefixes and Suffixes Garned from Wikitionary (Archons March On)

Symbols & Lost Languages to Guide Your Campaign (Dice Goblin)

Flavortown: Why A Soldier Is A Rogue Not A Fighter (Renaissance Woodsman)

Bring Out Your Dead (The Dododehecadron)

Uniquely Undead (Dyson Logos)

Bringing Back the Magic (Magician’s Manse)

Creating monster behavior instead of monster abilities (The Luminescent Lich)

Knots (A Procedure For Elegant Jaquaysing) (Dungeonfruit)

Dungeon Walls, Ceilings & Floors (Elfmaids & Octopi)

The Miners of Redhorn (Mediums and Messages)

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https://gmkeros.wordpress.com/2024/03/04/a-monday-miscellany-of-links-pt-xvi/

#blogospherefind #dnd #Roleplaying #rpg #ttrpg

gmkeros.wordpress.com, 3 months ago to BBC

Rate this:

https://gmkeros.wordpress.com/2024/03/04/video-the-bbc-on-dd-in-1983/

#bbc #dnd #DungeonsDragons #gamesWorkshop #gw #Roleplaying #ttrpg

gmkeros.wordpress.com, 4 months ago to DnD

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2024/01/image08749755911874810671.jpeg?w=790Extracted images from 1688 maps (itch.io)

D20 Things that can go wrong with too many Hirelings (Archons March On)

OSR Psychic Powers (Remixes and Revelations)

About those girls and guy playing DnD (Sarah Darkmagic)

…and again (Grognardia)

The Quieter Moments (Bastionland)

Dungeon Doors on 3d8 (Clerics Wearing Ringmail)

Neo-khuzdul (The Dwarrow Scholar)

Ringmail Medieval Battles (Clerics Wearing Ringmail)

D100 City Streets (d4 Caltrops)

D100 Anywhere but the tavern session starters (d4 Caltrops)

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https://gmkeros.wordpress.com/2024/01/22/monday-miscellany-of-links-pt-xiv/

#dnd #osr #rpg #ttrpg

gmkeros.wordpress.com, 4 months ago to DnD

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2024/01/wurzburg-1833-samuel-prout.pngA bit late with this one, holiday season was way too busy for my taste, and I got distracted by some retro-computing projects (like my irrational fondness for Usenet and setting up a TTRPG-focused Synchronet BBS on my Raspberry).

Free Stuff

Troika for free (including an adventure). Well, nearly free, for signing up to their newsletter

Into the Dungeon: Revived is an old school ruleset closer to Into the Odd, but with more classic theme

5E RPG Stock Art Illustrations Sample (drivethrurpg)

GM Aid

Some houserules from 1985, from the pages of L’avant garde #74 (August 1985). I think I have to think about caltrops, and of course salt against zombies (which is part of the original Haitian zombie legends and which was excised out of the Holmes edition of DnD)

Schools of Swordplay (Dice Goblin) which is an extension of Block, Dodge, Parry for Cairn, but I think the rules should be adaptable as well

Standoffs and Surprises (The Alexandrian)

The 14 challenges in TTRPGs – All the tools in your toolbox (Dawnfist Games)

Thought

On Discourse – or, how to talk about TTRPGs online (Burn after Running)

What Makes A Good Player-Facing Pointcrawl? (Widdershins Wanderings)

Why are Giants “bad” (Of Slugs and Silver)

A New Genre Itself (Grognardia)

TTRPG History

When in Rome (Grognardia)

Interview with the late Jennell Jayquays about her thoughts in creating Dark Tower and Caverns of Thracia (Vintage RPG)

Random Tables

100 Dungeon Graffiti (OSR Vault)

100 Good/Evil Faction Motivations (OSR Vault)

d100 – Infernal Features & Tiefling Traits (d4 Caltrops)

d100 – Magical Rings (d4 Caltrops)

d50 more memorabila to loot (Seed of Worlds) – how do you even use a d50 table? I think there’s a second half to this I haven’t found yet

Podcasts

Podcast find: Radio Free Muncie goes through all the issues of the Knights of the Dinner Table comic book. I conclude: I have to reread the Bag Wars saga, again.

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https://gmkeros.wordpress.com/2024/01/15/monday-miscellany-of-links-pt-xiii/

#74 #dnd #DungeonsDragons #Roleplaying #rpg #ttrpg

gmkeros.wordpress.com, 4 months ago to DnD

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2024/01/dnd-newsgroup.pngDid you know there is an online forum for tabletop role-playing games that has been around since the late 70s, and which still is active and operating?

Admittedly in a much diminished state than at it’s heyday.

I don’t know if you ever heard the term Usenet before, and even if you did, if you don’t just connect it with data piracy. Because that’s what it is mostly used for nowadays.

What it started out as were discussion forums.

Back in the late 70s, after ARPANET had been created and email had been invented, a few programmers came up with an idea for an electronic bulletin board that could be read asynchronously. This was the time when computers still were only in big institutions like universities, big companies, and the military, and the whole idea was to create “a poor man’s ARPANET”. Connections between computers were rare and expensive , but possible. So these “news” started as a way to propagate articles and messages along servers that were not constantly connected to the internet. Some of the servers involved would only connect once a day to the network to transfer messages in and out (often at night because charges were lower then). A message might travel for multiple days before it reached all nodes in the network, and some of the earliest were messages about a nascent hobby popular among the people using this network: fantasy role-playing.

From what I can see the first two messages on the brand new group net.games.frp were sent out on the 12th of January 1982.

To give you an idea just how early this was: it was before the abbreviation RPG became common, people were still talking about Fantasy RolePlaying instead, so even today the group-names use the abbreviation FRP.

It’s quite a fascinating system that over time has become ever more complex and popular, before the ascent of html, hyperlinks, and the world wide web pushed it into the seedy corners of the ‘net.

Instead of having websites, Usenet is organized in newsgroups, and those groups are organized in hierarchies. There are the so called Big Eight that have a certain standard for group creation and posting (e.g. rec. for recreational topics, and comp. for topics concerning computers), and there are others, organized in one way or another (famously https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alt.*_hierarchy which had lower standards for the creation of new groups).

Messages are sent to one or more groups (crossposted), distributed around the network, and people respond to these posts. Interesting discussions and arguments ensue, people get angry, flame wars ensue, other people learn something new, weird in-jokes develop, stuff happens.

All that can be read via archives, the biggest of which is Google Groups, which both is a boon and downfall of the service: Google purchased the old newsgroup archives of DejaNews back in the 90s, and integrated it in it’s Google Groups service. In a picture-perfect example of Embrace, Extend, Extinguish the users of Groups had a web interface that allowed them access to their old newsgroups, access to new groups that only existed on Google, but also allowed spammers to flood the connected newsgroups with loads of unmoderated spam. Spam that recently was quoted by them as a reason to cut the connection with Usenet, bringing this phase of the network to an end.

But Usenet still is running, and most likely will be running as long as there are people willing to run servers for it. But the biggest Usenet servers nowadays are piracy servers that keep the text-part of the Usenet as more of an afterthought. At one point someone came up with a way to use the text-only format of Usenet in a way to distribute data that was binary, i.e. not purely text. And this took over most of the system.

But I am not really interested in that and never was. What I am interested in are the fantasy roleplaying parts of that network.

rec.games.frp.*

I said that the forum has been running since the late 70s, but that’s not quite correct. The original structure of Usenet grew organically from the beginning. People were creating new groups when it suited them and it seemed logical. Which soon caused some hierarchies (specifically the net. hierarchy) to swell with groups that could barely be maintained. In a great upheaval in 1987 all the groups were renamed and restructured.

Some old hands are still angry about it and will bitch about it for days. That also is Usenet.

One can argue that the fantasy roleplaying group has existed since before that time. One also could argue that it only exists since 1987. Which still is older than the World Wide Web.

Usenet is divided into hierarchies, and the frp-hierarchy is part of the rec. (recreation-hierarchy) and .games. sub-hierarchy.

There are currently 11 .frp. groups in that hierarchy:

rec.games.frp.dnd	of course… it’s the hierarchy for Dungeons and Dragons. Always one of the biggest topics of the whole FRP forums this one got it’s own group.
rec.games.frp.misc	for basically all other kinds of discussions about roleplaying games
rec.games.frp.cyber	for cyberpunk systems (e.g. Cyberpunk 2020 or Shadowrun).
rec.games.frp.super-heroes	for superhero games
rec.games.frp.live-action	anything LARP goes here.
rec.games.frp.announce	announcements and news about products go here
rec.games.frp.industry	for all kinds of discussions about the rpg industry
rec.games.frp.storyteller	yes, this was created when the World of Darkness was big enough to demand it’s own forum
rec.games.frp.gurps	For GURPS, this part was created because while never the most popular game, it’s fans flooded the main group with so many messages about builds that it was decided to give them their own place.
rec.games.frp.advocacy	all kinds of discussions about roleplaying games as such and how they work. This is where the Forge came from back in the day
rec.games.frp.market	I guess this is for selling stuff. I have literally never seen a message in there.

Most of these lay fallow right now, with me and a few others being the only ones posting there every once in a while. I do have to admit part of it is because I don’t want to lose the that part of ttrpg history to a random deletion request for non-use.

Other TTRPG groups

The main hierarchies are not the only ones. Most normal Usenet servers carry at least the Big Eight, but most also carry others. The big other hierarchy is alt. (…definitely not named for Anarchists, Lunatics, and Terrorists, all evidence to the contrary…), which makes it easier to create groups. This means there are a few other groups here that might be of interest, if they ever would get someone to post in them. Their structure though is not as organized as the ones in the Big 8.

alt.games.frp.adnd-util	about utilities for playing ADnD. I would say, a general groups for RPG utilities.
alt.games.adnd	for ADnD. I am not sure why this exists, maybe because the main one was too stodgy, or it was created because someone thought ADnD was sufficiently different than DnD to warrant it’s own group
alt.games.earthdawn	for Earthdawn. Remember Earthdawn?
alt.games.x-files.rpg	For the X-Files RPG. Remember that?
alt.games.whitewolf	I guess a group for White Wolf games, which is also already covered in rec.games.frp.storyteller
alt.games.tolkien.rpg	a group about playing in Tolkien’s Middle-Earth

There are also local and language dependent groups around. Many languages and regions have their own hierarchies for exchanges between locals and/or in other languages.

uk.games.roleplay	group for roleplaying in the UK
de.rec.spiele.rpg.misc	general group for discussions of RPGs in German
z-netz.freizeit.rollenspiele.dsa	originally this was an Echo in a mailbox network, by now z-netz. is a small alternative German Usenet hierarchy. This particular one about Das Schwarze Auge/The Dark Eye
pl.rec.gry.rpg	Polish-language group
es.rec.juegos.rol	Spanish-language group
se.spel.rollspel	Swedish-language group
dk.fritid.rollespil	Danish-language group
fr.rec.jeux.jdf	French-language group
it.hobby.giochi.gdr	Italian-language group
hr.rec.igre.rpg	Hungarian-language group
aus.games.roleplay	Australian group

There are more, some of which I might not even find that easy because they are not on the servers I frequent (not all servers carry all groups) or are so specialized they might not be of interest to anyone but locals (e.g. saar.rec.rollenspiele exists, but I doubt many people in Saarland (the smallest of Germany’s federal states) still know Usenet exists)

Ok, ok, but how do you actually ACCESS this Usenet thingy?

That’s a bit more difficult, but not much. It used to be ISPs were all running their own news servers, this was actually the REASON you might want internet access as a private person, but that isn’t the case anymore. Google Groups is also going away, so that’s not a real option.

An easy way to check out what is being talked about on the FRP-hierarchy is campaignwiki.org/news. This server makes it possible to read and post on his own small server via a web-interface. The server is only running roleplaying-related groups, including the global FRP-hierarchy, and a few local ones that do not get carried in many other places.

Another way to access it via web browser is via web gateways. There are a few around, e.g. NovaBBS. There are a few of those around, but they might not carry all the groups (NovaBBS e.g. only rec.games.frp.dnd and .misc, because those are the ones with most activity).

The proper way to use it is of course by getting an account on a news server and adding it to your feed reader of choice. True hardcore users use terminal-based readers like tin or Gnus, but many Email programs like Mozilla Thunderbird allow you to subscribe to newsgroups.

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2024/01/thunderbird.pngBut where do you get a news server?

Well, there are multiple free options (these are all technically text-only, although a few have some basic binary groups that allow pictures):

campaignwiki.org/news	(Switzerland) very small server, focused on ttrpg groups, also has simple web-portal
Eternal September	(Germany) popular free access server with wide range of groups
I2PN2	simple text server
NovaBBS	text server, as mentioned above also has web-portal
Solani	(Germany) server
dotsrc	(Denmark) focused on Danish users
Agency News	(New Zealand) server
Chmurka	(Poland) basic server focused on Polish users
CSIPH	basic server
Open News Network	(Germany) focused on German users
Gegeweb	(France) focused on French users
Hispagatos	(Spain) focused on Spanish users
Pasdenom	(France) focused on French users
NNTP4	(Germany) basic server

Most of these have instructions on how to connect on their websites.

Note: This is a redo of an article I wrote 13 years ago. Originally I thought I could just let that one stand like that, but just briefly reading through it I noticed things had changed dramatically in some areas. So I rewrote the whole thing from scratch.

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https://gmkeros.wordpress.com/2024/01/12/the-oldest-ttrpg-forum-on-the-net/

#dnd #dsa #newsgroup #newsserver #RolePlayingGame #Roleplaying #rpg #thunderbird #ttrpg #Usenet

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gmkeros.wordpress.com, 5 months ago to gaming

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2023/12/ancestors-1.jpgThe last few weeks I have been unduly fascinated by Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey, a 2019 game that was supposed to make the whole of human evolution playable in a breathtaking journey.

You might think that’s promising a bit much, and it is. The game released to rather critical reviews and never made the impact it was supposed to.

And I see why. The game is intentionally impenetrable. It seems in the beginning it didn’t even have the visual cues for the actions I came to rely on, and even with those barely anything is explained. The tutorial is brief and drops you directly into an intensely dangerous world, and the game delights in telling you it won’t give you further hints.

You start as a tribe of hominids about 10 million years ago (the missing link) and have to make your way to about 2.5 million years ago.

In between you have to steer your hominids, start figuring out the world (horsetail good, mushrooms uuugh but filling), invent the first tools like “stick” and “mud” (a truly versatile tool!), and, well, die a lot.

Everything seems made to kill you. Go too high up the tree and an eagle gets you, go through grass a python gets you, walk through water a crocodile eats you. And then there’s the stalker cat which often comes unannounced and pounces you. And unlike the others the cats will stalk you until they can kill you. I had one follow me from one side of one biome to the other.

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2023/12/ancestors-2.jpgIn between you carry kids with you, because it’s not important what you do with your current character, unless kids see you do it and learn from it. If you do enough of a particular action neural energy will grow and new neurons will activate. In the end its a skill tree system, even if developing it needs generations, or hundreds of thousands of years and a single character will never survive it. From one generation to the next a limited amount of newly learned skills can be kept, but what you really need to get is mutations. These come randomly with new kids, but they won’t become apparent until you do an evolutionary leap. But you need them because some skills are gated by them, and you won’t be able to progress unless you have them.

It’s all very complicated and worse, barely explained.

Unlike many other games this game has nearly no fantastic elements at all. Everything is based on scientific research, there is no story at all, outside of the story of how humans start becoming bipedal and omnivorous… and start killing everything else I guess. The only element I would term fantastical are the meteors.

Danger, here be spoilers: Every once in a while you discover a new landmark and it triggers a cut scene where meteors rain down on the landscape. These will smoke for a while (multiple generations and even generational leaps), but in the end they stop. If your hominid finds them they will gain further unity with the universe, and they will get a free skill, and all kids present get a mutation. It becomes a convenient shortcut to organize an expedition to a meteor site with as many kids as possible to lock down as many mutations as possible over one or two generations. Of course it turns out all these meteor sites have some rather dangerous wildlife nearby, or are in rather inconvenient sites.

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2023/12/ancestors-3.jpgEven the actual goal of the game is barely communicated: you have to reach the last evolutionary step in the game, reaching the genus homo ergaster, and then the closing animation plays. I guess it was planned that the next part of the series show the further development, alas I don’t think the game was successful enough. It is rather niche, and the only reason I even got it was because it was part of my Humble subscription at one point. Still. It is an interesting game, and one that I spent a lot of time on. It gives you an appreciation of how far we’ve come, and how dangerous cats used to be. Or still are.

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https://gmkeros.wordpress.com/2023/12/12/video-game-ancestors-the-humankind-odyssey/

#ancestors #gaming #survival #VideoGames #videogames

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gmkeros.wordpress.com, 5 months ago to RPG

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2023/12/780910conan.jpgThis time a few more links than last week. Maybe even too many this time.

News

Reprint of Shadowrun 1st edition in the works (enworld)

Random Tables

d100 – Weird and Whimsical Wants for Fickle Fey (d4 Caltrops)

100 Interesting Rumors (Or Potential Plot Hooks!) (OSRVault)

Cult generator – D66 Cult names, heraldry and goals! (Dawnfist Games)

Thought

“Played by friends, not strangers” (Grognardia)

I Love Underused Monsters (Tales of the Lunar Lands)

The Ten Commandments of D&D (Grognardia)

My original fantasy sandbox: ICE’s Middle-earth (Akratic Wizardry)

What Choose-Your-Adventure Books Can Teach Game Masters About Pacing and Decisions (DMDavid)

GMing with Joy: GM Tools That Can Last a Lifetime (enworld)

On Hobby Best Practices – Part 1 and Part 2 and Part 3 (Gorgon Bones)

Rereading OD&D: Back to the Start (Coins & Scrolls)

Mystifying and Dangerous (Grognardia)

GM Aid

The Quantum Goodbye Letter (Dice Goblin)

Writing Dungeons Without Dice (Playful Void)

Dolmenwood Dozen (d4 Caltrops)

The BECMI reaction table (Methods & Madness)

Scribes (Dice Goblin)

Magic

Yet another magic system: Chaotic Spells and Strange Charms (Tabletop Curiosity Cabinet)

Encounters

D66 Astral plane encounters (Dawnfist Games)

Friday Encounter: Peryton Party (Tales of the Lunar Lands)

Friday Encounter: Mistaken Identity (Tales from the Lunar Lands)

Terrain

Dungeon Stackers and Triangular Dungeon Stackers (The Might Be Gazebos!)

Monsters

CYTHRONS (from 2000AD’s Slaine) – Monster for Old School Fantasy & Horror (Shuttered Room)

Traveller

Right On Commander! (Elite ships for Traveller)

Papercraft

Niederkassel Dice Tower (papermau)

Sericulture Farmhouse At The Foot Of Mount Gassan (papermau)

Other Stuff

Dungeon Running Sheets (The Alexandrian)

Conan the Barbarian (Newspaper Comic Strips Blog)

Some Observations on Science Fiction Names (From the Sorceror’s Skull)

Notes from Reading “The Prairie Traveler: A Handbook for Overland Expeditions” (Whose Measure God Could Not Take)

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https://gmkeros.wordpress.com/2023/12/11/a-monday-miscellany-of-links-pt-xii/

#blogosphere #blogospherefinds #Links #monster #RolePlayingGame #Roleplaying #rpg #traveller #ttrpg

gmkeros.wordpress.com, 6 months ago to DnD

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2023/12/campaign-tracker.pngI am currently going through a lot of trainings, and specifically I am doing something to work on my SQL knowledge. I only have hovered around the edges of the topic before. Some of my previous jobs involved making some basic database queries, but I never really looked further than basic database structures and simple queries.

But that got me thinking about doing a campaign database in SQL, with a better way to track all those elements that might be interesting to know for a campaign.

Now to be fair, I am not thinking about the usual wham bam 20 levels in a campaign thing 5e seems to have going on, I am talking about a multiplayer campaign in the OSR/West Marches vein where every single session might be played by different players. I think I should actually write about this ideal of a campaign I have.

“YOU CAN NOT HAVE A MEANINGFUL CAMPAIGN IF STRICT TIME RECORDS ARE NOT KEPT” (Gygax DMG p37) and all that stuff.

But anyway… when thinking about it I remembered that years ago for my idea of a Harnworld campaign in my own Harnworld B/X derivative that got derailed quickly by parenthood and everything involved in that I made a campaign tracker spreadsheet in Google Sheets that was supposed to do a lot of this already. This was inspired by multiple other sheets I found, e.g. the old ADnD ones or the Hackmaster one. I found it a bit cumbersome to use, but mostly I was waiting for the campaign to continue which it never did, and forgot about the existence of the spreadsheet. I fully intended to improve on it, but haven’t gotten around to it for years now. It mostly is a layout without any formulas.

I did put some thought into it though, it has some Harn specific things (e.g. a tab about Godstones, which are dimensional gates in the setting), so if someone else might find it useful have a look. Maybe give me some feedback while you’re at it.

GDrive: Campaign Tracker (Harnworld) v0.1

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https://gmkeros.wordpress.com/2023/12/08/harnworld-tool-campaign-tracker-for-dnd-b-x-derivatives/

#campaignTracker #dnd #harn #harnworld #RolePlayingGame #Roleplaying #rpg #spreadsheet #ttrpg

gmkeros.wordpress.com, 6 months ago to DnD

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2023/11/viviano_codazzi_-_arquitectura_con_figuras.jpgI actually have not had much time this week for blogging, even reading my feeds was an issue. Which is sad because there was a rather juicy amount of stuff to be found in them. Here are the most interesting:

Random Tables

100 Fairy Peon Quests (Whose Measure God Could Not Take)

d100 Things I Had To Do Growing up a Dwarf (Elfmaids & Octopi)

d100 Halfling Hangups Growing Up (Elfmaids & Octopi)

100 Wonderous Trinkets (OSRVault)

100 Curses (OSRVault)

PAINT THE (VILLAGE) RED: A General Purpose Carousing Table (I cast light!)

Roll Your Own Kobold Tribe (Points of Inspiration)

Wilderness Encounter Details/Activities (Eldritch Fields)

Game Aids

Mist Rapier (Wombat’s Gaming Den of Iniquity)

What to do at High Level (What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse)

10 Fantasy curses and the ritual to break them (Dawnfist Games)

Branching Factions (Space Aces)

Advanced LaTeX features and LaTeX Images for TTRPGs (Vladar’s Blog)

A take on the Monastery of the Fire Opal, including the upper levels (Dyson’s Dodehecadron)

Thought

Gods are High Level PCs (Rise up Comus!)

Monsters

You’re Sleeping on Perytons (Tales of the Lunar Lands)

OSR: Oni (Remixes and Revelations)

RPG History

Game 497: Dragons (1978) (CRPG Addict)

No Longer a Challenge (Grognardia)

Other

Desecrated Tomb paper model (papermau)

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https://gmkeros.wordpress.com/2023/11/27/a-monday-miscellany-of-links-pt-x/

#blogosphere #dnd #Links #monster #Roleplaying #rpg

gmkeros.wordpress.com, 6 months ago to money

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2023/11/ulster-bank-polymer-c2a350-front.png?w=336Ulster Bank 50 pounds note

Sometimes Britain is really weird. I was writing a post about money in Dungeons and Dragons when I remembered something odd we encountered when visiting Northern Ireland back in the 2000s: Northern Irish Bank notes.

No, not just British paper money, actual bank notes issued by private banks in the constituent part of the United Kingdom that is Northern Ireland. Scottish ones as well.

It turns out they aren’t actually legal tender anywhere in Britain (because legal definitions can be weird), but you can just pay with them in shops. It’s a bit like the Euro gonna-catch-them-all hunt for different coins, as multiple banks have the right to issue currency and do.

Somehow nobody ever had mentioned the existence of seperate paper money in Scotland and Northern Ireland to any of us. And to be fair, it’s not supposed to be seperate. They are equivalent to the Pound Sterling, but better don’t try to pay with them in England. People seem to get really pissy about that when you try. They are supposed to take them, but some places just won’t. (They can’t give them out as change)

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2023/11/111174872_rbs20front.jpg.webp?w=976Bank of Scotland 20 pounds noteConversely Scotland and Northern Ireland generally accept each other’s notes.

This is stuff that nobody ever talks about somehow, a regional quirk that flies under the radar most of the times.

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2023/11/danske-bank-20-polymer-thumbnail.jpg?w=500Danske Bank 20 poundsBy the way, one of the banks that can issue money in Northern Ireland is Danske Bank, a Danish bank based in Copenhagen. It seems they bought Northern Bank a while ago and retained their right to issue bank notes.

Another one is Bank of Ireland, which is based in Dublin. So two institutions from the EU can issue money in UK. Isn’t that interesting?

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2023/11/image_editor_output_image-1514143461-1700776444287.jpg?w=428And don’t even get me started on the Manx pound, which is issued by the government of the Isle of Man (a crown dependency) and which you might get as change in Belfast. Unlike the money from the other two this one is not supposed to be interchangeable with the British pound. The Isle of Man is as Wikipedia puts it “in a one-sided de facto currency union” with the UK, meaning the pound sterling is legal tender on the island and backing its own notes with it. Some people might accept them, others don’t.

(To be fair it appears banks and post offices anywhere in Britain take them)

The Wikipedia article for the Manx Pound still talks about what will happen when the UK finally adopts the Euro. I think nobody updated this since 2006.

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#BankNotes #Britain #money

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gmkeros.wordpress.com, 6 months ago to DnD

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2023/11/befindlichkeiten.jpgEberhard Marx – Befindlichkeiten, 2010

RPG History

1983: Enterprise – Role Play Game in Star Trek (Reviews from R’Lyeh)

Game Aids

Recovered: Other Crews (Benign Brown Beast)

Bandits! Bandits! – an underrated low-level antagonist (Burn After Running)

The Frenchman’s Curse (Benign Brown Beast)

Forgotten Gems of the OSR – LL AEC Rogues Gallery (Smoldering Wizard)

Evoking Emotion in Classic Fantasy Adventure Games (Grumpy Wizard)

Weak Points in Time and Space (Remixes and Revelations)

Thought

Analog, Digital, Procedural (Roles, Rules, and Rolls)

Cargo Cult (Grognardia)

A blog post is a very long and complex search query to find fascinating people and make them route interesting stuff to your inbox (Escaping Flatland)

Monster

Golden Shrieker (Scribblings or Something)

DIY

LaTeX tables: Basics (Vladar’s Blog)

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https://gmkeros.wordpress.com/2023/11/20/a-miscellany-of-links-pt-ix/

#dnd #Links #osr #Roleplaying #rpg #StarTrek

gmkeros.wordpress.com, 6 months ago to RPG

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2023/11/ab_b15.jpgGarhelt: Son.

Tronde: Mother?

Garhelt: we are outfitting an expedition up the river…

Tronde: Mother…

Garhelt: we need the best of our warriors, the best equipment, the best of our scholars, and we are going to discover the Orkland!

Tronde: Mother sigh Mother I am the hetman now.

Gerhalt not listening: I think we will need 4 dozen horses!

Tronde: you can get a mule.

Gerhalt: And I need the Giant’s Thumb!

Tronde: … tell you what mother, I will let Olaf put up some posters when he’s in Havena next week, deal?

Gerhalt: I knew I could put my trust in you! (exit to right)

Aide: Tronde, is that really wise?

Tronde: I don’t care. Let Olaf put some posters up. Either we get some foolhardy idiots who actually do the trip, or some scammers that are gonna turn back immediately. We can suffer the loss of a mule and some equipment if it gets me the chance to get rid of that disgusting thumb. I’ve wanted to kick it into the sea since I was a kid.

So let’s go through Das Schwarze Auge scenario B15 Im Spinnenwald (In Spiderwood), part of the 3-part campaign Die Entdeckung des Orklandes (The Discovery of Orkland) from 1986.

This should be the first we have from that year.

The Discovery series his is a small starter campaign written by Ulrich Kiesow (again…) and unlike the previous attempts at starter adventures this one wants to be a wilderness adventure.

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2023/11/mapb15.pngNow when I say a wilderness adventure you might expect a hex crawl, but this is DSA and it was written for a German-speaking audience, so we instead are dealing with squares.

Kiesow did this already with B13. There already was an actual hex map in Werner Fuchs’ B8, but obviously they didn’t like that. So squares it is.

Also: considering this is supposed to be the discovery of the previously undiscovered wilderness, there are quite a lot of roads on that map.

Anyway, the heroes get hired by the former leader of the Thorwal Pirates (and mother of the current leader) Garhelt.
After finding a public notice on a wall somewhere in their hometown.

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2023/11/b15aushang.pngGarhelt wants to leave a collection of maps of the known world for her country, but one part is missing: the Orkland.

Which is just up the river from Thorwal. You gotta wonder why they have maps of every other part of the continent but are missing their own neighbourhood.

Ok, there’s orks, but still.

The whole expedition has a homespun pet project feel to it. Oh sure, you are working for the former leader of Thorwal. But not the current one.
So you get a mule. And a few life-saving pills.

And the thumb of a giant.

Have fun.

…

Thumb of a giant?

Yes, some ancient hero of the Thorwalians once brought home a thumb he cut off from a giant and it has been in their hoard ever since.

That sounds like Garhelt just took off with whatever nobody wanted.

Anyway, the fun thing about this thumb is this: it works.

Orcs have a justified phobia of giants, and showing them this thumb will make them run away.

That is until you meet that one village who thinks giants are just ancient superstition.

Har Har.

So we get our characters dropped off as far up the river as the dragon boats can go, and then we and the mule have to make our way to the other side of the country.

Ok, that’s not quite true, we do get whatever we want in equipment. but no ranged weapons except bows, or heavy armor. I guess that would be a bit too much for some people about to die miserably in orc territory. And as I said, only a mule. And this is a starter scenario, maybe if you pool your money you might get a second one.

Fair enough. The giant thumb actually leads to the odd feeling that despite exploring the “Ork”land, there’s not actually that many orcs to be seen. After the first few encounters with them word spreads and they leave us alone. What we have instead are lizardmen, spiders, three-headed dragons, and lots of wildlife.

Now I have to say I actually like this adventure, but despite being a squarecrawl it also is… uhm… heavily railroaded. Or maybe the word is gated. The simplest way is to follow along the roads (well, paths I guess) that already exist. If you try to cross open plains you are bound to get accosted by a bunch of narmy Lindwurms (three-headed dragons) that you have no chance in fighting.

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2023/11/b15plains.pngThe adventure has both random encounters and necessary encounters for woods, plains (well, the lindwurms), hills, cliffs (huh), and swamp.

Of interest is maybe the Firun priest who might counter aggressive PCs with a hail storm miracle and dies that way.

Awkward.

Also there’s a unicorn that just looks at them and then goes away (dare I say it? sequel hoooook)

Trolls are quite nice and give valuable information, but if the PCs talk too long with them they get the idea to rob them.

Swamps also have ork gadflies on basically every field, in addition to monsters, nicely keeping the PCs off those as much as possible. and the rest of the denizens (besides the lizardmen) are not much better.

And Kiesow clearly states this is exactly how it is intended: the heroes after all are supposed to reach the Spiderwood and not trot around along the river.

Sigh.

Anyway, lizardmen.
Or lizard folk. Achaz in DSA parlance. By 4th edition they ended up as playable character races (the same as orcs and goblins). But in 1st edition so far we encountered them in some of the earlier scenarios (B1 and B4) on the side of the antagonists.

You most likely read over me mentioning them and assumed that we’d be set to murder our way across a tribe of poor scaled folk living there off the land.

Nothing could be further from the truth, the lizard people are actually quite friendly.

Unless the PCs really fuck up the encounters this is a purely social challenge, with the biggest threat being one of them getting married to a (presumably very attractive) lizard princess.

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2023/11/b15lizard.pngActually no, there’s also the feast they are served as guests of the Achaz. Not that their hosts intend to hurt, but their cooking is of such a quality one might gain or lose permanent hp.

It seems orkland Achaz cooking is… interesting.

Anyway, it’s not necessary that one of the PCs gets married, but king Azl Azzl is very intent on getting his daughter Tili Tiki hitched.

This is presented as a roleplaying challenge to get out of this predicament, but Kiesow does acknowledge that some players might be totally ok with getting married to a lizardgirl.

For what it’s worth Tili Tiki is deadly afraid of violence, and living in a swamp in the orkland that’s not a good condition. I guess it does make sense the king wants to get her to a place where not every day is a struggle to survive.

I don’t know if this is what was intended, but it’s quite heartwarming

After this and a bit of overland travel we need to get the heroes into the Spiderwood, so there’s two encounters to do that. Technically there are roads that lead around the forest, but to the west is a giant called Orkeater who will also branch out into eating foolhardy adventurers, to the east are the lindwurms Skyflame and Skysparkling, who refuse any attempts of characters to cross the plains. Skyflame is presented as a helicopter parent who doesn’t like humans (or other small folk).

Both encounters are of course much more powerful than the heroes, leaving the forest as the only option.

Sigh. as I said, gated

I mean of course it’s called Im Spinnenwald, so we have to go to the Spiderwood at one point. But it’s kind of pointless to start a wilderness exploration adventure and then railroad people into going where you want them to.

anyway, the main part of the scenario:

The Spiderwood.

Guess what’s all over the place?

If you were thinking “spiders” you’d be wrong. what actually is the most annoying part is a kind of plant (the so called Basilamine) that has nice red flowers and exploding seed pods which destroy equipment and give tenths of damage points and oh my god there’s a whole page of rules for these fucking things I think I need a spreadsheet to track all this garbage. DON’T GO INTO THE FLOWER FIELDS IS WHAT I’M SAYING!

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2023/11/b15basilamine.pngEffectively every part of the forest that’s full of those flowers is impassible, coincidentally making the forest into a… you guessed it… open air dungeon.

Sigh.

There’s another encounter table here, containing mammoths and boars and wolves… and horny big bugs that fight rival bugs by bumping into them. hmm…
Also red dwarves. which are dwarves with red caps that don’t talk and might go berserk if interacted with.
huh.
These are still canon by the way. I just saw them in the 4e book about dwarves.
One might assume they are supposed to be redcaps, but they more seem to be some variation of wood-dwelling gnomes and dwarves in Germanic mythologies. But that all isn’t quite clear, and unlike everything else besides animals, these guys cannot be talked to. So we don’t really learn what they are about at all.

Considering this is in the middle of the “undiscovered orkland” this forest turns out to be much more human-inhabited than expected. there’s multiple log cabins, one of which can give you a free dog and has a magic artifact that just says “if you can read this you can read’

(it grants you the ability to read if you don’t have it yet, which is necessary later)

we also can meet an invisible human mage (ok, debatable, but the heroes can’t know her current physical form), a bunch of trolls, at least some poor ork villages, and at least one more whole abandoned human village, now full of goblins (and the question what a Nivese tribe was doing that far south to begin with, living in otherwise very standard medieval buildings).

So what about the spiders the forest is named after?

They will kidnap one of the characters at one point. So now we hopefully will try to find that character again. Lets hope the group doesn’t have issues with each other and just decides to leave the character to his fate.

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2023/11/b15grisbart.pngAs a replacement for the player who just lost their character we get Grisbart, a dwarf, who just shows up and is very greedy. That’s his character.

This is the first time the negative attributes are introduced. Grisbart is a dwarf with a Greed for Gold attribute of 8, meaning whenever he sees gold and wins an attribute check HE NEEDS IT RIGHT NOW.

I guess the idea was popular enough to become a standard for 2nd edition DSA. The later editions introduced a rather specific set of negative attributes like this, one of which always was Greed for Gold. Only 4th edition changed this and made this an optional drawback to buy in a point buy system.

He will join us rescuing the other character. well, if the heroes want to. who knows.

Anyway, how about having at least a single Orc NPC?!

I know I can just introduce some, but I might be mentioning it a bit much, this is supposed to be an expedition through a region where orcs are the predominant people.

Lets cut this short. The spiders that kidnapped the PC are not technically a bad sort: They are a colony of intelligent telepathic spiders who discovered that people reading to them gives them interesting telepathic pictures in their head. so they kidnap people, let them read, and then lose them to scurvy.

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2023/11/b15reader.pngThey aren’t evil, they just don’t understand that this is no way to deal with humans. After a few scenarios by Kiesow I recognize his streak of dark humor again. The spiders just don’t have a clue how humans really work, they just know that they can read to them. And they feed them and try to keep them alive, but humans just can’t survive on a diet of nothing but fish and water. So multiple people have been kidnapped (some maybe from that Nivese village, and some others), used as a reader for the female spiders (the males only know enough to know that the females like those humans for some reason), and then they died of scurvy.

There’s opportunity for some roleplaying here, or just a simple dungeon crawl. It’s not a big dungeon, and Kiesow presents it appropriately alien. In one room we find a couple of spiders post-copulation, the female trying to eat the male one. As one does I guess.

I actually like this adventure. There are some bizarre setpieces in there which I think could be fun. In fact there is a nice actual play by the current publishers of the system which is quite fun and which I enjoyed listening to. I want to play it with people. But damn does it have issues.
It is certainly full of interesting ideas and roleplaying challenges. I think outside some random encounters it doesn’t demand fights anywhere. but it also wastes the possibilities of both the exploration section and the forest section by gating like crazy. This would have to be reworked.

One certainly could introduce something about orc culture here instead of basically everything else.

It occurs to me that there is a good business reason for this particular campaign: up to now most releases have followed along with the levels that could be expected for a normal group. I.e. if you started with B1 and played maybe one official scenario a month you’d end up around the level range for the advanced line of adventures by now.
So how do you sell more? Start over again and tell people this adventure is for experienced players with new characters.

In a way this is the true end of the first phase of DSA adventures. Previous adventures were already mentioning some of the advanced classes, this is the first that places the events on the map from the advanced box. The world soon would start to get filled in with detail.

Both here in the B series and soon in the A series exploration adventures would become more common, with much more social roleplay challenges and less dungeon crawling.

This also received a French version, from what I can see only in the Schmidt trade dress though. No Gallimard version from what I can see for this one.

I might need to point it out, but this and all the other adventures I have been talking about lately recently have been reissued, so they currently can be found in shops again. During my last visit back at my parents’ place I found a whole shelf of them in the local comic store. They are generally near faithful replicas, with only the Schmidt logo replaced.

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2023/11/pic568676.webpRunning Tally (by quality, from best to worst):

1. A1 Die Verschwörung von Gareth
2. B13 Der Streuner soll sterben
3. B2 Wald ohne Wiederkehr
4. A2 Die Göttin der Amazonen
5. B15 Im Spinnenwald
6. B6 Unter dem Nordlicht
7. B9 Strom des Verderbens
8. B1 Im Wirtshaus zum Schwarzen Keiler
9. B8 Durch das Tor der Welten
10. B10 In den Fängen des Dämons
11. B12 Der Zug durch das Nebelmoor
12. B3 Das Schiff der Verlorenen Seelen
13. B4 Die Sieben Magischen Kelche

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https://gmkeros.wordpress.com/2023/11/19/the-dark-eye-retrospective-b15-im-spinnenwald-in-spiderwood-1986/

#dasSchwarzeAuge #dsa #osr #rollenspiel #rpg #ttrpg

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gmkeros.wordpress.com, 6 months ago to sciencefiction

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2023/11/mast231022.jpgI have some nostalgic fondness for Flash Gordon. As I do for Prince Valiant, and the Phantom.

Not actually because I read so many newspaper strips when I was a kid, except the occasional collection that was on offer, but mostly because I was watching the old TV series. I think few kids even in my generation even remember that German television used to show the Flash Gordon animated series, and Defenders of the Earth, but I do. But I was that kind of kid who managed to somehow watch nearly everything genre German public TV broadcast, even at times when that should not be possible.

(I even have some memories of watching episodes of Doctor Who with the 4th Doctor on one of the small state channels, and I can’t even find evidence that ever was broadcast. So either I make it up or I managed to remember some obscure piece of programming nobody else remembers. Either would be possible)

It helped that Flash Gordon was also a movie, and despite being quite gruesome in some parts, this did not keep me from watching it.

Anyway, during the last few weeks I got interested in some of the older newspaper comics again (there’s a blog for them), and found to my astonishment that after 20 years Flash Gordon had been rebooted as a new daily strip right that moment. Well, two weeks before.

And it looks gorgeous. The art style is very much inspired by Jack Kirby, the lines are clear and the shadows stark. Just the right style for that kind of story. The artist for the new strips is Dan Schkade, whose art style turns out to be quite a change for old Flash Gordon fans. But well, who listens to “fans” anymore. Every time someone who professes themselves to be a fan seems to say something lately it’s to shit on something other people enjoy. I enjoy this strip. It’s doesn’t have many installments yet, but I like the direction it goes.

I find it curious that they actually decided to use the first strip to recount the backstory for Flash Gordon, and it would fit either the old newspaper strips or the movie, or maybe the cartoons as well. (not sure about that live action series from a few years ago, that one might have been too deviant to work). Flash is described as an athlete, not mentioning what sport he actually is playing (the old strip had him as a polo player, the movie had him play American Football).

By the way reading it is a bit weird, you can read it on Comics Kingdom, the King Features website. They allow IPs to only read a certain amount of comics per month though. King Features is the company that syndicates these comic strips and that means… you can actually read them for free on a lot of newspaper sites. E.g. the Seattle Times. Or some other newspapers that carry them. Or you could read them in the Funny Pages I guess.

Which, coming back to the beginning, is why I didn’t actually read that many of them. German newspapers did in general not have a comic strip section like Anglo-Saxon newspapers seem to have (or had). Our newspaper carried Hagar the Horrible. And so did my grandparents’. Every once in a while you found some Heathcliff or Baby Blues in places, but proper comic sections did just not exist. If we found the strips at all then in collections published by enthusiasts.

Oh, and well, there was a Flash Gordon RPG a few years ago, but unfortunately I might have missed out on that one. It was mostly in that Savage Worlds bubble that kind of passed me by. Unfortunately it might have had some issues with how well known the IP is right now. Meaning: not very. Except for the movie. But even that one is not as much a household name as I expected.

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https://gmkeros.wordpress.com/2023/11/17/art-and-inspiration-flash-gordon-dan-schkade/

#comic #comicStrip #flashGordon #scienceFiction

gmkeros.wordpress.com, 6 months ago to Dragonlance

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2023/11/evil-ruins.jpg

People don’t really differentiate between authors’ voices when discussing roleplaying game scenarios. There’s a bit of it when people are really into it. They will talk about Gygaxian naturalism, or Jaquaysing Xandering dungeons [note check this Alexandrian post regarding the name change]. If it’s a Hickman scenario there’s gonna be railroads. That stuff.

Stephen Bourne is not one of those greats, but I feel like his scenarios have authorial voice dripping from their pages. He has a style. And all his adventures have similar feel that lean into it. He likes to mix heavy medievalism into his scenarios, even the clear fantasy ones, and use a limited palette of monsters for specific purposes.

When it works it’s pretty brilliant, when it doesn’t you feel like you just lost the money you spent.

I especially notice it in his early Role Aids scenarios: he tries to mix historical facts with D&D’s approach to fantasy worlds, and in some places this absolutely doesn’t fit. The Throne of Evil is the worst of the lot, being a weird mix of a political intrigue scenario in medieval England and a bog standard dungeon crawler for early D&D at the same time. A pretty horrid scenario altogether. I know it was supposed to me rules for medieval wargames, but no.

Evil Ruins is much less so, even though I am still bothered by how disjointed the setting is in places. On the one hand he establishes the setting as Castle Tintagel, which is a real world place in Cornwall, and even establishes that it has some connections to Arthurian myth. Then he proceeds to create an elaborate backstory without any obvious ties to Arthurian myth at all, but featuring Saxon kings and vikings. Fair enough.

View Larger Map

Maybe I am just not knowledgeable enough about Arthur and his myth cycle.
But then the adventure basically is a generic AD&D scenario, and the maps don’t fit the real world location of Tintagel at all.

It would have been better if he either took care to play into the medieval fantasy situation and actually present it coherently, or just replace all the real world references with some generic fantasy terms. The way it is right now feels disjointed.

Why the hell is there a priest of Zeus in medieval England trying to establish a temple?
Why is Tintagel on the East Coast?

Sigh.

That said, that’s the setting.

I actually always have liked the rest of the scenario, even though, or maybe because… it is incredibly generic. But it is generic in a naive way you just don’t see done that often.

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2023/11/erbetrayal.pngThe backstory is too long (2pg for a 36 page scenario), but the basic situation is this: there were two brothers born to the same mother, one the son of the king, one the result of an affair with the king’s brother. The first son was supposed to inherit the throne, but when he came back from a journey his brother murdered him and took the throne. Then stuff went belly up, the usurper basically lost the kingdom and established a death cult in the castle (…as you do…), and his murdered brother came back as a wraith out for revenge. So there’s two separate evil forces in the ruins, and the struggle between both comes to a head just at the same time as a bunch of adventurers come to clear out the castle because it keeps the property values down or something.

There’s a bit of subterfuge going on. First the heroes have to travel to the castle with a guide, but he intentionally misleads them for his own goals, and they have to rescue the heart of the forest. Who is a giant spider.

I love that. There are potentially friendly natives in the forest that will gladly help the party, as long as the group doesn’t immediately murder them for just happening to be giant arachnids.
The guide also will steer them towards a different location than they want, so they take care of a lycanthrope for him (not actually a werewolf) while he steals the treasure. The idea is a bit railroady, but ok.

By the way, did you know the term black panther actually refers to two different variants of big cats of different species? I didn’t know until I read this adventure, and then only after I read the statblocks of the lycantrope and his pet leopard properly. The term black panther is never used in the text, but that’s what they both are supposed to be. The text introduces him as a were-leopard. A term that evokes different images in me than black panther would.

I assume the reason for the black panthers in here was because they got the rights for a Boris Vallejo painting for their cover and they needed something in the scenario that fit to that. Or they chose the painting because the were-leopards were in the scenario and missed what color they were supposed to be.

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2023/11/erenc.pngThen when one finally arrives at the castle one has to deal with death cultists and monsters maddened by the wraith, but it’s not necessarily clear that both are against one another from the outset.
The dungeon is a bit lackluster, but the author took care to put a sort of investigative scenario in there. One can find out the backstory for what happened when following the clues, and find out there is a second evil influence at large. If one cares to do so at least.

The castle itself is presented as a 4 level dungeon, but the 1st level is just the castle yard (also doesn’t seem to resemble the actual Castle Tintagel), and level 4 is rather short.

One interesting bit is that the short boxed text that is given seems to assume the players do indeed not know what these creatures they encounter are. So orcs are “ugly brutes”, hobgoblins are “rather large and ugly creatures” and ghouls are “terrible figures”. Which is nice in that way. It doesn’t give away what they are, one easily could play this as an actual fantastic medieval scenario in a fantasy Britain, and have them all encounter these creatures for the first time.

And that’s actually the way I would run this adventure: as a slightly longer introductory module, to get some people into the game. Maybe not necessarily really in the fantasy Britain environment the module supposes, but one easily could find at least some equivalent region in another world. Or just, you know, keep that little duchy it takes place in it’s own self-contained world.

This scenario was released by Role Aids, a line of supplements by Mayfair games that were more or less compatible with Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. There were a few lawsuits involved, but they were rather cheeky about it. This module claims it is suitable for use with ADnD, and the stat blocks are roughly equivalent, but not the same. Certainly enough to run it just like that, mapping to the ADnD rules nearly 1:1.

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2023/11/erenc2.pngThe illustrations in the text were by Hannah Shapero. I don’t know if she did so much more work in RPGs, but I like the illustrations we get in here. They have a very dark quality, and manage to get over the whole feel of the place perfectly. I am not quite sure if they were actually made for this particular scenario though, or if the author just had to use some illustrations they had lying around.

An aside about the German edition

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2023/11/ercastle.png

The first time I came across this scenario was in the German translation. This one was published by Truant Spiele (Truant is the owner’s last name) in 1989 as Ruinen des Schreckens (Ruins of Terror). So at least the title got an improvement. I got it more than ten years after, when Truant and Welt der Spiele decided to get rid of some unsold stock by bundling them together in anthologies. Actually I got that one even later, because it took a few years for me to actually get my hands on it when that anthology ended in the bargain bin.
I find this translation interesting: unlike the original English version this is not compatible with AD&D. The scenario was translated faithfully, but a page about “Universalabenteuer” (generic adventures) was added with adaption notes. All the stats in the scenario have changed to a weird percentile system that does not seem to be directly mapped to anything. Midgard was the first German roleplaying game, and it used a percentile system (it was derived from Empire of the Petal Throne), so that might have been a reason for that. Some characters also have skills that sound very much like Das Schwarze Auge skills from that game’s 2nd edition. What it doesn’t resemble at all is Dungeons and Dragons, which at the time was barely a blip on the German roleplaying market.
Also interesting:

• Tolkienesque Ologs were present in the original (as modified orcs), but were replaced with Half-orcs. Very tough Half-Orcs. I wonder why. The other half-orcs come out weaker in comparison, even the supposedly elite guards in the dungeon.
• the copyright notice claims this was a translation of Mayfair Games’ Pinnacle, which was another of the scenarios in the anthology I got this from.

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https://gmkeros.wordpress.com/2023/11/16/evil-ruins-role-aids-1983/

#adnd #dnd #DungeonsDragons #roleAids #RolePlayingGame #rpg #Scenario

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gmkeros.wordpress.com, 6 months ago to DnD

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2023/11/scorchinggantlet.png

It turns out “Gantlet” is an archaic form of “Gauntlet”, still technically in use, but I assume most people coming across this might not recognize this. Not even native speakers.

I got this module for free as a community copy, which puts me into a bit of a bind. Can I really review it unbiased? Complaining too much about it sounds a bit like beggars being choosers (although I didn’t really beg for it). Not reviewing it feels wrong as well. Andrew certainly put work into this, even though, at points, he might have put in a bit (or a lot) more.

I know, I know, this is supposed to be one of those punky releases that do away with artificial standards, and give you the proper gonzo experience with bad formatting and art. But the art is not even that bad, besides the maps that is, and in a lot of ways proper standards of formatting are there for a reason.

Now, I actually like this scenario. It is supposed to be an OD&D one, but I don’t quite see that. I think it might be great for a one-shot, maybe a challenge scenario you give to people multiple times. It’s a bit long for a proper tournament scenario, but is anyone really doing RPG tournaments still?

It’s not all that creative one though. The players are captured by a fire giant and his hobgoblin army. Now they are being made to run the gauntlet in his dungeon, with the giant pointing and laughing every once in a while via magic. It feels like I played this before. Or seen the movie. And the Saturday morning cartoon.

It’s been done before I mean to say.

But that might be cool as well. Everyone knows what this is about. Go through the dungeon, find the key, slay the monsters. Survive or look good trying. If you add some stuff from previous attempts every time someone tries this it might be a fun recurring scenario for different people to try.

It does have an alien mantis monk and a giant mouth on legs though, so there’s that.

Is this worth the 0 dollars I paid? Yeah, it has a some good stuff in there. Is it worth the 2.50 it normally costs? I would have to think about that. But the drivethrurpg link has the whole document as a preview, so you can check out the whole thing.

Can be found on drivethrurpg and itch.io

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https://gmkeros.wordpress.com/2023/11/14/review-ud1-the-scorching-gantlet/

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gmkeros.wordpress.com, 6 months ago to RPG

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2023/11/ab_b13.jpg

Let’s go through Das Schwarze Auge adventure B13 Der Streuner Soll Sterben (The Vagrant Shall Die)

It has the secondary title Das Blutgericht von Thalusa (The Blood Court of Thalusa) which is one of the few times when both titles are equally evocative.

Ok, let me preface this: I utterly adore this scenario, even though it has it’s problems (dare I say it? some parts are quite racist). But I would say this is where Ulrich Kiesow shows real promise.

Now at this point MOST (but not all) of the DSA scenarios were written by him, or in cooperation with him. This included A1 which I really liked, and A2 which I found at least ok. But it also included the whole rest of the scenarios which contain some bad railroads, even if their premise might be good.
But this one is one where I really see what he is going for. This is intentionally pulpy, in the way that 19th ct. adventure stories were.

Unfortunately this includes some rather unfortunate tropes that come with such stories. For one the setting is quasi-oriental. And of course it involves arranged marriages, beheadings at the drop of a stone, and an evil looking coal black executioner.

On the other there really aren’t any really bad people involved. The executioner just happens to be coal black from a magical accident and is otherwise doing his job, and the one actual antagonist is coded as German, and even he has reasons to behave like he does.

Lots of bad decisions that come with the choice of setting and NPCs. I guess for the 80s it was fair for its day, but even in the 90s I remember this module as being discussed as “the racist one”.

But anyway, the plot concerns Prince Selo of Khunchom who had the really bad idea to have just a small peek at his fiancée Shenny of Thalusa. [that name tho…]

You see it’s tradition in their culture that enfianced people are not to see each other until the marriage rites are concluded. Which is all fine for Selo, except he HAS seen her parents and now fears his future wife might take after either of them.
So he makes the plan of… sneaking into the palace of Thalusa and having a look at her.

And if it’s really bad, can a life as a vagrant on the roads of Aventuria be quite so bad?

Yes, Prince Selo is an idiot.

In any case he even is successful in sneaking in, and quite enamored with Princess Shenny.
And Princess Shenny for her side is quite enamored with that handsome stranger she just encountered.

Unfortunately while they are both very enthusiastically consenting with each other (at least that discussion we don’t have to touch), he is captured by the guards and immediately sentenced to death by his prospective father in law.

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2023/11/b13caught.png

Your mission now, if you choose to accept it…

Well, you should accept it, the Prince’s father promises you riches if you manage to make it to Thalusa in time with a document of his hand that can rescue his son.
Unfortunately Thalusa is about 300km away, easily a 10 day trip over land, and the execution is set for in 14 days.

And even if you get there on time with the document (which is not a given), and hand it to the wrong person, then you are back at square one. Well, square whatever Thalusa is in.

The heroes are given the choice of going by sea, which might shorten the journey to three days, but has a problem: it’s a the stormy season right now, and it might make things worse. A single ship is willing to make the passage on the off-chance of arriving in one part at their destination to make a killing selling hard liquor.

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2023/11/b13bysea.png

(I realized afterwards that I am not quite sure which season it is supposed to be, the text is talking about Frühjahr being a storm season in that part, so the early year. In our world this commonly would be spring. But in Aventuria the early year is autumn. But was this already established at that point? When does this actually take place?)

Despite Kiesow’s known fondness for railroads he does not actually go for them here. With a bit luck of the dice the PCs can indeed reach the halfway point, after which the storms become no problem anymore. It’s not likely, but it’s possible.

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2023/11/b13game.pngThen they are attacked by pirates though. Which also can be circumnavigated with proper care (the scenario contains a specifically designed boardgame here), and even if they board your ship they only will steal the document.

(they are not actually real pirates)

If luck is not with them, or if they decide to go there from the beginning, they end up having to go by land. But at least they might have gained a day or two.

This would be the place where a DnD scenario would pull out the hexmap. And we saw a hexmap in B8 already. Kiesow instead decides to use squares, for a squarecrawl, basically.
There are also no permanently keyed encounters, all the encounters are on random tables.

This includes meadows which have an encounter on a roll of 7 on a d6.

Oh yes, did you see! Did you see?! He made a joke!

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2023/11/b13boars.png

What’s interesting about the encounters is how… stock medieval fantasy they all are. One would assume that with a setting where he uses all kinds of orientalist tropes he would do the same for the wilderness section. Instead it seems like he just took the monster descriptions from the rulebook: wolves, trolls, boars, a tatzelwurm. The closest to the Arabian Nights scenario you might be expecting is an Earth Spirit that can give you some healing.

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2023/11/b13tatzelwurm.png

(I guess no budget for illustrations…)

But it’s really the city adventure part where this scenario shines.
For one: there is an actual city adventure part with an actual map of Thalusa.
For the second: you are given free reign how to actually deal with the situation.
Now you were supposed to deliver a document, but you likely lost it either on the sea journey or over land.
If you didn’t you most likely handed it to the wrong person at the palace and he lost it for you instead.

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2023/11/b13prison.pngin the meantime the prince is in his prison in the middle of the market square of Thalusa and the players are left free reign in how to deal with the situation.

Springing the prince might not be easy, but can be possible. Sneaking into the palace is possible (it’s worked out), but finding the right person there is difficult. Dealing with the executioner and his tools is also another option (the tools need to be in top order according to tradition).

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Here is when the bog standard fantasy scenario all of a sudden turns into a heist. most likely the heroes will have to do something to save the prince, but what and how is their own choice. The scenario gives some valid ideas, but I bet some players would have more.

You could have an infiltration/dungeon crawl through the palace, but you don’t have to.

For what it’s worth if you are breaking into the palace you might encounter a scribe you can blackmail by threatening his favorite calligraphy.

And if you break into the executioners house you might encounter a Ulmenknecht, which seems to be a treant kind of being? I don’t think this being is still canon in DSA. It’s not the proper treant equivalent (that would be a Waldschrat), more like a wood golem?

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2023/11/b13ulmenknecht.pngAnd then there is Dolguruk, the executioner of Thalusa.

Who is black.
Coal black even.

Which is the result of a rather sinister human sacrifice he and a druid wanted to perform on a magician who managed to hit back with a transformation spell. Which caused him to turn completely black.

For some reason this story is the longest of all the NPC bios, despite being otherwise a rather incidental character.
And one who doesn’t actually do anything bad as such while the PCs are around.

I think Kiesow is very much going very much for the image of Der Schwarze Mann here, a “Kinderschreckfigur” (character to scare kids with? Man, we Germans have weird concepts sometimes) that is quite widespread. I still remember playing both the associated kids game and the card game based on it.

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2023/11/b13dolguruk.pngIn a wider sense it was a depiction of (black) death and/or the devil.

But here it manages to keep all the bad connotations that made this game… inappropriate in polite society.

Dolguruk is I think still an active NPC in current DSA lore, he usurped Shenny’s father at one point and became ruler of Thalusa, and being an elf he also doesn’t seem to be easy to get rid of. He also had his backstory modified to have gained his look from a pact with a demon.
Not sure if that’s better or worse.

So…what do I think about it?

I don’t think Kiesow intended for this to come across as it does, but he nevertheless managed to write some really unfortunate implications in here.

Which might explain why this adventure never got the re-releases that other adventures from him got, despite being, from a design standpoint alone, one of his best so far.
There is considerable freedom of choice both in the wilderness and the city sections, and room for player creativity, all under time pressure. I really like this and I want to play this with people. I might need to prepare people that it was written 40 years ago.

Other languages

This gets into the times when the DSA adventures were no longer translated into many languages. The only translation I can find is the French one, in both the Schmidt and Gallimard version.

Still not sure why there were two versions. According to one commenter on dice.camp one was the Schmidt version, like in German, the other was the same format as the Gallimard gamebook translations and would have been sold in bookstores instead of toy stores.

In any case they used the secondary title for that, Le Bourreau de Thalussa. Not the worst choice.

https://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2023/11/b13fr2.webphttps://gmkeros.files.wordpress.com/2023/11/b13fr1.webpRunning Tally (by quality, from best to worst):

1. A1 Die Verschwörung von Gareth
2. B13 Der Streuner soll sterben
3. B2 Wald ohne Wiederkehr
4. A2 Die Göttin der Amazonen
5. B6 Unter dem Nordlicht
6. B9 Strom des Verderbens
7. B1 Im Wirtshaus zum Schwarzen Keiler
8. B8 Durch das Tor der Welten
9. B10 In den Fängen des Dämons
10. B12 Der Zug durch das Nebelmoor
11. B3 Das Schiff der Verlorenen Seelen
12. B4 Die Sieben Magischen Kelche

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https://gmkeros.wordpress.com/2023/11/12/the-dark-eye-retrospective-b13-der-streuner-soll-sterben/

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