I Waste The Buddha With My Crossbow: D&D Is Dead.

I Waste The Buddha With My Crossbow: D&D Is Dead.

A great critique, but the idea from the comments is even better.

(All credit for this goes to Jeff Rients)

"I'm on the same wave lately. I've seriously been considering full on dropping all direct references to D&D, coming up with a name for my own houserules and refering to the general concept of the game as Ampersand or something like that. "

Let's see:

Ampersand 0e
Advanced Ampersand 1e
Basic Ampersand

Yes, I like this, I like this a lot. :)

Should we pursue this?

Robin D. Laws

Robin D. Laws: "Abandoned Idea Clearinghouse"

Ok, I am breaking most of this guys law most of the time but found these worth a read. Great idea for future 'what was this draft I saved about' posts.

Why Clerics (Still) Suck ~ Rule of the Dice

Why Clerics (Still) Suck ~ Rule of the Dice

I love Clerics...still funny though :)

Trollcrusher 1977 - 1984

Home: "Trollcrusher
1977 - 1984"

One of the early fanzines. Click on the help and see if you can :)

(help, that is)

Tenkar's Tavern: New Zealand Red Cross Earthquake Relief - RPG Bundle (OneBookShelf)

Tenkar's Tavern: New Zealand Red Cross Earthquake Relief - RPG Bundle (OneBookShelf)

This one is a no-brainer guys. Help if you can. The creators of the ergodic rpg Normality hail from this part of the world so for me it's personal.

A great deal for a great cause.

[Random Thursday] Random Randomness - A character for every game

[Random Thursday] Random Randomness - A character for every game

This is fun and has some really good ideas.

Enjoy!

From: Trollish Delver: Interview with Ken St. Andre

Trollish Delver: Interview with Ken St. Andre

Video interview with the Saint of T&T :)

PALEOBLOGGING LITE-Having Fun Never Hurt Anyone

Die-Cast Ignorance

Having Fun Never Hurt Anyone

Isaac Calon

Thirty years ago the creative and entrepreneurial minds of Gary Gygax and David Arneson combined to create an entirely new way of having fun. The innovation of the Dungeons & Dragons(TM) (D&D) pen-and-paper role-playing game beat a path for dozens of inspired products and hundreds of other games that are as varied as the people who make and play them. The game is ageless--it's played by children and adults--and an entire subculture has sprung up around it and the community of people who play. Unfortunately, D&D carries with it some fairly hefty image problems that have made the game a hot topic in the conservative Christian church and elsewhere, image problems that are completely unnecessary and have been propagated through ignorance. I'm here to dispel the myths and misconceptions associated with this dice game.

Roleplaying Tips for game masters for all role-playing systems

Synapse Design Blog - Statecraft Public Beta Released!

Synapse Design Blog - Statecraft Public Beta Released!

Yes, I know this one is late :)

Grimmhaus: The Mystique

One thing I feel I have lost in my years in the hobby was the mystique of the game. It seems that the ability and freedom of being able to collect the material I never had has impacted the sense of mystery surrounding certain elements of the game.

I remember when I was being introduced to the game; supplements and material beyond the core AD&D books were rare to find in my area. So, we used ideas based on what we thought the game included. Our main resource was a TSR catalog that we had found. Using that, our world had a City of Greyhawk and a Waterdeep. The Forgotten Realms was a set of lost countries, the Greyhawk Wars became a major war in our world centered around our version of the city.

Grimmhaus: The Mystique

Winter of '79

For Twilight:2000 fans this might be of interest:

Winter of '79

Cold War: 1983

ColdWar: 1983 is a set of skirmish rules written by Matthew Hartley , Michael Baumann and Steve Blease, primarily designed for section and platoon level battles between NATO and Warsaw Pact troops using 28mm scale miniatures, though any scale from 15mm to 36mm can be used, and the rules themselves recreate pretty much any historical skirmish action of the last fifty odd years, as well as post apocalyptic scenarios.

Cold War: 1983

Create Your Own Dungeons And Dragons Convention | RPG Digest

Get your game on with your own Mini-Con-awesome :)

Create Your Own Dungeons And Dragons Convention | RPG Digest

Discourse and Dragons: Art and Ideology in the OSR

Discourse and Dragons: Art and Ideology in the OSR

Interesting dialogue starting here...

Open World Play

A 20th century idea for the 21st century

This is one of the best things I have ran across recently and the thought of both open worlds to explore and being able to game where ever you might be at any given time is very exciting. With the advent of the internet, email and other communication tools the world is one big gaming table. This along with pdf and virtual table tops almost guarantees that no matter what happens down the road there will always be a session to join somewhere, new people to meet and new ideas to exchange. This is my idea of a 'free market' actually being beneficial :)

Thanks to the folks over at Old School Heretic for bringing this to my attention. The linkage begins there.

Open World Gaming
http://oldschoolheretic.blogspot.com/2011/01/open-world-gaming.html

Welcome to My World
http://poleandrope.blogspot.com/2010/12/welcome-to-my-world.html

Open World Play and Nowhere
http://hillcantons.blogspot.com/search/label/open%20world

Immigration Policies of the Kinan-M’Nath
http://poleandrope.blogspot.com/2010/12/immigration-policies-of-kinan-mnath.html

Visiting the Kinan-M’Nath
http://poleandrope.blogspot.com/2010/12/visiting-kinan-mnath.html

Robilar Remembers: Journey to the City of the Gods
http://site.pied-piper-publishing.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=57&Itemid=64

Basalt Keep of Wilven the Yellow
http://xyanthon.blogspot.com/2011/01/basalt-keep-of-wilven-yellow-update.html

Open Call: Gigacrawler
http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com/2011/01/open-call-gigacrawler.html

The Realm of Zhu: Female Armour: Chainmail

The Realm of Zhu: Female Armour: Chainmail

The series continues...

Getting Back On Track

Many have noticed my sudden brevity in posts and you can blame it all on a burst neighborhood water main, a hotwater heater full of mud and a new one that was a complete b**** to install.

Then the rest of the repairs caused by the mud in every line in the house...

Anyway...I will be getting back on track hopefully after Wed. I have been trying to sort my last pile of notes for the Forsaken Souls project and get the first play test copy ready.

Hope those snowbound have been able to enjoy the blog community and maybe squeeze some gaming in (we were snowed in for 10 days) and I look forward to getting the train back on track.

Until then please enjoy my bullet posts...I have a lot of updating to do :)

Campaign Mastery game master advice

Campaign Mastery game master advice: "Campaign Mastery
Expert tips and how-to’s on every aspect of creating and running exceptional campaigns."

I can't say enough good things about this blog. And that tagline is no joke. I feel like I'm at the best seminar available on the given subject being discussed by professionals. They have inspired me more and saved me from needless correction later more than any other source.

Make this a daily read if you can. The archives alone should keep you busy for awhile and the fresh posts are just as strong if not stronger.

High marks.

d12 Pages of Awesome – Dyson’s Dodecahedron Issue 2!

For fans (and it sounds like Dyson has been having the same kind of gear problems as myself) here is issue #2 for your perusement:

d12 Pages of Awesome – Dyson’s Dodecahedron Issue 2!

Happy reading :)

Hi Ho

Just a bit to update the signal. Wow, what a weekend. I just thought the wait for the new gear to arrive was fun.

No, the installation of a new hot water heater makes beating Tiamat in hand to hand look easy. Couple that with the trash flushed into the lines and now most of the faucets are plugged (waiting on parts to effect that repair) and ...well...you get the idea...

So fear not...I have been working on the alpha play test of Forsaken Souls (yeah, if you haven't checked the link I'm building my own Godzilla in the garage too) and re-tuning things a bit based on feedback and some mechanics tweaking.

I think maybe it's time to lay back and do DragonSlayer or Reign of Fire or 13th Warrior or... :)

More soon

Christian Lindke's Cinerati: [Heroes of Karameikos] 4e Feel, 1e Rules -- It's George Strayton's Fault

Christian Lindke's Cinerati: [Heroes of Karameikos] 4e Feel, 1e Rules -- It's George Strayton's Fault

This is an interesting turn. The room within the community is a true testament to the fact there's nothing wrong in the world of gaming...just in the industry that has lost the spirit of what gaming is about.

Preserve Us | Old School Jump

Preserve Us | Old School Jump

Amen

CAR-PGa

The Committee for the Advancement of Role-Playing Games

http://www.car-pga.org/

(EDIT BELOW MATERIAL)


About CAR-PGa

CAR-PGa is the Committee for the Advancement of Role-Playing Games, an international network of researchers into all aspects of role-playing games (RPGs). In the 1980s, there was a major campaign attacking RPGs. Because of the inaction of the game publishers' organization at that time, CAR-PGa was formed to find out what the problem was. CAR-PGa members' research showed that the charges—the same ones that are repeated to this day—had absolutely no foundation in fact. Today, CAR-PGa's primary focus has shifted from game defense to a study of all aspects of RPGs: Material is collected by members and sent to the Chair, who catalogs it and publishes a notice of the new acquisitions in the Newsletter along with other game information. When an attack on RPGs resurfaces, CAR-PGa makes sure that its members know about it and they check the relevant research and records of historical attacks, investigate the specific circumstances of the renewed attack, and respond with the hard facts.

Membership is dues-free, but work is expected from our members. This can include a number of things: writing a letter to the editor of the local newspaper or writing a peer-reviewed paper for a scholarly publication; keeping a watch on the mass media for any story that may affect gamers; collecting material from anti-gamer organizations; an appearance on local TV or radio; finding us a grant; recruiting more active members; etc. Beyond that, we only ask that members keep us informed of these things, sending us copies of material produced or found so we can make it available to the rest of the group, and keep us informed of any changes in the membership-form data.

YouTube - Community Thursday Night Promo for 2/3/2011

Oh god...

YouTube - Community Thursday Night Promo for 2/3/2011

Rather Gamey: Fish in the Sea

I can't say exactly why but this post really got to me. I just wish more folks would jump into the OSR pool. I realize it is still a bit shallow and kinda cramped, but I have a feeling after GenCon this year it might just get an upgrade. Bring in the backhoe boys...we about to dig this thing deeper to a whole new level. :)

Anyhow:

Rather Gamey: Fish in the Sea

Slow But Sure

Progress is being made on getting the hardware / software aspect of this series of blogs straightened out.

When an upgrade isn't always an improvement sometimes you have to move sideways. :)

First, followers of series I have running here fear not. I have a lot of drafts staged but need time to pull together the notes to complete them. I worked on indexing the next 50 issues of Dragon magazine dealing with religion some last night and hope to have that up soon. The Solo series will also continue soon as well as Building Your Bookshelf, Paleoblogging Lite and the recent Origin Of The Species: Wargames.

With the software changes I will be able to bring one shot posts up much faster which should help matters. Hopefully I'll be back on track next week (plumbing looms on the weekend horizon and a room reset for a new chair to power blog from :).

For those trapped by inclement weather I send a special shout out (the wife and I were house bound for 10 days-the only time the DOT recognizes the road we live on is when they want to raise taxes on it). Stay strong and stay online. The internet saved our sanity :)

Cyclopeatron: The Fastest Growing Old School RPG Blogs

This is always great to check out and I think it's actually helping.

Cyclopeatron: The Fastest Growing Old School RPG Blogs

I’m a man-eating carp!

While I take a few minutes break from the hardware and software aspect of this week I will blast a few things out when ever possible. I liked this one :)

I’m a man-eating carp!