"[RPGs] make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past. The [dungeons] of all dead generations weigh like a nightmare on the [games] of the living."
Be Cautious of Maxims As I've written before , the "OSR" loved its maxims, short phrases that try to describe shared principles and act as a way of mutual recognition among OSR folks. At the same time ... these are maxims, and they don't really capture what they might, they aren't sufficient alone. Often, without deeper understanding and outside of their original context OSR maxims become dogma,…
The Ruins of Fantasy Every fantasy RPG world I know, or more certainly every one I want to run a dungeon crawl game in is filled with huge ruins. Above ground, underground … that’s just an aesthetic choice… The question always comes up though about the source of these ruins. Why is a usually pseudo-medieval world filled with massive abandoned structures … mostly haunted or infested by fell beasts.…
A FISTFUL OF CRYSTALS SUPPLEMENTARY CLASS NEW CLASS - IMPERIAL NOBLE Note: Imperial Nobles are a sort of “advanced class”, a substitute form the traditional “elf” and reference to OD&D’s confusing fighter or Magic-User method of leveling elves. Creating a noble is a more complex task than creating most characters, and even requires a light form of “character building” … a decision or two and a few…
Reskinning the Beholder This is an attempt to reskin Dungeons & Dragons classic weird and terrifying monster the Beholder in a way that works for less generic fantasy settings… Instead of a floating arcane eye with stalks that each shoot magical rays, I’ve written the creature up as a Galagalim, the strangest of the order of angels… The “wheels within wheels” of biblical tradition. Angels in RPGs…
A Dyson Logos Classic This post was written as a "Secret Santicore" response to the Dododecahedron's request : " What are your hopes for the future of the OSR/NSR? " What is the OSR? What is the NSR … or the POSR even? Where, assuming they exist, are they headed, and what will the future of “old school gaming” look like? Damned if I know…I just like to write up location based adventures and play…
Less Combat ... More Obstacles I’ve been talking about dungeon crawling as a play style here for years, and I’m not alone among RPG bloggers to do so. Most of the points All Dead Generations focuses on, such as the importance of turnkeeping, supply mechanics, random encounters, navigating dungeons, and threats to characters that don’t involve hp loss, are fairly well understood in the Post-OSR…
A lot of dungeon design advice focuses on “interactivity”, and to a degree this word can be a meaningless substitute for “stuff I personally like”. Yet one should strive to write locations with “interactive elements”. In the context of location based (or dungeon crawl) adventure design interactivity in an adventure means the degree to which there are obstacles and dangers beyond inimically hostile…
A HUNTER OF THE VERGE AND WASTE At the heart of all violence, atrocity, and suffering is fear, and a mortal's greatest fear is death. Some will do anything to avoid it, face any indignity, make any compromise, or commit any crime. The metamorphosis of the Mantichora requires all three: transformation into the ungainly and bestial, a pact with the foulest of demons, and crimes unending. This is why…
This is an odd post, it’s adventure design advice, specifically dungeon/location based adventure design, but it’s not about specifics, just the process. I have been reading recently published adventures again and I’m not especially impressed. Similarly the recommendations I increasingly see in Post-OSR (often just labelled OSR) spaces are largely for very old adventures from the TSR era. At the…
A Brief Barrow Fields Gazetteer I was born on the Cidro. The City of Fountains, b ack during the war. Devil's pox and the proscriptions took most of my family. Left my poor mother, my brothers and me. So I headed north to prospect with the Blockers, they were robbing gems on the Crystal Frontier. In the poisoned dark among the tombs and the haints, were many a young man who took leave of his life.…
You want to run a “Dungeon Crawl” adventure … Not just an adventure in a "dungeon", but a Dungeon Crawl - that distinct, classic mode of RPG play about exploring a fantastical space, obtaining its treasures, and unraveling its secrets ... while surviving its dangers. Notably, the first rule of Dungeon Crawls is that surviving dangers does not always mean destroying or even overcoming them. Dungeon…
I've been running an ongoing Crystal Frontier campaign using the "Fistful of Crystals" ruleset for the past several months, and at the same time finishing up editing and layout on a larger dungeon for publication - the Iron Barrow. Both projects mean that I've had to take a long look at how I treat spells and magic users. Below is a set rules and in world explanation for how I see sorcery in my…
Gary Gygax is probably the best known name in Role Playing Games -- still, nearly 15 years after his death. Considered Dungeons & Dragons’ co-inventor and principal author of most of its early material, “Uncle Gary” was also a tireless promoter of his game and of role playing games as a whole. For the hobby’s ½ century Gygax’s name has been synonymous with it, he shouldn’t need an introduction,…
THE LAST ROOST OF THE BEAKED GOD On the ungovernable border land between the North Eastern Crystal Frontier and the Imperial canton of Blackacre, the jagged Maiden Tomb mountains meet the sea, straggling out into the shallow, dark waters as a series of seamounts and spectacular cliffs. This land is home only to neolithic goat-herders, backwards fishing villages, and near abandoned outposts of…
"Vpon the Seuentene Daye of the Seconde Moneth, that same daye were all ye fountaynes of the greate depe broken vp, and the wyir of ye heauens cast wyde." - Late added marginalia in the Codex of Lead 7:11 Joseph Grady - The Bank of England - 1830 Imagining One's Capital in Ruins... When the sky is clear and the rain breaks on the coast of Blackacre a brown smudge beneath dark clouds mars the…
Fabulation, Tall Tales, & Lies. The gem robbers and drifters of the Crystal Frontier come from every corner of the world, but they are often reluctant to speak of their homelands. It is difficult to learn much in the heat, dust, and desperation. Too many fear their own past: crimes committed, families abandoned, gods profaned, and lives failed. Others simply do not care to remember, living in the…
C rawling Down From 19 7 4 “Dungeon crawl” has entered the popular lexicon as a description of any sort of adventure in an underground or ruinous space. It’s a common way to describe video games and occasionally other forms of media such as a part of novels or movies. Of course it’s most common in Roleplaying games, because the concept comes from Dungeons & Dragons, specifically from the earliest…
TACTICAL COMBAT MECHANICS for Theater of the Mind Dungeon Crawls Front Piece From the Holmes Edition - 1977 Running skirmish sized combat requires more than a party that can win with limited special abilities (such as a sleep spell or fireball), and must hold players interest by avoiding an endless grind of simple attack rolls. To do this it’s best to introduce some element of tactics. It’s…
“There are many worlds. Some have passed and some are still to come. In one world the Lui all creep; in another they all walk; in another they all fly. Perhaps in a world to come, the Lui may walk on four legs; or they may twist like snakes; or they may swim in the water like fish. Perhaps this is that world already." - Woundsmens’ Fable The deep forests of Blackacre, now known as the Blackwound,…
Back in the aughts and the 2010’s, a decade ago now, there was a movement in older RPGs that I was part of - the “ Old School Renaissance ” or "OSR". The OSR still hasn’t really been defined, or at least its definitions have always been in conflict, now more than ever as it becomes a subject of nostalgic veneration. It’s uncontroversial to me (I’m sure others will feel incandescently differently)…
To the North and East of the Crystal Frontier, beyond the Bay of Fallen Stars or across the Maiden Tombs over the Road of Dead is the Province of Blackacre, sometimes known as the Blackmash. Grey salt marshes rising from the Silt Straights and beyond deep, wet forests of colossal evergreens and ancient malice. Blackacre was the last Imperial Province settled, and never much beyond wilderness. A…
Character Generation and House Rules for My Home Game I'm going to be running a Crystal Frontier game online, the first semi-public game I've run since the end of G+. In preparation rather then introduce my house rules piecemeal I've prepared a character generation and basic rules document for the game. It includes the major subsystems for my house ruled version of Original Dungeons & Dragons (the…
DES I GNING FOR DUNGEON 23 With my decision to work on Dungeon23 coincides my starting a public Crystal Frontier Campaign and being dissatisfied with the progress I've been making to various new projects. I've got three large, rather experimental dungeons about 1/4 - 1/2 finished (including art and layout), and a smaller one of about 20 rooms 2/3 done, but they've just refused to come together…
A DUNGEON DESIGN CHALLENGE FOR THE NEW YEAR Sean McCoy of Mothership fame recently proposed a community challenge, event or project he calls Dungeon23 . My friend Ben L. over at Mazirian’s Garden has a bit more to say about it . The basic idea is to challenge yourself to write a dungeon room key each day and dungeon level a month in 2023. Come January 1, 2024 you will have a 350 room dungeon … a…
I've created an Archive of all the free adventures I've written since 2012 here: FREE ADVENTURE PDF ARCHIVE I also wrote a paragraph about each the adventures included to place them within my own design evolution and perhaps a larger story of OSR design from 2012 - 2020. In Other NEWS Tomb robbers of the Crystal Frontier is available as a Print on demand version, on Drivethru for $16.00 (as of…