Helen of Wyndhorn
2026-07-25 00:16:55-04:00 - Helen of Wyndhorn I highly recommend Helen of Wyndhorn, from Dark Horse Books. I read the hardback collection of the six issues, and rationed them to one a day so they'd last longer. Dark Horse
T. Kurt Bond's µBlog
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Cairn Player's Guide - 2E
2026-07-24 21:59:56-04:00 - Cairn Player's Guide - 2E Keywords: RPG, Ciarn, Cairn 2E, Into the Odd, Electric Bastionland, Chris McDowall, Knave I'm reading the Cairn 2E Player's Guide today. Cairn Website I'm sure there are lots of comments about it in various places, but these are the things that came immediately to mind for me. I see that the basic mechanics similar to Into the Odd. I've seen…
Chaosium's QuestWorlds arrived today!
2026-05-11 20:37:24-04:00 - Chaosium's QuestWorlds arrived today! Front Cover Back Cover QuestWorlds at Chaosium This is a hardcover, with sewn signatures with their backs embedded in glue on the spine backing, and it is 6×8.5 inches. While I like the size, the fonts used in this book are much too small, and I'd rather have had a thicker book or a regular 8.5×11 inch book. (What is with Chaosium…
My TMNT books arrived!
2025-11-26 14:18:13-05:00 - My TMNT books arrived!
Quick Scan through Wight-Box
2025-11-24 22:22:33-05:00 - Quick Scan through Wight-Box I scanned quickly through Wight-Box by The Basic Expert. It's a retro-clone of Original Dungeons & Dragons, with influences from Chainmail and some of the early Strategic Review issues, and includes some interestingly different approaches compared to other OD&D retro-clones. It looks well written. I'll be reading it in more detail later.…
My Dolmenwood Loot Arrived!
2025-11-24 21:30:25-05:00 - My Dolmenwood Loot Arrived! It finally came! It's a LOT of stuff.
NocoDB — No Code DB
2025-10-31 14:21:30-04:00 - NocoDB — No Code DB Keywords: NocoDB, no code database So, I'm always looking for things that could be the modern POISE. I still haven't found one, but I have found something interesting: NocoDB, the No Code Database. It's open source. Homepage Github It lets you build databases and enter data into them interactively, including many to many, many to one, and one to one…
Mythic Game Master Emulator, Second Edition
2025-10-29 22:46:39-04:00 - Mythic Game Master Emulator, Second Edition Keywords: RPG, Mythic Game Master Emulator, MGME2E, Wordmill Games This was very well organized and comprehensive. Reading it made clear how solo roleplaying worked with this system. Highly recommended. Mythic Game Master Emulator Second Edition [Print+PDF at Indie Press Revolution] Mythic Game Master Emulator Second Edition…
Middle-Earth Roleplaying
2025-10-19 21:39:15-04:00 - Middle-Earth Roleplaying Keywords: Middle Earth Role Playing, MERP, Tolkien, RPG, ICE, MERP2E [I may add to this later.] I finished reading *Middle-Earth Roleplaying*, Second Edition (or *MERP* as it is commonly known, or *MERP2E* as I'll call it to distinguish the edition) from Iron Crown Enterprises (I.C.E., the original company). I found the organization a little…
Reading Middle Earth Role Playing, Second Edition (MERP #2001) from Iron Crown Enterprises
2025-10-09 14:35:28-04:00 - Reading Middle Earth Role Playing, Second Edition (MERP #2001) from Iron Crown Enterprises Keywords: Middle Earth Role Playing, MERP, Rolemaster, Tolkien, RPG I started reading *Middle Earth Role Playing* (MERP) Second Edition from Iron Crown Enterprises (ICE) two days ago, as part of my exploration of games in the Rolemaster lineage, and started listening to the audio…
C and Ada
2025-10-09 14:07:04-04:00 - C and Ada Keywords: Ada, C, safety, foot guns I learned C in college,and Ada at about the same time. Previously I was familiar with Applesoft BASIC, some 6502 machine language and assembly, VAX BASIC, USCD Pascal, OMSI Pascal, VAX Assembly Language, Forth, and perhaps some other languages, but I was most proficient in Pascal and BASIC. I was probably just starting to…
Lightmaster
2025-07-24 13:10:37-04:00 - Lightmaster Keywords: RPG, Lightmaster, Rolemaster, Gurbintroll Games, in progress [I'm still in the progress of revising this post, but since I'm two months and change from when I wrote the first version I thought I should put what I have out there: the perfect is the enemy of the good enough, something I definitely have a problem with.] I'm investigating games related…
Stellar Adventures by Arion Games
2025-07-10 19:58:17-04:00 - Stellar Adventures by Arion Games This was a post I made on Reddit, saved here for posterity, and to put it on the Web and Geminispace where it may be easier to find. My Reddit post recommending Stellar Adventures Reddit Post contents I have to second the recommendation for Arion Games's Stellar Adventures. While I have not had a chance to play it yet, I have played/run…
Still putting along
2025-06-27 14:54:20-04:00 - Still putting along I haven't had much to say lately, but I'm still putting along. I'm playing D&D 5E regularly, and occasionally running a Barrowmaze game using Advanced Labyrinth Lord. My RPG reading is concentrating right now on the HARP Fantasy RPG and it's supplements, but I'm working on some stuff for Big Eyes Small Mouth Second Revised Second Edition (BESM 2ER)…
Modern Unix terminal emulators and VMS 5.5-2, emacs, and EDIT/TPU
2025-03-07 12:44:50-05:00 - Modern Unix terminal emulators and VMS 5.5-2, emacs, and EDIT/TPU I maintain a VMS computer for work that for hysterical raisins is running VMS 5.5-2. Many modern terminal emulators don't really emulate the VT series above VT100 correctly, even when the terminal emulator reports itself as a VT200 or better. Xterm seems to emulate the later DEC terminals the best, with…
I downloaded the ACKS II Kickstarter PDFs finally
2025-01-11 23:44:10-05:00 - I downloaded the ACKS II Kickstarter PDFs finally I finally got around to downloading the Adventurer, Conqueror, King System, Imperial Imprint (ACKS II) PDFs from the Kickstarter, and I have been very pleased with what I found on a quick scan. Adventurer Conqueror King System Imperial Imprint (ACKS II) Kickstarter I've started reading the ACKS II Revised Rulebook in…
My typical setup in Fantasy Grounds D&D 5E
2025-01-11 23:36:11-05:00 - My typical setup in Fantasy Grounds D&D 5E
RE: Failing at Ada Again: Things Are Looking Better!
2024-12-27 12:02:00-05:00 - RE: Failing at Ada Again: Things Are Looking Better! tags: ada category: computer/languages/ada I should note that all my experience with Ada, save for one course in college in the 1980s, has been with the open source GNAT Ada compiler and the open source Ada ecosystem. I suspect that the situation for commercial Ada users has generally been better than the situation of…
The Book of Uncommon Beings, by Howard A. Kistler
2024-12-22 17:01:25-05:00 - The Book of Uncommon Beings, by Howard A. Kistler I finished this being book for TFT today. Though short, it was definitely worthwhile for me. It is divided into a list of intelligent beings and a bestiary. Both the intelligent beings and the beasts inspire scenario ideas. Because beings in TFT fundamentally come down to four scores, ST (Strength), DX (Dexterity), IQ…
Did I mention that I like the Ada programming language?
2024-09-08 10:52:05-04:00 - Did I mention that I like the Ada programming language? Keywords: Ada,Data Structures,Ada Standards, Ada Rationale, Ada Reference Manual Well, I do. I think that Ada is very well designed language, and reading the Rationales for the various editions of the Ada Standards is enlightening. Ada Standards, including Rationales While I have not been able to use it as much as…
A quick description of how to use Text Mapper and Hex Describe
2024-06-28 15:01:06-04:00 - A quick description of how to use Text Mapper and Hex Describe Text Mapper Hex Describe Text Mapper and Hex Describe are very useful. Start with Text Mapper. Choose either the second section (starts with "Random generates map data based on Erin D. Smale's Hex-Based Campaign Design") or the third section (starts with "Alpine generates map data based on Alex Schroeder's…
The Fantasy Trip Bestiary Finished
2024-06-13 20:05:05-04:00 - The Fantasy Trip Bestiary Finished I finished reading The Fantasy Trip Bestiary today. All in all, I'm very pleased by the content. It was interesting to see how many real animals they included; all had points of interest, and I can see using them in the game. I wish they had been more consistent about some of the information they included that: for instance, why give…
Using Text Mapper for generating a map for a hexcrawl
2024-06-01 15:21:17-04:00 - Using Text Mapper for generating a map for a hexcrawl Updated: 2024-06-02 09:18:18-04:00 I'm working with a neat application to generate random terrain called Text Mapper. Text Mapper I used the Alpine map generator to generate a 40x40 map. Here is a more zoomed in view: It is called "Text" Mapper because it uses a text map format. 0101 mountain "mountain" 0102 swamp…
Arrived: BESM Retro Second Edition RPG plus BESM 4E Expansions
2024-05-28 18:51:06-04:00 - Arrived: BESM Retro Second Edition RPG plus BESM 4E Expansions I have a lot of fond memories of running BESM 2nd Edition back in the day, and even more of building things for it. While BESM 4th Edition is probably better balanced and more flexible, BESM 2E has a certain charm of its own; for one thing, it's simpler. I was pleased to see Dyskami republishing BESM 2E. I…
More RPG books: Hexagram #12, Quick Quest #10, and Longshot City
2024-05-09 21:03:45-04:00 - More RPG books: Hexagram #12, Quick Quest #10, and Longshot City These were all the physical results of Kickstarters. I read both Hexagram #12 and Quick Quest 10, and both are good, although I have to wonder if there is an effective way to deal with one of the creatures in the Quick Quest other than “Run away”? It still looks fun. I have not had time to read Longshot…
System76 serval: Pop!_OS vs. Fedora and NVIDIA drivers
2024-05-08 11:15:55-04:00 - System76 serval: Pop!_OS vs. Fedora and NVIDIA drivers Ugh. So, I got a System 76 Serval WS 17" for work a while ago. It came with Pop!_OS installed, which was ok, except it is based on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS with a GNOME based desktop with System 76's own alterations. But the System 76 folks have been working on their own NEW desktop written in Rust, and haven't updated the…
Today's book haul: Muster, Masterpieces of Fantasy Art, and Enchanted
2024-05-07 19:56:32-04:00 - Today's book haul: Muster, Masterpieces of Fantasy Art, and Enchanted I don't buy fiction in print anymore, except for a few very special items, but there are still some books that I get in print: roleplaying games, some computer books, and art books, all of which for me benefit from having a physical copy. I find it is much easier to learn technical material, such as…
The Fantasy Trip Bestiary
2024-02-28 12:11:51-05:00 - The Fantasy Trip Bestiary I downloaded the PDF of The Fantasy Trip Bestiary today. After a quick scan up to page 79 I like what what I've seen. Lots of natural animals and unnatural creatures. TFT stat blocks are tiny (4 stats, armor, attacks, and special abilities), so seeing that each generally has up to a page or more of information, including a description of the…
Don't want the first line of a git commit COMMIT_EDITMSG buffer in Emacs to wrap?
2024-02-14 13:10:38-05:00 - Don't want the first line of a git commit COMMIT_EDITMSG buffer in emacs to wrap? Again, the trick is to use the Emacs variable fill-nobreak-predicate, but it's a bit trickier than my earlier example. Don't want a line to break in emacs even in auto-fill-mode? The code is very similar to the earlier code: (defun tkb-magit-commit-fill-nobreak-p () "Don't fill on the…
Absolute Power Superhero RPG: Seasons One and Two + Anthology arrived
2024-02-12 22:35:16-05:00 - Absolute Power Superhero RPG: Seasons One and Two + Anthology arrived My copies from the Absolute Power Superhero RPG: Seasons One and Two + Anthology Backerkit campaign came today.
Generating random TFT labyrinths using the drop chart in the bottom of the TFT Legacy Edition box
2024-02-10 18:06:31-05:00 - Generating random TFT labyrinths using the drop chart in the bottom of the TFT Legacy Edition box Updated: 2024-02-17 21:42:50-05:00 So, today I spent part of my day generating (part of) a labyrinth for The Fantasy Trip using the die drop chart in the bottom of the TFT Legacy Edition Box. Here's a picture: Here's an article at thefantasytrip.game that runs through an…
Sandbox Generator by Atelier Clandestin
2024-02-03 13:22:18-05:00 - Sandbox Generator by Atelier Clandestin I really like this hexcrawl sandbox generator. It's very approachable, clearly written, and straight forward — something that will be easy to use. It describes a complete procedure for generating a sandbox, using lots of dice rolling and tables. It is system neutral, having no stats for anything, expecting you to get that from…
My Copy of Knock #4 Arrived!
2024-02-02 21:48:12-05:00 - My Copy of Knock #4 Arrived! The inside of the dust jacket is an adventure inspired by the module B4 The Lost City, The Lost City Sandbox. There are locations, a perspective map, location descriptions, lists of appropriate names, and several useful random tables including encounters outside the city, two tables for random buildings (random rooms in buildings, random…
Dyskami Owns Tri-Stat/BESM Outright
2024-02-02 09:00:42-05:00 - Dyskami Owns Tri-Stat/BESM Outright Listening to an interview with Mark MacKinnon about Dyskami's current kickstarter I found out that Dyskami owns the Tri-Stat/BESM system outright again, having bought it back from Paradox Interactive. I was glad to see that. Interview with Mark MacKinnon on BESM Retro Second Edition BESM Retro Second Edition RPG plus BESM 4E…
OpenQuest Dungeons
2024-01-29 18:53:20-05:00 - OpenQuest Dungeons My copy of OpenQuest Dungeons arrived yesterday. The current version of OpenQuest is probably a little more stripped down than I prefer for my D100 systems, but it's a good system, of the Mongoose RuneQuest lineage. OpenQuest Dungeons is designed to ease a DM and players of “The World's Favorite Fantasy Game” to the different pace and approach of…
Folstavia - Anime 5E RPG World Setting & Monster Expansions
2024-01-26 17:37:26-05:00 - Folstavia - Anime 5E RPG World Setting & Monster Expansions Warning: This post is under construction. Check back later. My shipment of stuff from Dyskami Publishing's Folstavia - Anime 5E RPG World Setting & Monster Expansions came on 11 December 2023, but I'm only now doing a post about it. This post is based on me reading things, rather than playing them. The top row…
Why Is Gnome So Annoyingly Useless?
2024-01-21 20:28:24-05:00 - Why Is Gnome So Annoyingly Useless? The Gnome desktop seems to be removing more and more functionality, apparently in the name of “aesthetics” and simplicity. Unfortunately, they constantly make choices that are completely WRONG for the way I use computers. It's gotten so bad that in 2023 I switched to using KDE Plasma for my desktop on all my computers, after having…
Sudden Interest in Wargames?
2024-01-21 19:53:30-05:00 - Sudden Interest in Wargames? I've always had an interest in mass combat in tabletop games, but previously it's mostly been limited to abstract systems like GURPS Mass Combat, or mass combat in Savage Worlds. Recently, probably due to playing Melee and Wizard, and buying the Metagaming board/hex and chits wargame The Lords of Underearth, I've gotten interest in actual…
Putting all your emacs backups and autosaves in two directories has security implications
2024-01-21 18:53:41-05:00 - Putting all your emacs backups and autosaves in two directories has security implications Recently, I noticed someone talking about putting all their emacs backups and autosaves in two directories, no matter where the file they are editing is located. Bad Emacs defaults Their solution was: (setq auto-save-file-name-transforms '((".*" "~/.emacs_autosave/" t))) (setq…
Don't want a line to break in emacs even in auto-fill-mode?
2024-01-21 15:03:08-05:00 - Don't want a line to break in emacs even in auto-fill-mode? Have you ever been editing a file in emacs where there a specific lines that should not be wrapped, but you are using auto-fill-mode and they accidently get wrapped? The emacs variable fill-nobreak-predicate is your friend! ;; Nikola metadata lines start like this: ;; .. keyword: ;; They shouldn't tbe wrapped.…
Finished Reading The Hero System Basic Rulebook for Hero System Sixth Edition
2024-01-19 16:00:31-05:00 - Finished Reading The Hero System Basic Rulebook for Hero System Sixth Edition Yay! Finally. That's not a knock on The Hero System — all technical books, whether computer science or RPG rule systems, take me so much more time to read compared to fiction, that I always feel making it to the end is a real accomplishment. That may have something to do with my absurd reading…
L. Sprague de Camp vs. Lin Carter
2023-12-31 17:42:16-05:00 - L. Sprague de Camp vs. Lin Carter I finished L. Sprague de Camp's "The Fallible Fiend" on the 27th, and Lin Carter's "Down to a Sunless Sea" on the 28th, and I've been reflecting on the impression that each book gives of its author. When I read de Camp I get the sense of a very smart man enjoying showing how smart he is. When I read Lin Carter I get impression of a man…
Adept Press, Adept Play, Ron Edwards in 2023
2023-12-13 23:16:28-05:00 - Adept Press, Adept Play, Ron Edwards in 2023 I was happy to find that Ron Edwards has a current web site: Adept Play (When did he move to Sweden?) He also has an online store selling PDFs of his RPGs: Adept Play Store I've got the physical books Sorcerer, Sorcerer & Sword, The Sorcerer's Soul, and Sex and Sorcery, but I completely missed out on getting the newer edition…
Getting Emacs to Beep/Ding/Ring-the-Bell Again!
2023-12-09 18:42:57-05:00 - Getting Emacs to Beep/Ding/Ring-the-Bell Again! Here's what I had to do to get Emacs to ring the bell again, under Fedora 39 and KDE: (defvar tkb-beep-sound "/usr/share/sounds/freedesktop/stereo/bell.oga") (defvar tkb-beep-program "ogg123") (defun tkb-bell () (interactive) (start-process "Beep" nil tkb-beep-program tkb-beep-sound)) (setq ring-bell-function #'tkb-bell)…
Programming Fonts
2023-11-29 10:29:56-05:00 - Programming Fonts This is Emacs, displaying an enriched text file with text that I find useful for comparing fonts. Enriched text There are just an AMAZING way that fonts can be illegible or ugly. You owe it to yourself to go to the Programming Fonts website, put the characters that you care about in the second line of the code sample, which is empty, and work through…
Pasting images into org-mode files from the clipboard
2023-11-04 16:01:12-04:00 - Pasting images into org-mode files from the clipboard I've long wanted to paste images into org-mode files as easy as one does with WYSIWYG editors. And today I figured out that you can do that with the org-download package and it's org-download-screenshot function! There was a helpful post at zzamboni.org that told how to do it on macOS. I adapted it to X and Wayland.…
Pages that are often missing in used copies of Metagaming's Advanced Melee, Advanced Wizard, and In The Labyrinth
2023-10-22 22:11:12-04:00 - Pages that are often missing in used copies of Metagaming's Advanced Melee, Advanced Wizard, and In The Labyrinth I never got to play The Fantasy Trip back in the day, and at some point a few years ago (this was before Steve Jackson Games' Legacy Edition was kickstarted) I got curious and bought used copies of Metagaming's Advanced Melee, Advanced Wizard, and In The…
The Lords of Underearth & Dragons of Underearth
2023-10-20 19:14:41-04:00 - The Lords of Underearth & Dragons of Underearth Updated: 2023-11-27 00:18:08-05:00 Warning: this post is still being revised. Come back later to see if it has been finished. I'm running an intermittent game with Steve Jackson Games' Melee and Wizard to get my players used to the TFT rules, and have plans to run a TFT campaign using Steve Jackson Games' In the Labyrinth,…
How do the Dolmenwood Core Rules differ from B/X or OSE?
2023-10-13 15:13:52-04:00 - How do the Dolmenwood Core Rules differ from B/X or OSE? I'm a backer of the Dolmenwood Tabletop RPG Kickstarter, and I have liked what I've seen of it so far. Dolmenwood Tabletop RPG One common question is how different are the Dolmenwood Core Rules going to be from B/X D&D or Old School Essentials? There's a useful blog post at Necrotic Gnome that discusses this, and…
Palm Leaf Biodegradable and Compostable Plates and Bowls
2023-10-13 14:20:23-04:00 - Palm Leaf Biodegradable and Compostable Plates and Bowls So, there are plates and bowls made out of pressed palm leaves, that are biodegradable and compostable. I bought some to find out what they are like. 10 inch square plates 6 inch round bowls I like the fact that they are all patterned differently. They are easy to wash (and the dark colored bottoms are hydrophobic…