>The following principles will be the foundation for the old school tabletop roleplaying adventures, locations, factions, and individuals that are to come. ...
This was originally posted on my Patreon, here. At 28 years old, I had to rebuild my life. My girlfriend of almost four years left me. When she left her son, my stepson left too. So did most of the furniture. There was a gapping hole left in my life and in my heart. I was sleeping on a secondhand single mattress on the floor, working a job I hated (with her mother!), and I was $11,000 in debt. For…
I wrote some fantasy short stories and you can get them here... Amaryn Smoulders: Book 0 Get around it. Give it a review. Write more words. Long days and pleasant nights.
This post is part of a series of biographical reflections on the media that I love and have loved.
"This is the best sort of DM PC," said the thief. I was taken aback a little by this, as I had never thought of Cluster Fumm as my PC. He was a tool to transition the party from my weird west marches into the Arthurian soup of The Valley of Flowers. It was time for Cluster to go. If you play in my Friday Knight game, stop reading. This also has spoilers for Wildendrem: Valley of Flowers . Quest of…
Last year I started an open table OSE game at the local gaming club. The plan was to have a big open world that anyone could step into and play. I had thought that every week I would get a random, different group of people. And I would never be really seeing the same faces again; however, that was not the case. I quickly developed a core group of players who turned up every week. And there's quite…
I am running two games now; an OSE open table west marches sort of game, and a Cairn 2e game online with a few friends. Both games lean heavily on maps, but I have different approaches to them depending on the game, the medium, or scenario. These approaches have been subconscious and while on a long drive for work, I consciously thought about those approaches. Just put the map on the table and let…
This list is not exhaustive, just things that bubble close to the surface. It's just a list, but I'll add to it over time, and I'll probably do some deep dives on some of these things. Films Star Wars: A New Hope (1977) Back to the Future (1985) Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) Clue (1985) Conan the Barbarian (1982) Dune (1984) Dune (2021) The Fellowship of the RIng (2001) Braindead…
This past weekend, my brother and bunch of guys we met on a Facebook group hosted a mini OSR gaming convention. We hired a tiny hall for cheap and at 1pm the nerds converged for 8 hours of gaming and talking and eating. By the end of the day, I was still a little surprised it had happened at all. I had grown tired of trying to squeeze into the OSR schedule of the rest of the world. Living out in…
For about two years, I have been dragging a half-dead idea around. Trying to make it perfect. Then, I forgot about it. Having another child. Getting a new job. Embracing general chaos. Then, picking it up again, tinkering, fiddling, running a few games here and there. All the while thinking about how perfect and good it will be. Thinking of it as a pristine piece of work that will fly and dazzle…
Thoughts after running games at a con
