Martin Ralya s site about TTRPGs, miniatures, c. / Established 2009
I ve been chipping away at Appendix N since 2012 (although I d read a number of Appendix N works prior to that, just not as Appendix N works), and my thinking on how to approach it has changed over the years. As I was logging a recent finished book, Michael Moorcock s excellent The Stealer of Souls, [ ]
I had a fun conversation last night with my Friday RPG group about campaign length. I ve been chasing what I think of as the platonic ideal for campaigns for almost 40 years: the ongoing game that doesn t end, or at least runs for a good long time. I ve never even come close. If memory serves, [ ]
I had no idea SJG had done a licensed sourcebook for Andre Norton s excellent Witch World series. It feels awesome to crack open a book from 1989 my salad years as a gamer that I d never heard of until recently, based on a universe I enjoy, for a game system I enjoy. I ve [ ]
I like using X-in-6 rolls to resolve things on fly when I m GMing, particularly stuff for which there is no rule and for yes/no questions. I also love using oracle dice in my case Rory s Story Cubes and tarot card pulls to answer questions and give myself inspiration on the fly. These sorts [ ]
I can trace a lot of my hobbies along crooked paths back to a fuzzy origin, a ball of time and memory that might be as narrow as a year or as wide as a range of years. But it s rare that I can look at specific interests in the present and say, That, right [ ]
I mentioned last July that I wasn t far enough into my group s Traveller campaign to write a full blog post about it, but here in January after 9 sessions I feel better equipped to talk about how things are going. The crew of the Volitant-class Far Trader Neutrino Phoenix has been exploring the Cidrogal Subsector [ ]
One of the joys of having no posting schedule and, let s be honest, a very small audience, is that I don t feel any pressure to post. Usually when Yore is quiet I m up to a bunch of stuff and just don t have anything to say. How about a quick round-up of the Yore-adjacent stuff? Reading [ ]
Any attempt to read Appendix N is necessarily going to involve some interpretation. If Gary just listed an author s name and nothing else, how many of their works should you read? And which ones? How literally do you take et al ? If Gary listed a book in the middle of the series, do you backtrack [ ]
Since I decided to get back to reading Appendix N back in October 2024, I ve had a great time tracking down old paperbacks and reading books. The mental shift to this being something I can do as much or as little of as I like, however I like, has been great. I m currently chipping away [ ]
The other day I came across the phrase play with gray on Reddit, a reference to playing miniatures games without, or before, painting the minis. It immediately resonated with me. The state of the miniature union I ve pretty much stopped painting minis. The last minis I recall finishing were a couple of Blood Angels Infiltrators [ ]