Tabletop Thoughts and Theories
It is an old saw that players are bad at executing their plans. Imagine this common scene: the party have some big job that requires planning; perhaps robbing a guarded caravan. They quibble over details and methods. They identify issues that need to be planned for (which the referee probably never considered). The planning meanders. Continue reading Referee Sabotage
Hi everybody! Its been a minute. How are you? Everything is awful all the time? Horrors never cease? You re being driven mad by the weight of the unfathomable evils in which you are partially complicit? Same, bestie. Anyway, I ve finally completed production of Blogs on Tape season 6, which will be releasing on a Monday-Wednesday-Friday Continue reading Blogs on Tape season 6 has begun!
Coactus Illustration © Heather Gwinn. A gift she gave me in 2013 for an edition of Miscreated Creatures which I hope exists someday. Coloring by me. I am abysmal at keeping you folk in the loop. Here s some stuff you might want to know: On January 10 2024 we lost Jennell Jaquays. The hobby owes Continue reading Housekeeping 2024
Sanctimonious Slimes Versus Expired Epicures is the first adventure module written for Errant. It will also be my first properly printed book. The kind with an inventory that needs to go in a warehouse somewhere! We re running a short campaign for this one, and there are only 6 days left until it s over, so get Continue reading Go back my first Kickstarter!
Update January 15, 2024: This post has won the Bronze Bloggie in the Gameable category! My thanks to everyone involved. It s easy to feel like blog posts disappear into the past, forgotten a few days after they are written. Having my work recognized by my peers is encouraging. Thank you for running this year, Zedeck. Continue reading Flux Space
I found these old cards at a thrift store a few years back, and sent out the very last of them this year. Inside it says I hope yule log on for the holidays, which is just delightfully corny. In the 90s I would have found it gauche, but with 30 years of hindsight it Continue reading D D Christmas Carols: Hark! I Am a Hireling
The Original Dungeons Dragons published in the Three Little Brown Books is a delightful and frustrating game. It s good simple fun, with some real virtues that had already been diluted or lost by the time of Holmes, Moldvay, and the Advanced edition of the game. OD D was my introduction to the OSR, through Brendan s Continue reading Fantastic Medieval Campaigns
It s happening right now! 26 episodes! 8 hours of RPG thoughts, theories, and flavor for your listening enjoyment! Back up, what is this about? Blogs on Tape is a podcast with a very simple purpose: we find good blog posts from the OSR and adjacent RPG scenes, and we perform readings of them. Each episode Continue reading Blogs on Tape Season 5 Has Begun!
The current incarnation of On a Red World Alone has been an experiment with a novel procedure of play. The primary aim is to compress the traditional adventurer-to-conqueror campaign structure, so domain play can occur from the first session without ever displacing adventure play. For those unfamiliar with the (so-called) traditional structure, it is typically Continue reading Proceduralism On a…
When your character drops to 0 hit points1 in On A Red World Alone, two things happen: You must roll on the permanent injury table. I remind you that the next hit will kill you dead. That s it. The character s ability to take actions is not inhibited in any way beyond their specific injury, and Continue reading Better Not Die, cuz PCs Don t Go To Heaven