Microlite78 and Microlite89?
Several people have asked me to do a Microlite78 (1e) and a Microlite89 (2e) edition of "Microlite74". I'm afraid that I lack the time to do so. However, if you have access to the spells, monsters, and weapons lists from[...]Read on >>
What Will It Take to Get Old School Players to Convert to 5e?
WOTC seems to be trying to attract old school players as well as 3.x players to D&D 5e. I think it would take most of the following -- at a minimum -- to attract large numbers of old school players and GMs to 5e. 1)[...]Read on >>
What Does D&D Sound Like?
What Does D&D Sound like?D&D sounds like Dio.[...]Read on >>
FYI new blog header
The new graphic at the top of the blog is a still from the 1982 Rankin-Bass special The Flight of Dragons. I wish I could give you some more stills, but my own copy is pretty low quality. And the youtube clip[...]Read on >>
WOTC Delays AD&D 1e Reprints to mid-July
Judging by this page on the WOTC site, the AD&D 1e core books reprint promised for mid-April (with much hype earlier this year) have been delayed until mid-July. I have no idea why, but this continues to erode what l[...]Read on >>
two brief FLAILSNAILS items
Mike Davison of sword+1 is running a G+ play-by-post tournament. The players guide PDF is here and the results of the first round are here, but the real action of the event is in the individual threads st[...]Read on >>
Caves of Myrddin updates, part 2
"Hey, let's go hunt some medusas!"When has that ever been an good idea? That's what Sir Alexander Manning, Flinny the Elder, Rando the Halfing and the dwarves Farley and Blodgrist settled upon as a perfectly reason[...]Read on >>
Caves of Myrddin updates, part 1
I've run three sessions since my last update. Last Wednesday the game store group spent the entire session Beyond The Portal To Goblin Land*, so no real info is available.On Saturday I ran a session at GaryCon for&[...]Read on >>
So I guess Starfire comes from planet 8
So this map is for the Vega star system, setting of the Omega Men comics, as it appears in the pre-crossover-of-the-moment DC Universe. I don't know anything about the Omega Men, but figuring out what this map mean[...]Read on >>
Caves of Myrddin PSA
I've decided to teleport the Mad Unicorn into the Dungeons of Dundagel. From a comment of mine on an old blog post:The Mad Unicorn is a wandering monster that has appeared on multiple wandering monster charts of mi[...]Read on >>
Time Bandits vs Monsters
I friggin' love the monsters in Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits.Okay, this is obviously some dude in a cheesy barbarian get-up and a paper mache mask, but this minotaur totally works for me. Maybe it's those holl[...]Read on >>
boring dice charts
Back in the day brand new Lords of Creation boxed sets came with three kinds of dice: a twenty sider, a ten sider and a sixer. The d10 and d20 were Zocchi dice, but I think the d6's might have been cheap cubes[...]Read on >>
Not Smart Enough
A GM recently said that he wanted to play the opposition as smart possible. I thought to myself that this was not how I wanted to play the opposition and I started wondering. I think the answer is that if I try to outwit[...]Read on >>
Here we are, born to be kings
There's been a wee bit of talk about doing up a retroclone of Tom Moldvay's crossgenre RPG Lords of Creation, though I'm not sure anyone has done any work on it. I'm not sure if there's actually an audience for suc[...]Read on >>
Return to Ryth
A certain Grumpy Old Troll has just discovered the treasure that is the Ryth Chronicle. It has been many months and it has occurred to me that if the Old Troll was unaware of John Van De Graaf and Len Scensny's land[...]Read on >>
Kinda jealous of my son right now…
My oldest son, in addition to playing a 3.x game with me and my younger son, plays "D&D" every Saturday for about 3 hours.He is playing with my sometimes DM, sometimes player, Greg, his sons and a couple of other kid[...]Read on >>
Trumpeter of Doom
A while back over at Swords & Dorkery cool dude Mike Monaco posted this great pic from the Lost Minis Wiki. Officially, that's meant to depict a lich blowing a horn, but I thought it would be cool to make it in[...]Read on >>
Some Beloved Dragon Articles
In no particular order. "D&D Option: Orgies, Inc" - Jon Pickens, issue #10, page 5+. This gem and the similar rules in Dave Arneson's First Fantasy Campaign are the primary influences on my carousing rules.&nbs[...]Read on >>
just preserving a G+ thread, pay me no mind
Jeff Rients - Yesterday 9:56 AM (edited) - LimitedYou know what would be a neat? A campaign that uses BX D&D's 4+3 approach, with four human classes and three non-human race-as-class choices, [...]Read on >>
one more thing from The Elfish Gene
"British rock stars of the seventies were still awestruck when they travelled to the States to find the seats reclined on planes and that ice was served with water. Most people didn't have central heating--the average t[...]Read on >>
New Microlite74 Swords & Sorcery Draft Available to Donors
A new draft (draft 6) of Microlite74 Swords & Sorcery is available to donors in the usual place with the usual password. There aren't a lot of rules changes this time around. Mainly I've been working on monsters. I h[...]Read on >>
RIP M.A.R. Barker 1929-2012
M.A.R. Barker, author of the the Empire of the Petal Throne novels and games passed away this morning in his home. I still remember the day I bought a copy of Empire of the Petal Throne -- the first one in town, I believ[...]Read on >>
M.A.R. Barker Dead
Professor Muhammad Abd-al-Rahman Barker, creator of the classic old-school D&D spinoff Empire of the Petal Throne set in his seminal role-playing setting Tékumel, passed away today, March 16, 2012. He was a key fig[...]Read on >>
A cool chart missing from B/X & LL
If I had to guess I'd venture that most fans of the non-Advanced versions of D&D have a mechanic or two found in AD&D that they cherish. For me, it's the chart that comes right after determin[...]Read on >>
Here’s an old Trav chart I made
Found this on the old hard drive the other day. I guess I made it for filling out the roster of larger ships plying the Gateway Quadrant.RANDOM CREW MEMBERSHuman? (1d)1-5 Yes, roll on Humaniti Type table 6 No, roll[...]Read on >>
Stone Age LotFP
by DeviantArtist Stephen DaymondI had an idea this morning for a short RPG campaign where the PCs are survivors of a stone age tribe broken up by some sort of disaster, like a bigass storm wrecking their camp and sc[...]Read on >>
Flumphfest 2012!!
"I think someone should do a new illustration for flumphs. First impressions are everything, you know." -Michael Moscrip, today on Google+Here's the original Fiend Folio illo, lightly shaded.By DeviantArt member ButterFr[...]Read on >>
the Holmes 65
Time for another crummy list! Today I just want to share with you the list of monsters in the Blue Book version of D&D. Note the badass mofos that Dr. Holmes expected first through third le[...]Read on >>
Encounter-Ending Powers are a Good Thing!
March 13, 2012 from RetroRoleplaying
Filed under: DnD3e, Microlite20, Microlite74, Old School, RPG Hub
There's apparently a new designer article on D&D 5e up on turning undead. It looks like 5e might be moving away from the WOTC standard of "turn dead just does damage to undead" and moving more toward the TSR D&D [...] Filed under: DnD3e, Microlite20, Microlite74, Old School, RPG Hub
Read on >>
Draft from the Past
Today I decided to flip through the old drafts laying about my blogger account. This one, entitled "Secrets of Cinder, part 4" dates back to '07 or '08. My old World of Cinder campaign setting was more overtl[...]Read on >>
Question to OSR publishers and authors
I have been getting a couple of products ready to go for release and I am not getting the look and feel I want.So a question to OSR publishing community from the professionals all the way over to the enthusiastic&nb[...]Read on >>
The Castle Bouttreaux Caper
So this morning's D&D via Google+ Hangout caps off an intense week of gaming. The planning for the jailbreak of Samson Jones! took quite a bit of hashing out. Before the game even started Farley the Dwarf[...]Read on >>
every game product in The Elfish Gene
I don't exactly like Mark Barrowcliffe's The Eflish Gene. It's a little too mean-spirited, a little too "I'm laughing at you not with you" for my tastes. In fact I'm a bit confused as to who the author thinks[...]Read on >>
The Hargrave Descriptionator, part 4
Here's the last piece of random room features inspired by the Arduin modules. By request, here's all four pieces in a single Google doc. And while you're grabbing some random charts, here are some quicky gem [...]Read on >>
Living in Wessex
Here are your options if you want to move out of the guesthouse of the Abbey of St. Emmet and get your own place.Mad Hermit - You throw together a filthy little hut in some backwoods area. Initial Cost: noneUpkeep: [...]Read on >>
The Hargrave Descriptionator, part 3
d100 FLOOR 01 3' deep very dry old straw02-03 3' of brown, mucky water04-05 4' of dirt over stone06-07 black basalt with silver and gold flecks08 black basalt with silver inlay in spiral pattern09-10 black marble11-12 bl[...]Read on >>
Fred the dwarf talks back to the Arduin crit chart… and lives!
Last night's D&D game was out of control. There was a two-headed non-purple worm, a visit to the Fairy Land Annex, tense negotiations with the vampires, a giant silver spider, intense combat with the same vampi[...]Read on >>
The Hargrave Descriptionator, part 2
d100 CEILING01 6" wide bars of glowing crystal (illuminate room)02-03 black basalt with red jade inlay depicting giant fanged mouth surrounded by swirling tentacles04-05 black basalt with silver and gold flecks06-07 blac[...]Read on >>
more spellcasting malarkey
So the chart below combines two charts from Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed. Well, only part of two charts. Actually, four charts. Part of four charts. Let me explain.The "part of" is because most d[...]Read on >>
Castle Bouttreaux overhead sketch
This scan is terrible and my mapping skills are poor but combine this with the picture I posted and it should give some idea of what is going on here. Uggs the Cleric and his gang of jailbreakers have be[...]Read on >>
The Hargravian Descriptionator, part 1
I made this after going over the room descriptions in a couple three of Dave Hargraves' Arduin modules. Tables for ceilings, floors and miscellany to follow.d100 WALLS01-02 black basalt03 black basalt with silver a[...]Read on >>
Common knowledge: Bouttreaux Castle
Castle Bouttreaux is the westernmost holding of the French lord Guillame de Averoigne. Although nominally a vassal of King Stephen, Lord Guillame is one of those scheming middle-of-the-road types that has so fa[...]Read on >>
Caves of Myrddin: alas and alas and alas again
A tale of tragedies in Cornwall today.Somewhere just off the spiral stairs below the south tower the party was ambushed by one of those big metallic spiders. The hopeless loser Robert proved the inadvertent hero of[...]Read on >>
Congratulations to James Maliszewski for Dwimmermount Kickstarter
Two days ago, James Maliszewski started his Kickstarter campaign to raise $10,000 for his Dwimmermount megadungeon to see print. Here we are, only slightly more than 48 hours later, and he has already met that goal, and [...]Read on >>
Old School Fanzines
Fight On, Knockspell, Oubliette, NOD, and others.[...]Read on >>
The International League of Fiend Foliasts
Vaults of Nagoh: Fiend Folio-only Wandering Monster tablesPlaying D&D with Porn Stars: Redoing the Fiend Folio (series)Blood of Prokopius: Fiend Folio series my stuff: Proscriptive Campaign Creation, The Folian Mytho[...]Read on >>
Microlite74 Swords & Sorcery: The Monster Dilemma
I've discovered a problem creating a Swords and Sorcery variant of Microlite74: the monster list. Many of the monsters on the standard monster list don't really fit into the average swords and sorcery milieu. Most swords[...]Read on >>
The Folian Mythos
What if the only gods in your campaign setting were the freaks at the top of the Fiend Folio food chain?Lolth - Spider Queen of DemonsCryonax - Prince of Freezing Blood and Shattering IceImix - Prince of All-Consuming Fl[...]Read on >>
Adventures in Layout
Remember the NPC classes introduced in 3e, the Warrior, Adept, Expert, Commoner and Aristocrat? The pretty much sucked compared to the PC classes, with the Commoner being far inferior to any other class. [...]Read on >>
2E Clone Myth & Magic Coming March 16
Some news about New Haven Games about their upcoming 2E retro-clone, Myth & Magic. From their announcement:Myth & Magic:The Player's Starter Guide and the Game Master's Starter Guide will be available for downloa[...]Read on >>
