tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58078200380787634472024-03-05T01:02:31.201-05:00The Theoretical GMSimon J. Hogwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07709835550452996449noreply@blogger.comBlogger87125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5807820038078763447.post-40971554061677994682021-02-13T21:43:00.000-05:002021-02-13T21:43:08.257-05:00The Only Dungeon Video You'll Ever Need From the desk of science fiction writer and wargamer Jon Mollison comes this penetrating analysis of dungeon design. It some ways it goes over some well-worn ground, the tension between the "Mythic Underworld" model and the "Gygaxian Naturalist" model of worldbuilding; but Jon really takes it to a higher level (no pun intended) with a surprising argument that the Mythic Underworld is the Simon J. Hogwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07709835550452996449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5807820038078763447.post-71302948075668995932021-01-01T00:46:00.007-05:002021-01-01T11:07:07.475-05:00Building a Setting in Four ImagesConcept stolen from Twitter. Originally presented devoid of context, since this is not Twitter I can unpack my thought process somewhat.What would we do without Frank Frazetta? I like this particular picture because it's not (as far as I can tell) one of his cover paintings for an established figure. The juxtaposition between the Old World knight and the New World visible on Earth is Simon J. Hogwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07709835550452996449noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5807820038078763447.post-17421651143804944392020-12-18T01:26:00.001-05:002020-12-18T01:26:42.095-05:00Wacky Campaign Concepts: Adventurer School!The idea of a campaign where the players are students at a School for Adventurers is one that I have occasionally pondered, usually concurrent to my being reminded that the Harry Potter franchise exists. Its full implementation would be necessarily somewhat tongue-in-cheek, as it depends on the idea of The Adventurer as a recognized societal role necessary enough in quantity to support a Simon J. Hogwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07709835550452996449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5807820038078763447.post-54847188786726548252020-09-11T01:42:00.002-04:002020-09-11T01:42:55.491-04:00One Day Left For Latest ACKS Crowdfund Being the sort of person who usually prefers fighters and thieves to spellcasters in D&D-type games, I had initially not paid much attention to the latest Adventurer, Conqueror, King System* supplement to be crowdfunded by Autarch. I'm glad I finally did, though, because the magic of the Almanac of Unusual Magic is very unusual indeed.The 56-page book covers four new ACKSSimon J. Hogwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07709835550452996449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5807820038078763447.post-7375851668990929842020-07-01T23:33:00.001-04:002020-07-01T23:33:41.222-04:00Sol SurvivorsThe terms "OSR" and "Hard Sci-FI" may not seem especially congruent at first glance, but they combine like peanut butter and chocolate in Termination Shock, a nascent setting from Niklas Wistedt, aka Paths Peculiar.
Set in the early 22nd century, Termination Shock is the story of the recovery of Earth's space infrastructure after a passing particle wave put all the ships and stations on Simon J. Hogwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07709835550452996449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5807820038078763447.post-59562163660789210112020-04-13T23:52:00.000-04:002020-04-13T23:52:58.986-04:00The AD&D That Wasn't QuiteLast week, Eric Fabiaschi of Swords & Stitchery pointed me at some fantastic cover mock-ups by author James Panarella, in the style of AD&D's Oriental Adventures*:
Most, like Oriental Adventures, focus on a particular ancient-to-medieval culture such as the Norse, the Aztecs, the Celts, or the Egyptians, although a few go further afield, including a couple posted a few days Simon J. Hogwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07709835550452996449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5807820038078763447.post-91229773706030513262020-02-23T22:19:00.000-05:002020-02-23T22:19:01.440-05:00Questing for OSR NewsEver since G+ went offline, the Old School RPG scene has been somewhat fragmentary, with different subgroups congregating at different places on the web. Ben Milton, author of Maze Rats* and Knave* as well as the Questing Beast YouTube channel, has announced his intention to try to alleviate this with a free newsletter:
To be named The Glatisant (top marks for consistent Simon J. Hogwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07709835550452996449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5807820038078763447.post-59024789523899999812020-01-16T21:52:00.002-05:002020-01-16T21:52:43.526-05:00Adventure Lookup - Intriguing DM ToolI'm a big sucker for lists and databases, and my recent discovery of Adventure Lookup is squarely in that wheelhouse. It is, in essence, a big list of adventures for the various versions of Dungeons & Dragons - from the Basic set to 5th Edition, with options for Pathfinder, Dungeon Crawl Classics, and various OSR rulesets. But not only is it possible to filter the list by system, but by Simon J. Hogwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07709835550452996449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5807820038078763447.post-89175502493307341872020-01-01T19:03:00.000-05:002020-01-01T19:03:29.204-05:00A New Game for the New Year
A link on the Twitter #OSR hashtag recently led me to the Spanish-language RPG publisher grapas&mapas, and more particularly to their thus-far only English-translated work, Vieja Escuela Pulp! Translating roughly to "Old School Pulp", it is indeed a lightweight (48 pages, including the adventure) OSR take on early 20th-century adventure fiction, which is what is usually meantSimon J. Hogwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07709835550452996449noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5807820038078763447.post-51437293779824435592019-12-15T15:26:00.000-05:002019-12-15T15:26:39.275-05:00Comic Character ConceptsSimon J. Hogwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07709835550452996449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5807820038078763447.post-46509801604346882422019-11-13T21:57:00.000-05:002019-11-13T21:57:26.295-05:00They Saved Hitler's FangsThere's an epic GUMSHOE campaign in here somewhere:
Allegedly the V-E Day edition of the Vancouver Sun, one is tempted to assume that Comrade Leonov was being facetious about the possibility of a vampiric Adolf Hitler. However, this could be a neat hook into a number of different campaigns, from the last mission for a Weird War II commando squad to a clue for modern occult Simon J. Hogwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07709835550452996449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5807820038078763447.post-34883235681420399192019-11-01T21:20:00.000-04:002019-11-01T21:20:17.346-04:00Hey, Wait A Minute . . . From Reaper Miniatures' 2017 Bones IV Kickstarter Campaign:
From Reaper Miniatures' current Bones V Kickstarter campaign:
Nine for the Mortal Men, doomed to die . . .
Anyway, said current Reaper Bones Kickstarter ends in about 21 hours, and there's way more cool stuff than just finally bringing their number of not-Ringwraiths up to code. Check it out!Simon J. Hogwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07709835550452996449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5807820038078763447.post-32201180307122297942019-09-25T02:41:00.000-04:002019-09-25T02:41:56.121-04:00And Now For A Word From Our Sponsor
So, I'm sure if you're at all interested in RPGs in the 21st century, you've heard of DriveThruRPG*. It's basically the Amazon of digital gaming, both in its retail dominance, self-publishing empowerment, and affiliate program, in which participants can get a small percentage of the price of any purchase made through a particular link, for example the one above. This percentage does not Simon J. Hogwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07709835550452996449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5807820038078763447.post-27037905373511103082019-07-25T20:39:00.001-04:002019-07-25T20:39:28.839-04:00D&D Ability Scores Explained With TomatoesBased on a much-shared Reddit thread and brought to life by artist Max Marcil:
Also available as a PDF. And remember, if your first instinct is note that a tomato-based fruit salad is a salsa - you're the bard.Simon J. Hogwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07709835550452996449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5807820038078763447.post-67905819638093231262019-07-14T00:11:00.000-04:002019-07-14T00:11:06.829-04:00Breakthrough in Gygax/Tolkien Studies!The question of how much Gary Gygax was inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien in the writing of the first few versions of Dungeons & Dragons is one of those topics that generates a great deal of chatter on the Internet these days, usually producing more heat than light. Personally I hold to the idea that Gary was fairly indifferent to Tolkien's fiction, but included the Middle-Earth elements at theSimon J. Hogwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07709835550452996449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5807820038078763447.post-12460901890286046872019-04-03T01:01:00.001-04:002019-04-03T01:01:47.613-04:00Requiem For Google+Well, it's finally happened. After much sound and fury, the Google+ social media experiment is officially over. Being something of a late adopter to things like this I was only on for the last couple years, but during that time I saw a number of informative, amusing or useful things, some of which I was able to salvage:
Attributed to Will McClean
Three posts about the fiasco surrounding Simon J. Hogwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07709835550452996449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5807820038078763447.post-90863862398456328672019-02-16T20:54:00.002-05:002019-02-16T21:05:29.176-05:00Heroes of Terra Kickstarter Up
Well, I have to admit I doubted this day would ever come, but on this occasion I'm happy to be proven wrong - Jeremy Puckett and Blackwing Productions* have posted the Kickstarter for Heroes of Terra: The Mushroom War. I've mentioned this Super Mario-inspired Savage Worlds setting a time or two before, as previous versions of it were released. Most are still available at the DriveThruSimon J. Hogwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07709835550452996449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5807820038078763447.post-18767831535413248162019-01-07T08:30:00.000-05:002019-01-07T08:30:06.276-05:00Mappi Monday: Forgotten Ruins of the Middle HyborianFor some time now, the minds behind the acclaimed military-space-opera novel series Galaxy's Edge, Nick Cole and Jason Anspach, have been working on a fantasy setting. There's not a great deal of information yet, although some bits can be gleaned from the Facebook page and the dedicated website. For example, yesterday the former revealed this amazing map:
It's Europe, Simon J. Hogwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07709835550452996449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5807820038078763447.post-57822973418295344842018-12-06T00:14:00.001-05:002018-12-06T00:14:29.743-05:00GUMTHEWS Cover RevealA couple of days ago, Pelgrane Press revealed the cover art for Swords of the Serpentine, their upcoming Swords-and-Sorcery GUMSHOE hack.
While I wish they'd kept the "GUMTHEWS" pun for the name, I have not yet been disappointed by a Pelgrane product and, from the looks of this article on the genre guidelines the authors used, I don't think that's going to change:
Adventures are episodic. Simon J. Hogwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07709835550452996449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5807820038078763447.post-39079930571803713982018-09-28T21:50:00.002-04:002018-09-28T21:50:47.512-04:00The Circlet of Fungal Power
A new magic item for Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea.
The Circlet of Fungal Power presents itself as a typical golden crown with a velvet lining colored purple with white spots. If worn, it transforms the wearer into an Amazon warrior woman with the following attributes:
Height: 6'2, Weight: 170
STR: 9, DEX: 17, CON: 11, INT: 11, WIS: 11, CHA: 18
All other Simon J. Hogwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07709835550452996449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5807820038078763447.post-33172877696618722712018-08-12T00:14:00.000-04:002018-08-12T00:14:28.886-04:00Wacky Campaign Concepts: Bookhounds of Freeport!
Art by Everwho
So the other day I was reading the recent-ish Freeport: City of Adventure* from Green Ronin and noticed something interesting. For all that Freeport is a pirate-founded tropical port at the semi-pre-industrial tech level standard to Dungeons & Dragons settings, there's an awful lot of factions gathering secret libraries of information - from the Wizard's Guild, for whom Simon J. Hogwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07709835550452996449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5807820038078763447.post-10535954035570313132018-07-11T02:44:00.000-04:002018-07-11T02:44:33.785-04:00Kickstarters Coming and GoingWith the advent of Kickstarter and other crowdfunding platforms, it seems there's always a neat gaming-related project running. To illustrate this point, I'm going to highlight a couple that I'm currently backing, one that's just started and one that's almost out of time.
First off, Secrets of the Nethercity by Autarch is ending in just a couple of days. This project is actually two books, a Simon J. Hogwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07709835550452996449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5807820038078763447.post-91468882932555378762018-03-05T20:59:00.000-05:002018-03-05T21:05:12.441-05:00Discovery of the DayWhile noodling about on eBay this afternoon looking for cheap copies of old Conan modules, I happened across the most interesting thing - a book called Conan and the Prophecy, published by TSR in the '80s as part of something called "Endless Quest" books.
Probably not by the Bond actor.
Further investigation shows that this was a line of choose-your-own-adventure type books taking place in Simon J. Hogwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07709835550452996449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5807820038078763447.post-14966907445382440182017-12-06T11:08:00.000-05:002017-12-06T11:08:18.483-05:006 Setting Crossovers for Your Savage Monster Hunter International GameUnlike last time, as the current Monster Hunter International RPG Kickstarter has been going on, I've been refraining from giving constant updates on its status. Suffice to say that at this point, just 24 hours from ending, all the stretch goals have been hit and the deal is better than ever.
But perhaps you're unsure about how useful the new material will be. In that case, let me show you howSimon J. Hogwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07709835550452996449noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5807820038078763447.post-62558831206869620252017-11-08T00:37:00.000-05:002017-11-08T00:37:13.623-05:00Monster Hunter International Gets Savage!Are you a fan of Larry Correia's Monster Hunter International series, but not of the HERO system* used in the 2012 RPG? Well, fret no more, because there's a new MHI RPG in town:
Currently just over 200% funded after just twelve house on Kickstarter, this version is being published by Gallant Knight Games* and will be using the Savage Worlds* rules.
But there's a lot more of interest here Simon J. Hogwoodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07709835550452996449noreply@blogger.com0