2026-01-17
Sam Seer asks of us "Talk about three games that are important to you" and far be it from me to refuse the call.¶ Dungeons & Dragons - godzilla in my gaming lexicon. I was a trad AD&D DM, then leaned hard into Planescape then after hiatus came back as a follower of the OSR, even if most often the players were looking to run 5e characters. I got the 'run a good session' down way back on the first time around, but more recently I've gotten a grip on what it takes to get a campaign to run and how to…
Categories:
- jams and challenges
- review
From choosing our favorite 36 Pathfinder Iconics to starting to build a campaign. #TTRPG #PathfinderIconics
Categories:
- AP26
- Cairn
- Pathfinder
- Absalom
- Golarion
- Pathfinder Iconics
- Tengu
- The Inner Sea
All the hip young bear-bloggers are doing it so why can't I.¶ Don't answer that.¶ Here's my Childhood Appendix N: media I experienced that I feel/fear continues to inform the creation of stuff. In (approximate) chronological order: childhood begins with self-awareness and ends with Urotsukidoji (I'm sorry to say).¶ The Clangers; Bagpuss... enchanting stop-motion animations for young children¶ Button Moon, plastic bottle puppet people who live on the moon¶ Worzel Gummidge head switching scarecrow. Fuc…
In Liberty’s Shadow is really the first truly chunky supplement for Rivers of London, Chaosium’s RPG based on the urban fantasy series created by Ben Aaronovitch; the game’s had a few scenarios come out for it as well, but other than that players and referees have had to make do with the core book, their …¶ Continue reading In Liberty’s Shadow: Taking the Rivers Across the Sea
Categories:
- Basic Roleplaying
- Chaosium
- Referee's Bookshelf
- Rivers of London
- Supplements
- Tabletop RPGs
Stay updated with this week's TTRPG news from Edinburgh. We cover the Infinite Black product controversy, Games Workshop's new AI ban for staff, and R. Talsorian Games' latest e-commerce investment. Plus, discover 2026's most anticipated roleplaying games as voted by EN World.
Categories:
- Tabletop & RPGs
- artificial intelligence
- en world
- games workshop
- R. Talsorian Games
- routinely itemised
2026-01-16
My Darling,The air as you cut through it like a ship's prow, The water as it supports you, The light as it caresses your form, E'en the ground blessed to support you:Oh, How I Envy Them...(C) 2026 Kyrinn S. Eis All Rights Reserved Worldwide❤
Sorry, I just need to exorcise a thought real quick to convince myself why it’s a bad idea. The impulse is I realized that Cinco! doesn’t have swords +1 and I was like, oh, how sad—even though by all means it’s a good thing that it’s not a fucking number-go-up game. It’s intentionally all very discrete and non-granular, reducing as much as I possibly can to pure structure (not necessarily in terms of procedure but, in general, of dynamics). But let me just give this a try. Come onnnn. It's like …
Here are notes on my solo game using Matt Jackson’s Arneson Gaming. I’ll be using Mythic GME and other oracles for the game. I’ve created my PC, Sir Mathias, knight bachelor of Oakwood Castle. He needs some backup, so I’ve created a squire for him. –Squire Jack– I picture Sir Mathias’s squire as wearing light […]
Categories:
- Uncategorized
- Arneson Gaming
- Solo
OK, so I am teaching a career studies class at the HS where I work, and I decided to use my experience the past years of producing an RPG to help students figure out their future career.¶ STEP ONE - Imagine your future self.¶ I used AI to make this picture of me (the hands are mutante gigantic)¶ STEP TWO - Get a plan for success¶ Once again, I asked AI. Lots of good advice for anyone looking to produce an RPG here.¶ Heck yes—nice momentum. A novel out and an RPG design contest win is already a legit …
Even though he lived until 1961, there is not, so far as I am aware, any film footage of Clark Ashton Smith. There is, however, a recording of his voice, made in the 1950s, reciting some of his poetry. It's well worth a listen, if you have the time.
Danika receives a message from Telefe.¶ Session 30- A Note from an Old Classmate¶ 1/3/2026¶ A note from Telefe, Danika’s old classmate, arrives by pigeon.¶ It informs Danika that their mentor, Nattias, has gone missing.¶ Telefe suspects abduction. Clues she’s dug up lead to a¶ strange Spire of Iron and Crystal to the east. If Danika could¶ provide assistance, Telefe will meet her in either Bystrica or¶ Stary Bob.¶ In this session, Danika’s character concentrates on preparing¶ her party for a dangerous adv…
Categories:
- Actual Play
- Ctyri Ctvrt Chronicles
- DIY D&D
- Fever-Dreaming Marlinko
- Hill Cantons
- Labyrinth Lord
- LotFP
- Misty Isles of the Eld
- OSR
- and more…
The final episode of our Traveller Deepnight Revelation campaign.
Categories:
- Gaming
- GM Notes
- Deepnight
- FoundryVTT
- RPG
- Traveller
Dark Visions does not waste a lot of time before getting down to brass tacks. Three lines make up the back cover blurb and there is no introduction before it leaps into describing the first of the three Character Classes found in its pages. So, it feels as if it could do with a bit more context and a bit more in the way of guidance for the Game Master as to what it is, what its contents are, and how it might be used. To explain, it is a supplement for ShadowDark, the retroclone inspired by both …
Categories:
- Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition
- Fantasy
- Friday Fantasy
- Old School Renaissance
- OSR
- Scenario
- Shadowdark
David LaRocca addresses the community regarding a serious blow to Infinite Black that has forced the delay of the new Eclipse D20 horror game.
Categories:
- Tabletop & RPGs
- infinite black
Iron Crown Enterprises has announced an imminent staggered release for Rolemaster Unified on Foundry VTT to ensure a stable digital experience.
Categories:
- Tabletop & RPGs
- foundry vtt
Chipped Saucer (Daniel Hicks)¶ ACKSII adventure for four to six PCs of levels 4th-6th¶ I am reviewing these in the order they were submitted. For my review criteria, please check out this post. All reviews will (probably) contain *SPOILERS*; you have been warned! Because these are short (two page) adventures, it is my intention to keep the reviews brief.¶ Yet another ACKSII adventure.¶ Man, I'll be honest. If this contest allowed peremptory challenges like a court trial, I would use all mine on ACKS…
“After the great wyrm Egrementh was slain, the heroes took what they sought from her hoard but found something far …¶ Continue reading →
Categories:
- Fantasy
- Maps
- Dungeon
- Dungeons & Dragons
- Labyrinth Lord
- Old School Essentials
- OSE
- OSR
- RPG
- and more…
At the start of this challenge, I introduced the Gallowglass subclass, a sort of mercenary for hire for witches. Today I want to detail The Witchknight, a different sort of armed-and-armored witch.¶ I guess the simple way of looking at the Witch Knight vs the Gallowglass is that Witch Knights are considered part of the outer circle of the coven, where a Gallowglass isn't part of the coven at all. Both classes are martial fighting classes. The witch knight is a cavalier subclass and is related to …
Categories:
- 1st ed
- Advanced
- Land of a 1000 witches
- NewYearNewCharacter
- Occult D&D
- witch
Nerds love taxonomy; it gives order to the world, and provides a meaningful sense of control. Of course, it's all an illusion. At best taxonomy is a useful tool, and at worst it makes things too concrete, too immutable. It's a flashlight, not a prison!¶ Still, I wanted to dip a toe into RPG theory for a moment. I promise I’ll pay the Joesky Tax at the end!¶ Inspired by posts like this one by edmocat, I’ve been thinking about play styles inside the OSR, and how those styles collide (and remix) in s…
Session 297 was played on 08/17/25¶ Morgana, wizard 10 (Rob)¶ Borumar, Triton Thief 11 (Josh)¶ Blotto, Goblin Fighter 8 (Lanse)¶ Nick, Fighter 8 (Me)¶ Koltic, Cleric 9 (Cindy)¶ Aroon, Fighter 8 (NPC)¶ Jameth, Fighter 8 (NPC)¶ Lor’Koth, Dwarf 8 (NPC)¶ Approaching the first of the Giant’s guard posts, the party finds 4 hill giants at watch. They crudely laugh and mock the party, threaten them, but are then forced to allow the party through when Morgana shows off one of the heads of the Plated Mage’s mechan…
Categories:
- actual play
- flailsnails
- flailsnails stonehell
- Stonehell
But Does It Work?- Drug Church #PunkSongOfTheDay Whole playlist here: Amazon Music/Spotify What is PSotD Punk Song…
Categories:
- Punk Rock
- Punk Song of the Day
- music
- post-punk
- proto-punk
- punk
- rock
The National Space Centre in Leicester announces To Boldly Game, a weekend of roleplaying, board games, and miniature painting this January.
Categories:
- Tabletop & RPGs
- board games
Schwew. OK. This turned into a long one.¶ Break!! has the best crafting rules for an OSR game that I've ever seen. Originally, I was trying to borrow them for my little house rules project for the Middle-earth Hexcrawl. But the tale grew in the telling.¶ The HTML conversion looks a little jank. Apologies. It looks better in the Google Doc (which I will eventually share).¶ Forging¶ “To the anvil,’ answered Thorin. ‘The hammer will at least keep the arms strong, until they can wield sharper tools agai…
Categories:
- homebrew
- middle-earth hexmap
As anyone who reads this blog regularly knows, three names dominate almost any discussion I have about the foundational figures of modern fantasy, science fiction, and horror: Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft, and Clark Ashton Smith. All three were central contributors to Weird Tales in the 1920s and ’30s. All three helped shape the emerging genres in profound ways. All three are still read today. And yet, their legacies are anything but equal.¶ Howard’s influence is obvious, visible in every bar…
Categories:
- CAS
- howard
- lovecraft
- musings
- pulp fantasy
- weird tales
With its near future setting of a San Franciso ravaged by climate change and protected from the sea by seawalls, the bulk of its population having moved off-world in ‘The Scramble for Stars’ to start again on the megacorporate-sponsored colonies, and the use of Synths or biological androids as a pliable workforce in their stead, Carbon 2185: A Cyberpunk RPG feels very much inspired by Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049. Published two years after the latter film by British publisher, Dragon Turtl…
Categories:
- British roleplaying game
- Cyberpunk
- Dragon Turtle Games Ltd.
- Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition
- Scenario
- Science Fiction
'Brian's Ferry'(C) 2026 Kyrinn S. Eis All Rights Reserved Worldwide
December was dark and grey; with January came snow. Great time of year for playing and creating boardgames! Not only do I have the luxury of not stressing about a day job, but I also have kids that are now old enough to play the kind of games I enjoy. So I’ve had lots of … Continue reading Game design update →¶ The post Game design update appeared first on Thoughtful Dane.
Categories:
- Games
- Churches of Gotland
- Draw stranger
- Game design
- Gotlandia
For most of my life, a "game master" was the person who ran a game of a roleplaying game. Specifically, it was the "generic" and legally-distinct version of the D&D term "dungeon master." Once I really started playing tabletop games however, I discovered that many games had a kind of game master role built in, and with lots of different names. The concept was always the same, though. A game master was the person playing the game world, in contrast to the people playing characters. The longer I'v…
For the shadowdarklings not in the know, Cursed Scroll issues 4-6 are being developed and released to backers of last year’s Shadowdark kickstarter, “Shadowdark RPG: The Western Reaches Setting.” I have been using these zines as part of my campaign, and while I have found them useful for expanding Shadowdark’s core rules, I was never overly impressed to the point where I felt it was worthwhile enough to talk about. With Issue #6, that all changes.¶ This zine is literally unlike the others in scop…
Hello friends! Welcome back. Continuing my celebration of 40 years in this hobby, today I want to move from the “proto-history” I wrote about in my last post to the actual history. The...
Categories:
- Alternity
- Ask The Readers
- Blogging
- Call of Cthulhu
- D&D Next
- D&D4e
- D&D5e
- d20 Modern
- D6
- and more…
Love,This one is for the Jazzmen of St. Louis,'Kettle of Fish'(C) 2026 Kyrinn S. Eis All Rights Reserved Worldwide(and likely soon featured On Some Media)
2026-01-15
Jenx of Gorgon Bones started a bandwagon, so here are some things I enjoyed as a youngster that still bounce around my head when I'm running &/or making stuff for games. Will likely add to this as I remember more.¶ The Hobbit¶ The Chronicles of Narnia -- Of these, my favorites were always The Horse & His Boy & The Silver Chair. The latter I remember being relatively dark, weird, & mysterious -- images like exploring the giant-sized letters or the glimpse of a realm even deeper under the earth rema…
How gaming in the Wenderweald works
Don’t create your Extras with the character creation rules. Just give them what you think they ought to have in their various skills and attributes and move on. - Savage Worlds Adventure Edition¶ Here are my guidelines for converting 5150 characters to SWADE; I find it useful to have some mechanism for randomly generating NPCs for solo games, and this works well.¶ The Least You Need to Know¶ NPCs in the pre-generated encounter tables have a Race, a Rep, and a Weapon; most NPCs in my game will be li…
I was going through the classic Cyberpunk 2013 books from R.Talsorian Games again to run another game, and I was …¶ Continue reading →
Categories:
- Doodles
- Science Fiction
- CyberPunk
- Doodle
- Drawings
- Illustration
Love,I hope things aren't too terrible for youK❤#{Untitled Piano Piece(C) 2026 Kyrinn S. Eis All Rights Reserved Worldwide
Wind of Hesitation ‘I warned you, Jhenkis, get your goblin rabble away from us!’ shouted Uzeb the Wise.‘Or what?’ the rival spellcaster shouted back in reply.‘Very well,’ Uzeb said quietly then read from the scroll he held before him.A strange, … Continue reading →
Categories:
- Magic Spells
- Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea
- BD&D
- BFRPG
- Dragonslayer Rpg
- Iron Falcon
- Labyrinth Lord
- OD&D
- Old School Essentials
- and more…
Temple of the Blood Bat, AKA Lair of the Night Scourge (Jason Blasso)¶ OSE (B/X) adventure for four to six PCs of levels 1st-2nd¶ I am reviewing these in the order they were submitted. For my review criteria, please check out this post. All reviews will (probably) contain *SPOILERS*; you have been warned! Because these are short (two page) adventures, it is my intention to keep the reviews brief.¶ Last year, I dinged Blasso hard for misidentifying his adventure as OSE when he was using "OSE Advance…
A B C D Demon Dragon E F G1 G2 G3 H I Jackalwere K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z¶ Credit: Joe Sparrow, from Dungeons & Drawings¶ Strap in, because there are a lot of M monsters. And guess what? Bangers, every one. All killer, no filler.¶ Manticore¶ Credit: My Heart Beats Like Thunder by Kate Clark¶ Remember in the entry on the chimera, when I said that I was opposed to giving them wings because there's already plenty of winged lions in D&D?¶ Twist! I'm also generally anti-wing for manticores, too. I c…
An interesting theme is developing as the AI revolution unfolds: people don't have much of a problem with AI use in things they don't care about, but they hate it in anything they love.¶ This I think explains why there is huge pushback against AI use in creative fields; ironically, despite having been told for a few years now that AI will replace human artists, novelists, film directors and so on, it seems more likely that these fields are among the few which are not going to be directly threaten…
Contrary to popular belief, one can never start the year with too many challenges on the go. So whilst I watch City 26 gathering momentum with almost manic glee, I'm equally excited to pick up the gauntlet cast by N. Bateman in his Campaign ‘26 post.¶ I intend to run a Pariah Campaign (sort of) set in the world of A Thousand Thousand Islands every Thursday night for at least the rest of the year. Occasionally I’ll be writing about it here.¶ Background¶ A Thousand Thousand Islands (ATTI) was a serie…
Categories:
- Actual Play
- atti
- Campaign '26
- campaign diary
- campaigning
- Pariah
A few years back I found what I think is my earliest surviving written reference to a witch in my games: Marissia, Daughter of Zelligar. Zelligar is, of course, the missing wizard from the module B1 In Search Of The Unknown.¶ I have long been of the opinion that the infamous Rogahn and Zelligar of B1 are the same adventurers on the cover of the Holmes Basic set and the same, along with Marissia, on the cover of Warlocks & Warriors. Well...I named her Marissia (yes that spelling) for a variety of …
Categories:
- 1st ed
- Advanced
- Land of a 1000 witches
- NewYearNewCharacter
- Occult D&D
- witch
Off the Wagon- L7 #PunkSongOfTheDay Whole playlist here: Amazon Music/Spotify What is PSotD Punk Song of the…
Categories:
- Punk Rock
- Punk Song of the Day
- music
- post-punk
- proto-punk
- punk
- rock
I love using headlines as a GM. In my campaign status document, these are short descriptions – usually only one or two sentences long – of current events, like: Solarians are preparing a pilgrimage to the Ternary. The Alshaahin megacorp announces new funding initiative for a colony in the Jadis system. The Hephaestus deuterium mining […]
Categories:
- Roleplaying Games
- open table
- untested
Despite Clark Ashton Smith's knowledge and use of the French language in his poetry and fiction, this post is not about him. Rather, it's about a curious book sent to me by an English-speaking reader, who thought I might find it fascinating – and he was correct!¶ Written by Mathilde Maraninchi and published in 1982, Donjons et Dragons is an incredible artifact from the early days of the hobby. At just under 100 pages in length, it's both an introduction to "a new type of boardgame [jeu de société…
On the very eastern edge of Brethen’s Sky Island Archipelago (the map posted on Monday) stands Brethen’s Freehall, a three-story …¶ Continue reading →
Categories:
- Commercial Maps
- Fantasy
- Maps
- Building
- D&D
- Dungeons & Dragons
- Fortification
- Labyrinth Lord
- Old School Essentials
- and more…
Review Originally Published May 22nd, 2001 Every so often I read an RPG supplement and I just can’t figure out what was going through the head of the editor who green-lighted it. This is one of those books. The D&D Gazetteer is, essentially, a 32 page excerpt from the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer which was released […]
Categories:
- Reviews
- d&d
- greyhawk
- rpgnet reviews
The group, though not all 100% on board, decide to make a go at clearing up the old log camp and making it their new home base. Aeodan, knowing it was Bronwen’s idea and knowing Bronwen has a pathological need to get credit for everything, is wary that the younger man will want to be […]
Last Updated 1/14/26¶ As I spent a large chunk of 2025 going down the rabbit hole of historical linguistics, I read a lot of extremely niche academic papers, obscure blogposts, and assorted crackpot theories: I’ve gathered all the ones I can remember here to offset the field's bullheaded resistance to ever putting anything in one place. Heaven forbid academic reference material be easy to find.¶ This will, of course, be a curated list shaped by my own interests and biases. If you're here because y…
2026-01-14
If you haven't read the¶ Nintendo Power handbook,¶ do yourself a favor.¶ I know the Year of the Barbarian has run on longer than a year at this point, but I haven't had much time with which to sit down and write this post. In any case, I've put together an Appendix N for The Saga of the Ortegids, compiling a list of works that carry the same sort of feel I'm shooting for in my personal vision of the setting, or otherwise are useful as influences. See also this post on the "dials" of the setting - c…
Categories:
- comics
- Dragon Quest
- fantasy
- inspiration
- literature
- mythology
- pop culture
- Saga of the Ortegids
- weebery
- and more…
Beware All Who EnterThese Benighted Halls of Stone.Within Lies No SolaceNor Any Comforts of Home.Toiling For Our CrimesWe Must Dig Where We Dwell,With No Freedom or MercyIn Our Vast Stony Hell– Inscription above the entrance into the Stonehell Year 1869 of the New Imperial Calendar, the Month of Justinian, Day 5. It was also during … More [Actual Play] Stonehell Delve 1.1 (AD&D 1e); Enterprising Heroes
Categories:
- Actual Play
- Actual Play Bitches
- Actual Play? Scandalous!
- Stonehell
This post represents the one thing I never wanted to do with this blog: disappear, apologize, return and make excuses and promises. It happens all too often with so many web projects, including blogs and webcomics. I wanted to use this blog to develop good habits, but sometimes there are things that are just out of our control.¶ After Day Five of the 31 Character Creation Challenge, I was struck down by a norovirus that has been rampaging across my area of southeastern Ohio. Bedridden and unable …
GM Burnout is a unique form of creative burnout, where a lack of inspiration and joy from the creative aspects combines with the drain of the relational and performance demands of the role.
Categories:
- Game Mastering
- TTRPG
- GM Advice
- GM Burnout
Superman's lifting power changes a lot in the comics. It's not one number. It can seem endless. He does huge feats like lifting the Earth or towing a galaxy. Here are some indications of just how much he can lift.¶ Big Lifting Feats¶ Bench-press the Earth: In New 52, he lifted Earth's full weight (5.97 sextillion tons) for 5 days. No sun, and he was not tired at all.¶ 200 quintillion tons: In All-Star Superman, a dying Superman lifted this much with one arm. He said he could do more.¶ Hold up everyt…
The Lost Shrine of the Snake Goddess (Matthew T. Austin)¶ Savage Swords adventure¶ I am reviewing these in the order they were submitted. For my review criteria, please check out this post. All reviews will (probably) contain *SPOILERS*; you have been warned! Because these are short (two page) adventures, it is my intention to keep the reviews brief.¶ More snakes, more temples. This year's contest is definitely showing certain trends (giant ants being another...although Austin's adventure leaves ou…
The Curse Grows by James Maliszewski¶ Improving on a Classic¶ Read on Substack
Don't Read Past Here if you Haven't Listened to Episode 46¶ A HUGE thank you to Friendly Mike for the delicious artwork!¶ The Bloom¶ Armor Class: 15¶ Hit Dice: 5 hp per tendril (50), 1 hp main body¶ Move: see below¶ No. of Attacks: 10¶ Damage: 1-6 and see below¶ No. Appearing: 1/unique monster¶ Save As: Fighter 10¶ Morale: Morale is equal to the number of remaining tendrils x 2¶ (Original Artwork by Friendly Mike)¶ The Bloom is a unique magical creature that exists in – and in some ways is part of – the Cry…
I have not talked much about Warlocks here at all for this challenge, which is an oversight of sorts. I have Warlocks I am using in my Occult D&D game, but they feel a little overpowered at the moment. I am going to present one, my iconic warlock Taryn, and see where I might need to make adjustments. I am largely basing this on my The Warlock for Swords & Wizardry, but I think with other rules I have in place, I might need to tone it down and increase their XP. No idea just yet.¶ I mentioned Tary…
Categories:
- 1st ed
- Advanced
- Forgotten Realms
- Land of a 1000 witches
- NewYearNewCharacter
- Occult D&D
- Taryn
- witch
- Witchcraft Wednesday
Magazine Love- The Screamers #PunkSongOfTheDay Whole playlist here: Amazon Music/Spotify What is PSotD Punk Song of the…
Categories:
- Punk Rock
- Punk Song of the Day
- music
- post-punk
- proto-punk
- punk
- rock
Just a doodle of a little guy for this one today. I like goblins. They’re the right blend of nasty, goofy, and expendable, the perfect mook for any evil army or dungeon.¶ The post A-Z: G is for Goblin first appeared on Dungeons & Possums.
To design a game, you have to break a few eggs and discard some rules or completely rewrite them. But you won’t know what to discard and what to rewrite until you feed those eggs to your players.
About an hour ago, Jeremy and I wrapped up a one-on-one play test of Missions & Mayhem.¶ He rolled up a Fast Hero, which has been a popular choice. Steven, Charles, and Nate also all picked the Fast Hero as their level 1 class. And for a talent, Steven picked fast hands (pick pockets), while the other three all decided that dodge (AC bonus) was the optimal starting talent. I may have to tweak that. It might be too good the way it is right now.¶ I ran him through the same adventure that I ran Charl…
Categories:
- design
- Missions & Mayhem
- OSR Modern
- play test
- RPGs
This post is about how I now writeup wandering monsters. (The lovely illustration above, by Lazy Litch, depicts a brain-like demon of Kolail. It is forthcoming in The Oneironaut 2.) When I run encounters at the table, I mainly use the procedures found in OD&D with one twist. I treat random encounters where the player characters are surprised as attacks if the thing encountered is at all potentially hostile. But for all other random encounters, I roll a reaction roll to see how they are disposed.…
Categories:
- Flame Gremlins
- Monsters
- Oneironaut
- Reaction Rolls
By Amerlia LukeNecrotic GnomeOSELevels 2-4 When an earthquake unseals the long-buried temple of the wild god Iakos, whispers of visions and ancient treasure draw witch hunters and adventurers alike. Four royal witch hunters entered and never returned. Now the way … Continue reading →
In which I post comments to subreddits geared towards supporting rookie DM's...
Categories:
- DM's Academy Advice
- D&D
- DM advice
- Dungeon Master Advice
- Dungeons and Dragons
- Game Mechanics
- GM Advice
- King
- Monarch
- and more…
tl;dr: tested out d4 Caltrops Wilderness Stocking - Expanded - good in itself but elevated to great by the vast library of supporting tables for every circumstance.¶ I needed to rustle up some off-map hexes that were immediately behind a target site for the players and ktrey launched the 'expanded' version so I decided to give it a whirl. I was running using the Hexcrawl25 set up - 19 sub-hexes within the hex - which for me were 2.5 mile sub-hexes and a 10 mile hex. I am not sure who that relates…
Categories:
- generator
- hex maps
- hexcrawl25
Set up at the brewery on Sunday night, and found a full table. Excellent. I had a few choices in my folder, but with a table of meat, er, PCs, it was time to take on Foxtail Grotto.¶ The cast:¶ Freya, Seawolf¶ Durl Snuggs, Priest¶ (forgot name), Bard¶ Eswald, Seer¶ Rand, Fighter¶ Gilden, Wizard¶ Holbarn, Fighter¶ We started at a small coastal settlement that had been plagued by pirates. The garrison's sergeant didn't have the resources or talent to root them out. But look! A seawolf and a handful of "tal…
Categories:
- actual play
- shadowdark
- undead
I spent a little bit of time over the last two days getting ready to play Mythic Bastionland. I made a map over the holidays, but didn’t finish filling it with stuff at the time. I was writing down NPC names, rolling on spark tables, and getting enough notes down so that there was some solidity to the world the players were going to explore. Mythic Bastionland encourages some amount of improvisation with its structure, but if you lean too deeply into that games can start to feel meaningless. (Ch…
A zonal word map of the homestead of Guarase in The Ferments, an East Marches campaign.
Categories:
- Kin
- Playing D&D
- World of the Everflow
- 5e
- 5e 2024
- 5e ecosystem
- Bastions
- DnD
- Dungeons and Dragons
- and more…
Packing up and heading to the Philadelphia Area Gaming Expo.¶ I’ll be running Scourge of the Demon Wolf and The Deceits of the Russet Lord on Friday and Saturday, and I’ll be sharing my thoughts on the State of the OSR during a panel on Thursday morning.¶ Hope to see some of you there!
Categories:
- bat in the attic games
- News
I'm continuing to rewatch every episode of the Man from UNCLE series from start to finish. This review contains spoilers.¶ The mafia decides to blow up Las Vegas. The don puts his bumbling nephew Frank Cariago (Bernard Fein) in charge of the operation, both as punishment and as a final chance to redeem himself. That's the setup, and the way it plays out is a bizarre and wild trip through Hollywood, Sodom and Gomorrah, and more.¶ Our special top-secret super-spies start the episode with reconnaissa…
2026-01-13
[Adventure]U1 The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh (1981)David J. Browne & Don Turnbull (TSR)Lvl 1-3 TSR UK’s first full length entry and the beginning of the U series. During this time, adventure technology was rapidly developing but was still largely reflective of the underlying fantasy gaming ethos. So although this adventure is already a few steps … More [Review] U1 Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh (AD&D 1e); Scooby-doo
Categories:
- Reviews
- AD&D 1e
- Adventure
- Lvl 1 - 3
- Review
There are spiders along Falkirk road, which seem to be causing problems for travellers.
Categories:
- Chronicles
- Gaming
- ArsMagica
- DruidsDale
- Roll20
- RPG
“You all know how beastly tigers are¶ (Out in, out in, out in India)¶ They bite; they scratch; they make an awful fuss¶ It’s no use stroking them and saying puss puss puss”¶ – The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, Hunting Tigers Out in India¶ Tyokh Highport, 1108 Week 14¶ Macavity's crew accompany Troisei back to the Clan Aftei landhold where she reports in. The Afteiko reviews her accounts and the stories from herself and her companions, and declares himself satisfied with her performance.¶ Later that week, Dr …
Sometimes we encounter situations where a specific Character isn’t available for a given Game Session due to the vagaries of scheduling or life interfering with a Player’s Plans for leisure. Having that Character “Fade into the Background” temporarily isn’t always a satisfactory experience. This can sometimes present a conundrum: What was the Character “up to” during that span of time they were unavailable to participate in Adventure? Although I’m usually amenable to just “handwaving” these situ…
Categories:
- absent players
- adventurers
- d100
- downtime
- excuses
- random tables
- reasons
- scheduling
- where tables
Arrow of the Held Tongue ‘The wizard Arakam winced as he was struck in the back by an arrow his companions in front of him could not see. His mouth opened to scream, yet no sound came out.‘Is this a … Continue reading →
Categories:
- Magic Items
- Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea
- BD&D
- BFRPG
- Dragonslayer Rpg
- Iron Falcon
- Labyrinth Lord
- OD&D
- Old School Essentials
- and more…
♨ COUNTESS VON LIEBWITZ ♨
Over the next few months we’ll be increasing some of the exclusives that patrons receive. We’ll be moving to a …¶ Continue reading →
Categories:
- Maps
- Site Related
- Patreon
- Patreon Exclusive
- Patreon Update
Today I want to explore two similar witches. Or more to the point, two witches who approach similar magics and traditions of witchcraft from two different vectors.¶ Jana is another witch I created a couple of years ago. I wanted a human witch mixed up in the affairs of the Faerie Courts, in particular my Court of Swords. Despite being high(-ish) level, she is in way over her head. I have her serving the current Queen of Swords, Nicnevin. This is just one of her titles, she is also one of my witch…
Categories:
- 1st ed
- Advanced
- Dragonlance
- Forgotten Realms
- Land of a 1000 witches
- NewYearNewCharacter
- Occult D&D
- witch
- Witch Language
Another year and another browser. I have recently switched to the Zen browser as my main window into web services. Initially on my Windows 11 PC, it now sits with my Fedora Linux laptop and Gondolin housed PC. The browser is based on Mozilla Firefox, with a clean and beautiful UI that enables focused browsing, side loading tabs grouped into configurable 'Spaces', and split page view for two pages at once. I've really taken to it.¶ Zen Browser on my Laptop¶ At the weekend I test the quality of Roll…
Gone B4 Yr Home- Le Tigre #PunkSongOfTheDay Whole playlist here: Amazon Music/Spotify What is PSotD Punk Song…
Categories:
- Punk Rock
- Punk Song of the Day
- music
- post-punk
- proto-punk
- punk
- rock
Another interlude from the onslaught of reviews...¶ Waaay back when I was getting ready for my first Cauldron convention, I was checking the DM Info page and came across the following in their "guidelines" section:¶ 3. There is no upper or lower milliwhack limit.¶ What the heck is milliwhack, I wondered.¶ But after some research, I discovered that "milliwhack" (mW) is a non-real measurement, postulated (humorously, I believe) by Michael Prescott in this 2014 blog post as a way to determine the letha…
RPG art for Nuna is tough.¶ Especially as an indie creator.¶ I asked Inuit artists to help.¶ No answer.¶ I got a graphic designer to help.¶ The AI tools in the program he used added fingers.¶ So I am doing the art myself.¶ Funny thing is, everyone who knew me as a child thought I'd be an artist.¶ My grandmother Phyllis Pritchard, my great aunt Jean Crane, my mother were all artists.¶ We have the gift.¶ Somewhere along the way I fell off the road.¶ It is nice to get back to it.¶ Everyday I am doing art thera…
The session opened with the characters take a bit of time to check on "astrological frequencies" after their weird trip to another Plane last session. Things looked normal so they entered the wizard school.¶ They started moving South and West since they had not explored those areas yet.¶ As an aside, I've been a member of Mike Mearls' Patreon for awhile. Over the years he's been working on new math for building Encounters and redesigning monsters, a 5E variation called Odyssey, a 5E version of B/X…
Categories:
- Hexenburg
- Megadungeon
- Molodvay
- OSR
- Shadowdark
I’m reassembulating wizardthieffighter.com on a different platform, in a different format and style. This reassembulation will be messy. Most links will die. The seodaemons will not be appeased. Not all pages will make it. This has been a long time coming, yet it is also sooner than I was ready. No matter. I likely would…Continue readingThe Reassembulation Will Be Messy
It's been about two months since the last time I played RAM with my friends from the Prismatic Waystation, but tonight we got to spend some more time in Skerples' Magical Murder Mansion. Our first session, back in November, was cut short by a surprising early snow here in the mountains so this was a bit of a better session for a play report. This time we had Scott from XPRolls and David from Tree Climber. We'll get you next time Bagel and Kati!¶ Spoilers ahead for anyone who intends to play throu…
Rescue Mission in the Barrow-downs [This is a continuation of our Fatbeard Whitebox Roll20 game in my campaign world of Reuel. I GM the game and we have four players. The game is run on Roll 20 and we usually play one evening for 2-3 hours each weekend.] Current PC Roster (All PCs are 1st […]
Image from "Book of Wisdom" of Francysk Skaryna 1518¶ An example of the use of wisdom can be given by noting that while the intelligent character will know that smoking is harmful to him, he may well lack the wisdom to stop (this writer may well fall into this category).¶ Dungeon Master's Guide by Gary Gygax, 1979¶ Are you foolish for smoking? Or merely naive? Can you be considered intelligent if you’ll stand in the rain until you catch pneumonia? Do you have the faith to realise that you just don’…
2026-01-12
The Stainedwell Mortuary¶ Session 208- A Return to Barovia Part 58; Lamordia 7¶ 1/4/2026¶ Arriving at the Stainedwell Mortuary, Rams find it curiously empty¶ of workers. They explore the various rooms and find paperwork¶ indicating Savitch claimed Elise’s body when it was delivered here,¶ and he ran Divine Energy Tolerance tests that only her corpse was¶ apparently successful, again indicated by documentation found on¶ scene. In the cold storage, they find the drawer that Elise’s body¶ was stored in and …
Categories:
- 2nd Tarokka Reading
- 5e
- Actual Play
- D&D
- DIY D&D
- Halloween Extravaganza 2
- LotFP
- OSR
- Ox/Tiger Campaign
- and more…
Ever wanted to play a table top war game (like Warhammer Fantasy Battle) solo, that is against an army commanded by A I General? Well, this is attempt to do that, using a Hex Flower as that A I General PDF on DriveThruRPG – LINKPDF on Itch.io – LINK The idea is that you can […]
Categories:
- Game Mechanic
- Hex Flower
- Publication
- Self
- ai-general
- fantasy
- fiction
- gaming
- hex
- and more…
Much like the Jonstown Compendium for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha and The Companions of Arthur for material set in Greg Stafford’s masterpiece of Arthurian legend and romance, Pendragon, the Miskatonic Repository for Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition is a curated platform for user-made content. It is thus, “...a new way for creators to publish and distribute their own original Call of Cthulhu content including scenarios, settings, spells and more…” To support the endeavours of their creat…
Categories:
- 1920s
- Call of Cthulhu Seventh Edition
- Jazz Age
- Miskatonic Monday
- Miskatonic Repository
- Wales
In the process of creating GOZR, I left a bunch of stuff on the cutting room floor and changed a lot of it as I went along. Just the process of editing and what-not. Here's the original GOZR map vs. the final version.¶ Really happy I went this direction. The original map is fine, and I think if I had finished it up it would still look pretty good. But the final version feels more intuitive to me. The north-south direction of the river is a line that grounds the whole thing and helps place all the…
Looks like it’s time to play a part in another RPG Blog Carnival, this time hosted by Hipsters & Dragons. This month, the prompt theme is Locations. There’s plenty of options over there for ways to participate in the event, but I chose the one that would have me make up a location, because that’s always fun. Some part of me wants to try some of the other options too, but the rest of January is a bit busy for me and my home PC also had a minor issue this past week when its PSU detonated loudly an…
Categories:
- 2025
- art
- location
- magic-users
- NPC
Underappreciated Masterpiece.¶ Themes¶ Super Sentai usually have themes like Dinosaurs, Ninja, Samurai, Magic, Space, or Time. These are a little weirder but you could throw in conventional stuff.¶ Eldritch Horrors¶ Steampunk¶ Regional Japanese Cuisine¶ Biblically-Accurate Angels¶ Jazz¶ Drag, Vogue, and/or Haute Couture¶ Golden Horde, Vikings, etc.¶ Non-human Hominids and Australopithecines¶ Americana across the decades¶ Psychedelia¶ Punk¶ Molecular Gastronomy¶ Pop Idols¶ Exotic Fruits¶ Ghosts¶ Dreaming¶ Nudibranc…
Categories:
- game design
- superheroes
- Weird & Wonderful Tables
Not all ideas are important or big enough or fully thought out for an entire post. Or even relevant, really. But I still need to get them out of my brain meat for more important things. So, a slush pile was formed.¶ Maybe you can use something here.¶ His Majesty the Worm¶ Most are unsorted, but a few were His Majesty the Worm related.¶ A list of things that one can call to their side, that are not a dog.¶ I never figured out why Josh wanted this.¶ Horse¶ Well trained goat¶ Cat¶ Vehicle with a sassy AI¶ Ma…
Session 296 was played on 08/17/25¶ Morgana, wizard 10 (Rob)¶ Borumar, Triton Thief 11 (Josh)¶ Blotto, Goblin Fighter 8 (Lanse)¶ Nick, Fighter 8 (Me)¶ Koltic, Cleric 9 (Cindy)¶ Aroon, Fighter 8 (NPC)¶ Jameth, Fighter 8 (NPC)¶ Lor’Koth, Dwarf 8 (NPC)¶ 4 Months Later…¶ Fully rested and recovered, the party sneaks their way into Stonehell, and makes their way carefully down to level 8, at the edge of the giant’s domain, all fully invisible. The prior encountered Stone Giants were not to be found, but a motle…
Categories:
- actual play
- flailsnails
- flailsnails stonehell
- Stonehell
Here’s how it usually starts for me: “I’m tired of playing the magic user. Next time I want to be the brainless fighter.”¶ I don’t mean that I always play a magic user, but it’s an example of how I often decide what type of character I want to play in the next new game/campaign/adventure. After a while I just get sick of always having my head in books, looking for the best spell to cast in a specific situation. After playing so many magic users in a row or after playing so many rogues…I just want…
Wizards are moral relativists, no sense of right and wrong
