2025-12-29
Does AI content actually sell? Geek Native analysed DriveThruRPG's 2025 sales data to find out. See why AI products are stuck in the Copper tier while human creators dominate the best-seller lists.
Categories:
- Tabletop & RPGs
- artificial intelligence
- drivethrurpg
- stats
Another day, another review. Merry Christmas to all you oldschool D&D fans out there, and while we are recovering from days of fine dining, family, friends, gezelligheid and christmas cheer, why not settle down and enjoy a delve into the greatest zine the OSR ever was and ever did produce, Fight On Magazine. Incidentally, the … More [Review] Fight On #5 (OSR); Status Artis
Categories:
- Reviews
- Fight On!
- Magazine
- OSR
- Review
Who won 2025? We ranked the top 10 RPG publishers on DriveThruRPG using a weighted sales algorithm. Discover how Fat Dragon Games nearly outsold Darrington Press.
Categories:
- Tabletop & RPGs
- Cubicle 7 Entertainment
- darrington press
- drivethrurpg
- need games
- onyx path publishing
- R. Talsorian Games
- schwalb entertainment
- Skirmisher Publishing
- and more…
See the unofficial top-selling RPGs of 2025 on DriveThruRPG. Our independent data analysis reveals the dominance of Daggerheart, Cyberpunk, and 3D printing guides in the Adamantine and Mithral tiers.
Categories:
- Tabletop & RPGs
- daggerheart
- darrington press
- drivethrurpg
- Fabula Ultima
- fat dragon games
- need games
- R. Talsorian Games
Colostle is a solo TTRPG where you explore a vast castle, with oceans, lands, and cities within its walls. You draw cards each turn in two phases, Exploration and (optionally) Combat to see what your character encounters and resolve the challenges. You’ve got a quest you’re working towards which has inspired your journey, but you’ll […]
Categories:
- Uncategorized
- colostle
- fantasy
- game
- review
- solo
Maybe- FU-2
Categories:
- Punk Rock
- Punk Song of the Day
- music
- post-punk
- proto-punk
- punk
- rock
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:
- 1930s
- Antarctica
- Argentina
- Call of Cthulhu Seventh Edition
- Desperate Decade
- Miskatonic Monday
- Miskatonic Repository
Each holiday season, I review different modules, games or supplements as a thank you to the wider tabletop roleplaying game community. All of the work I review during Critique Navidad is either given to me by fans of the work or the authors themselves. This holiday season, I hope I can bring attention to a […]
End the year with more shiny links. For yet more, see last weeks collection or the weekly r/OSR blogroll or check the RPG Blog Carnival. Originally inspired by weaver.skepti.ch, delinked by request.¶ Alone in the Labyrinth launches City '26 Megapost¶ Ben Hollingum on Guinness World Records gives us Inside a Canadian professor's 43-year-old Dungeons & Dragons campaign¶ Save vs Total Party Kill writes Advice for Running a Hexcrawl, A Decade Too Late¶ Revivify Games shares How to Run a Sandbox Adventur…
There’s been Discourse™ of late about the use of GenAI/LLMs in creating RPGs. Not the artwork in an RPG book (that’s a whole ‘nother kettle of fish), but the actual design and development of the game itself: Feeding game text into ChatGPT, Claude, or similar chatbots and asking it to critique, analyze, revise, or otherwise […]
Categories:
- Politics
- Roleplaying Games
- ai
- thought of the day
#Cairn2e #ForgottenRealms
Categories:
- Cairn
- Forgotten Realms
- Cairn 2E
- D & D
- D&D
- Dungeons and Dragons
- fantasy
- Indie Role-Playing Game
- ttrpg
- and more…
2025-12-28
![CDATA[ OSRIC 3.0 Player Guide PDF has just been released for free on DriveThruRPG. Offset print and print-on-demand will be available next year, as well as GM Guide, adventures, and a host of other material. OSRIC, Old School Reference and Index Compilation, was the first retroclone of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Released almost 20 years ago, it led the charge during early days of OSR, providing means to legally publish content compatible with AD&D. OSRIC 3.0 brings a host of improvements, fo…
Is the Batman: Gotham City Chronicles RPG a hidden gem? We explore the Ethics system and the A Hostage for a Duel adventure in our latest review.
Categories:
- Tabletop & RPGs
- batman
- monolith board games
- reviews
Edit: A friend pointed out that the original name (The Verbs of Play) didn't make sense, since these are all verbs that books are doing, not play. I realized I wrote the title to the post first and never updated it to match what got written, so I'm just doing that now.¶ The following is in response to Seraphim Seraphina's excellent post "What do we mean when we say a game “supports” play?". I want to engage with the question of a thousand arguments: Does Dungeons & Dragons support cozy coffee-sho…
The grottos beneath are for them whose eyes need no longer see, for their marvels are too strange and terrific for those who tread in sunlight to behold. Otrogg gave unto his worthies the great holes beneath the earth and placed within them his riches and wonders. These treasures are the inheritance of that which … More [Actual Play] Stonehell Delve II (AD&D 1e); Ghost Beggars
Categories:
- Reviews
- Actual Play Bitches
- Stonehell
Date: Dec. 27, 2025 (A.D.M. 25, Dec. 27)¶ Players: Ammonia Doolittle, Veteran (TK), Aloysius Cranberry, Blue Medium (ERK), Grandiloqua Sneep VII, White Medium (AK), Pickle Melrose Jr. (KK)¶ Summary¶ Four adventurers gathered on the trail to Murdicog's Manse, enticed by tales of fabulous treasure therein.¶ They chose to enter the manse by following the stream into the cliffside cave, having heard that a past cohort successfully entered this way earlier in the month. Gary the hireling was ordered to t…
Categories:
- murdicogs-manse
- odnd
- session-report
Vigil of Angels Nuli finished her prayer and a barrier of shimmering light appeared all around them, just as the tall, spiky infernal creature appeared snarling from the shadows.‘Just in time,’ said Thoz as the barbed devil lunged at them … 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…
It is an oversized owl charm, silver on a silver chain. The eyes are set with flints, and a fil de fer runs through the silver links of the chain, forming a silken iron thread.¶ The wearer of the periapt gets +4 Wisdom as long as they wear it.¶ Wisdom, contributing to hindsight, is first heard in an idea that most feel when they put the periapt on. I probably shouldn't have done that.¶ Removing the periapt ends its magical effect. That is, the doffing character loses 4 wisdom. They become duller, l…
1974 is an important year for the gaming hobby. It is the year that Dungeons & Dragons was introduced, the original RPG from which all other RPGs would ultimately be derived and the original RPG from which so many computer games would draw for their inspiration. It is fitting that the current owner of the game, Wizards of the Coast, released the new version, Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, in the year of the game’s fortieth anniversary. To celebrate this, Reviews from R’lyeh will be running a…
Categories:
- 2005
- Firefly
- Firefly Role-Playing Game
- Margaret Weis Productions
- Retrospective
- Science Fiction
Each holiday season, I review different modules, games or supplements as a thank you to the wider tabletop roleplaying game community. All of the work I review during Critique Navidad is either given to me by fans of the work or the authors themselves. This holiday season, I hope I can bring attention to a […]
Categories:
- Critique Navidad!
- into-the-odd
And that’s my planetfall story. A bit longer than many others you’ve heard, but that’s how it went for me and your Uncle Cleve. You probably already know a lot of what happened next, just from your tutors, but I have a few more tidbits to share. The experience I’d had getting Wisp and the ... Read more¶ The post Chronicles of Chiron: Resolution | Scene 7 appeared first on Dicey Stories.
Categories:
- Alpha Centauri
- Chronicles of Chiron
- Serialization
Paola’s at the comms, now that the clearing of miasma allows spotty sound to come through. There she’s coordinating the efforts of Cleve and the generationists with the bridge team so that Resolve will enter the water off the coast of the Garden of Chiron, which Drusia agreed was best. It sounds like she’s getting ... Read more¶ The post Chronicles of Chiron: Resolution | Scene 6 appeared first on Dicey Stories.
Categories:
- Alpha Centauri
- Chronicles of Chiron
- Serialization
Mariah and Cleve experience planetfall for themselves.¶ The post DS435 | Alpha Centauri | Chronicles of Chiron: Resolution | Part 3 of 3 appeared first on Dicey Stories.
Categories:
- Alpha Centauri
- Chronicles of Chiron
- Actual Play
- Commentary
- Genesys
Whenever I say Warcry is the best game Games Workshop has made, someone always chirps up to reply that I am wrong, that title belongs to Blood Bowl. It was hard to argue about a game I have never played. Blood Bowl is Games Workshop’s skirmish fantasy football game. You are basically playing Jervis Johnson’s take on American Football. Now having finally played, I have to admit it is pretty wonderful.¶ My friends and I decided to get start a league. I grabbed the Imperial Nobles team, and a rule b…
I’m a huge fan of Blades in the Dark, and I was very excited for Deep Cuts, a major expansion designed by the game’s original creator, John Harper, with additional design and writing by Sean Nittner, Pam Punzalan, and James Mendez Hodes. I backed the crowdfunding campaign for the book and, once I held it […]
Categories:
- Reviews
- Roleplaying Games
- blades in the dark
Inspired by interesting setting details for Meg's River Kingdom and Matthias's Vrivmiya, here is a proof of concept for a perfectly normal way of slicing the classic RPG pie, with gender-as-race and (Conan-style) race-as-class.¶ Race¶ In the culture group of Senes, they recognize three genders: the feminine Chena, the masculine Phersun (or boundary-crossing Trintos), and the child Phalakros (and the abberant Canavar).¶ Chena¶ Marked out by their ability to bear children, diligence and insight, sexua…
Personal misfortune or sickness was often blamed on witches or demons. Witches were also thought to secretly put curses on people. Priests developed rituals to counteract malign influences and collected them in nine Maqlu tablets, first compiled around 1600 BCE. They were passed down through generations of ashipu for about the next thousand years. A […]
Categories:
- Book Excerpt
- curses
- demons
- magic
- Mesopotamia
If I post this and three other articles, I'll have posted an average of one blogpost a week, which would hearten me a bit.¶ When Disco Elysium came out in 2019, it was broadly admired and, as though it were a Fromsoft game, many OSR bloggers tried to adapt its marquis mechanics to ttrpg form. In imitation of the game's "thought cabinet", you see games with psyche slots, mental inventory, and similar schemes. These attempts contend with natural obstacles posed by the difference of the medium. In D…
I'm starting to annoy myself with the system flipping to support a possible Hellfrost 'West Marches' style game. I've run through a host of obvious (though not SWADE!) and 'out there' possibilities. Far from scraping the barrel, I have returned to Helmgast's lovely Hjältarnas Tid, which translates to 'Age of Heroes'. I bought the PDFs of the game in their native Swedish, and then mangled them through a dodgy Google translate process, and came out with a BRP perfected KSR classic.¶ Here's my cheek…
One of my favourite games is Dungeoneer by Thomas Denmark and published by Atlas Games, partly because of its carefully crafted ruleset, and partly because of its mysterious lore. Dungeoneer is sold as card decks, but it's really a board game, with some cards serving as board tiles. I own all Dungeoneer decks, so I'm reviewing each of them. In this post, I look at the setting of the Dragons of the Forsaken Desert set.¶ The back of the box sets the scene:¶ Long ago the sorcery of the Eldritch Lords…
2025-12-27
AUTHOR’S NOTE: This session was played on October 4th, but the next day I left for a long term project out of town for work and am only now getting around to writing the recap, in advance of Session 32 tonight.
2025-12-27 Fascination 2d6¶ Sometimes I wonder: Why am I so enamoured with 2d6 systems when most of the games I run use AD&D 1st edition, which I do not like at all? I mean, I use AD&D 1st edition because that’s what the Wilde Gestade multi-referee game in Greyhawk uses. And it’s the system Arden Vul uses. So this is why I use AD&D 1st edition.¶ But why do I want to run 2d6 systems? I don’t mean any system that uses 2d6, of course. I mean the peculiar, Traveller-like games I’ve been writing about:…
This is a beautiful artefact. Inside the stark black and alabaster box is a cornucopia of gaming content and again, all of it is beautiful. This includes a small white silk bag—almost like a wedding favour—containing two six-sided dice that are done in the style of early nineteenth dice. Below that is a hard back book. This is the fifty-four-page ‘Archeterica Invitation Rules’. Linen finish and heavy stock paper with line art. Below that is the first of three scenarios. These are ‘Game Scenario:…
Categories:
- 19th century
- Conspiracy
- Napoleonic
- nineteenth century
- Occult
- Quick-Start Saturday
- quickstart
- Starter Set
- The Imago Cult
- and more…
At Hilander's suggestion, here are examples of a great cheap trick to make normal D&D events feel more connected to the characters while still being very play-focused. "You are the ex-wife of the master of the nearest dungeon" are very efficient words. In our tradition, we tend to plug rootless PCs into adventure situations. But it really adds a lot imo to change "a sword" to "your rightful sword" and "an apocalypse" to "your apocalypse"¶ See also Louis's magnum opus.¶ d20¶ 1. you are the local dun…
Not far from the village of Bramblgulf a large tumulae has been discovered, hidden under the forest floor. How was it discovered you ask? A local ranger on his patrol surrounding the city came upon a swath of forest that had begun to rot, trees withering, vines turning to dust in his hands, and the remains of animals - untouched by prey - rotting in the gloomy death of the forest. A deeper
Having a play with how to do large maps in Foundry, for areas about to a kilometre in size, but keeping a small scale.
Categories:
- Assets
- Gaming
- FoundryVTT
- RPG
- Traveller
By Giuliano Gianfriglia, La Tavola Rotonda APSLa Tavola RotondaOSELevel 1 A SIMPLE CONTRACT. A SILENT WRECK. A SECRET THAT SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN AWAKENED. In the sprawling Citadel of Aurion, an offer too good to refuse puts you on the … Continue reading →
There is a very early meme called ‘Realmen, Real Role Players, Loonies, and Munchkins’. In this meme, players are classified into the four categories and the types of roleplaying games they would play, their favourite elements of those roleplaying games, and how they would play them. It originally dates back to 1983 and so its references are all from the eighties. For example, for ‘Favourite 1920s RPG’, the responses are, ‘*Real Men* play Gangbusters’, ‘*Real Roleplayers* play Call of Cthulhu’, …
Categories:
- Accessory
- Adult Humour
- British roleplaying
- Dungeons & Dragons
- Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition
- Humour
- Loke Battle Mats
Each holiday season, I review different modules, games or supplements as a thank you to the wider tabletop roleplaying game community. All of the work I review during Critique Navidad is either given to me by fans of the work or the authors themselves. This holiday season, I hope I can bring attention to a […]
Categories:
- Critique Navidad!
- dragonslayer
tl;dr: finalising my hexcrawl25 run; I enjoyed it a lot, this more structured full-year challenge suited me.¶ For Hexcrawl25, taking the challenge on I settled on the whole super-hex = 40-mile, hexes are 10-mile, sub-hexes 2.5 mile as my working scale. 10-mile was my restriction as that is what all my existing campaign stuff was done in. I cookie-cut a chunk out of an existing block of the world that exists from Azgaars Fantasy Map Generator and initially dropped a 40-mile grid on it.¶ This turned…
Categories:
- hex maps
- hexcrawl25
- jams and challenges
- menagerie world
Categories:
- in English
- theory
- teoriakatsaus
This isn’t the focus of your article, but it feels really good to see someone saying that their longest campaign lasted 23 sessions over roughly a year and a half. Way too many people seem to believe that the average gamer plays every week, without stopping, for years. — @vaskrag.bsky.social¶ It’s true! We can’t all be James. Those 23 sessions felt long and epic, and become more mythic in my head as time passes. The most successful campaign I have participated in was Pahvelorn. We managed to play…
2025 in Review¶ This was a banger year for actually playing games. I got to be part of five campaigns:¶ Castle Mordengard (OD&D, in-person, referee), was a great learning experience & opportunity to bust out some of my weirder ideas for a dungeon game setting. Though it is currently dormant due to several players moving away & the resumption of REDUX (below), I do hope to revisit it someday.¶ The Northern Strata (OD&D, online, player) has been an absolute pleasure to participate in. EvilTables is a…
2025-12-26
Spruce and pine line trails ne'er traveled¶ Beneath the boughs, wolves stalk o'er gravel¶ The Beorling growls and guards the brains¶ Of humble travelers where Bumble reigns¶ Used without permission, copyright of Rankin Bass.¶ PART OF MERRY HEXMAS - ADJACENT HEXES¶ North: Poison Swamp¶ Northeast: Castle Claus¶ Southeast: Three Calves¶ South: House of the Kringles¶ Southwest: Polar Pines¶ Northwest: Miserable Mountain¶ For stats, please visit cairnrpg.com¶ Random Encounters:¶ Ariadne, a dread lady draped in whi…
In my last post, I said that X2 Castle Amber made me a better DM, but I did not fully explain why.¶ What makes a good DM and good players is understanding the assignment. There is a reason that meme exists. Most role-playing games give players and referees specific roles, often resolved through specific die rolls. Understanding which choices matter, which rolls apply, and what the consequences are is critical to fun and successful play.¶ I used to be a teacher, and one of the hardest lessons to le…
Categories:
- DM tricks
- DMing
- Old School Essentials
- OSE
- X2 Castle Amber
The old/basic D&D level titles are kinda pointless when divorced from their war-game roots. But we can repurpose them to be goals in the following super-short leveling system:¶ At session's end you will be awarded between 0 to 3 XP, depending on how metal things got. At 10XP, you are ready to quest. Your quest depends on the level title you are earning.¶ Fighty types¶ 2. Warrior: Deal the killing blow on a biggie baddie that is giving a community trouble.¶ 3. Swordsman: Square off with an armed boss…
Categories:
- DumbRPGidea
- house rules
- OSR
- use this
(Header image by DC Stow)¶ Seasons greetings! As we approach the final days of 2025, it's time to take a look at what lies ahead for Necrotic Gnome in the coming year. All told, despite the manifold challenges of 2025, we're fighting fit and have big plans for OSE and Dolmenwood!¶ Major Releases Coming in 2026¶ 2025 saw the retail release of the complete Dolmenwood RPG, including the 3 core books, 4 adventure scenarios, 1 supplement, the referee's screen, a soundtrack album, and loads of accessorie…
Life in a small fantasy town is pretty dull when you're not being menaced by monsters. Harvest the turnips, tend the sheep, laugh at Old Hob getting drunk and falling off a stump... but when the travelling carnival comes to town, there's some relief from all that.¶ The carnival offers spectacle and regrettable snacks, but peer behind the tent flaps and there's also intrigue, danger, mysticism and adventure to be found. (By PCs, that is. Those turnips won't wait.)¶ The first thing you notice is (1d…
That which I did read this year.
Shadow Stalker ‘We showed that wizard!’ exclaimed Grovum the fighter.Sadly, that was the last word from his adventuring group as the others just nodded in agreement as a shadowy figure lashed out at them from the Ethereal Plane. Shadow Stalker: … Continue reading →
Categories:
- Monsters
- Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea
- BD&D
- BFRPG
- Dragonslayer Rpg
- Iron Falcon
- Labyrinth Lord
- OD&D
- Old School Essentials
- and more…
Colors- Minutemen
Categories:
- Punk Rock
- Punk Song of the Day
- music
- post-punk
- proto-punk
- punk
- rock
In 2017 I needed a small fortified community for a game set on the Manticore Peninsula. A small fortification that looks down on the ocean to be the first sign of civilization for those arriving to explore the ancient ruins in the deep forests further on to the peninsula. This became Saryer’s Overlook which I … … Continue reading →
Categories:
- Fantasy
- Maps
- Dungeons & Dragons
- Fortification
- Labyrinth Lord
- Old School Essentials
- OSE
- OSR
- RPG
- and more…
I didn't really know what this module was when it first came out. I remember seeing it on the shelf at the store but when I got into AD&D the first campaign I played was Dragonlance and the first campaign I DMed was Forgotten Realms, so the Greyhawk campaign world just looked like generic-but-older fantasy from my viewpoint.¶ To this day I don't really get Greyhawk.¶ It was the first campaign setting, it was Gygax'es world, it was where all of the canonical lore for AD&D's spells and outer planes …
A special combined Fantasy Friday with Boxing Day. Today I am diving into the Dragonbane boxed set. I picked this up my local RPG auction, still in the shrink wrap. This is less a traditional review and more an overview, a brief dive into the history of the game, and my thoughts after spending some time with it.¶ Dragonbane¶ Dragonbane is Free League’s modern reworking of the Swedish Drakar och Demoner. I picked it up last fall, primarily out of curiosity about Drakar och Demoner and out of a long…
Categories:
- christmas
- Fantasy Fridays
- other systems
❤Flowering(C) 2025 Kyrinn S. Eis All Rights Reserved Worldwide
Each holiday season, I review different modules, games or supplements as a thank you to the wider tabletop roleplaying game community. All of the work I review during Critique Navidad is either given to me by fans of the work or the authors themselves. This holiday season, I hope I can bring attention to a […]
Two different folks asked me (on a recent post) to describe how I run combat using the AD&D system. The short answer is: "mostly By The Book." What follows is an elaboration of my standard operating practice, whether I'm running for two players (my kids, for example) or 8+ (such as my sessions at Cauldron last October).¶ It all works the same.¶ First, you have to approach combat...and the AD&D game...with the proper mindset. Understand that it's meant to be fast and furious; understand that it's m…
The Forge of Yakul¶ Yakul was obliterated, and his temples were sunk. Memories of the dead god were struck from the souls of men. A heavy punishment was levied on Yakul, for he strove mightily against the Authority in the early days of the First Temple.¶ Yakul is merely a curiosity nowadays, and a testament to the strength of the Authority. Even today, the obliterations still hold their force. Learn a prayer of Yakul and it will vanish from your mind by morning. You can walk among the ruins, and l…
Masters of Carcosa is the longest campaign I have run. My friends and I played 23 sessions, starting at the end of 2014, ending near the start of 2016. The game began after Brendan took a break from running Pahvelorn, likely to focus on his PhD. I hadn’t run a game since I was a kid! Playing in Brendan’s Pahvelorn campaign was hugely inspirational, and has informed how I have run games since. With Pahvelorn we were exploring a megadungeon, with the occasional trips out to explore the larger worl…
Beneath the official pantheon, including the likes of Enlil, the Assyrian sky god, and Ea, the god of wisdom, was a layer of demons, such as Lamashtu, who threatened pregnant women, and Namtaru, the plague-demon, who needed to be mollified. Natural phenomena such as floods and lightning, or epidemic diseases, were not scientifically understood despite […]
Categories:
- Book Excerpt
- curses
- demons
- divination
- magic
- Mesopotamia
One of my favourite games is Dungeoneer by Thomas Denmark and published by Atlas Games. I own every Dungeoneer set released, and I'm reviewing them one by one. In this post, I'm looking at the characters in the Wrath of the Serpent Goddess set.¶ Non-player characters¶ There are several named non-player characters in Wrath of the Serpent Goddess.¶ Gwildor¶ Gwildor was a paladin, possibly one that ascended to godhood or was born a demigod. The Plate of Gwildor card says:¶ Gwildor slew more demons than …
2025-12-25
It's Christmas. I'm in my office. Snowing outside. Coffee in hand. Netflix in my ears. Drawing a map. I wanted to share an adventure I shared with my Patreon a few days ago. I used a different layout. Very much inspired by the one page dungeon contest. It's full of great artwork! It's an adventure using ShadowDark. Grab the PDF for free. As all of my adventures are available for free on PDF. Grab a small stocking stuff adventure gift for yourself.¶ Enjoy!¶ https://www.patreon.com/posts/ma-115-unba…
Categories:
- Adventures
- Patreon
- shadowdark
The Devil's Harmony ~14':00" RuntimeQuirky li'l story.❤
Currently in Mexico, staying up way too late and eating way too much. Tis the season.¶ ; )¶ I know not all of my readers share my religion, but know that I wish you all peace and love and happiness and joy on this day, and in the days and New Year to come, and that I hope more of us will endeavor to embody the spirit of Christ in our relationships to our fellow humans. I know I'm going to try.¶ In gaming news, there's a new Classic Adventure Gaming podcast episode discussing this year's (2025) Caul…
Categories:
- cauldron
- convention
- holiday
- mexico
- podcast
Over at Advanced Grognardia, I've offered up a small Christmas gift in the form of a new version of an old monster from the early days of the blog. Enjoy!
Categories:
- dwimmermount
- monsters
- ose
- patreon
OK, it’s not finished, the art isn’t even there yet, but it’s a working draft. This is the first iteration which uses the AME (Arcane Manifold Engine). It’s very much like the Twiight 2000 system but we replace Pushing with Nudges and have added d4s. MAJESTIC Beta Let’s have some fun.
❤Dispatches From the Front (FR0NT Z3RO)(C) 2025 Kyrinn S. Eis All Rights Reserved Worldwide
Op de valreep is het toch nog gelukt, de twaalfde film met Cthulhu thema dit jaar is de film Cthulhu (2007) van Dan Gildark. De hoofdpersoon wordt gespeeld door Jason Cottle en ik zag nog Tori Spelling voorbij komen, die ik nog ken uit Beverly Hills 90210.¶ De film combineert elementen uit The Shadow over Innsmouth en The Call of Cthulhu. The Shadow over Innsmouth is uit 1931 en The Call of Cthulhu uit 1928. In Dagon hebben we natuurlijk al eerder een bewerking van het verhaal The Shadow over Inn…
Categories:
- 2000s
- Call of Cthulhu
- Film en TV
- Horror
Christmas Wrapping- The Waitresses I mean, you knew this one was coming on a Christmas…
Categories:
- Punk Rock
- Punk Song of the Day
- music
- post-punk
- proto-punk
- punk
- rock
The author of these is a mystery. I tried searching about. Due diligence here. Sign your work, people. I think it was on one of the many blogs that jerks closed up (WHY DO PEOPLE DO THAT?!)¶ Face Sucker Ooze: Init: +5; Atk grasp +4 melee; AC 10; HD 1d8; MV 50’, climb 30’; Stealth +4; Resistant to slashing and piercing; Vulnerable to fire and cold; Align: Neutral. This small but deadly ooze will stalk its prey for hours for a chance to take it by surprise. A successful melee attack results in the …
For me, Thirteen Parsecs is an homage to a time when I was really into everything SciFi. Star Wars, Star Trek, Buck Rogers on TV, Battlestar Galactica, and of course all the toys of the time.¶ After 1977, when Star Wars had hit the scene, toy companies rushed to get anything out for a Science fiction-hungry audience. Some of these toys are fondly remembered by Gen X still today.¶ Ever since I took out my Star Wars figures and tried to figure out D&D rules for them (one of the reasons I still hold …
Merry Christmas, Happy Yule, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa — and Happy New Year to you. I’m still alive and kicking, although life has been kicking me around more than usual. 2025 has been rough. I’m hoping 2026 has better days to come.
Are you prepared for the death¶ you've earned, little man?¶ Running a little Arden Vul Shadowdark lately. Sign up via my email at the bottom there.¶ We had been playing with "CON score is your back real HP". But it seems a bit too easy. Just a bit. So I'm thinking of a new rule (I think Arnold K and Cavegirl deserve some idea credit for wound systems here):¶ Minimum HP is zero. While you are at 0 HP, you are fine, but you can only take a number of extra hits equal to your CON mod before you enter th…
Categories:
- mechanics
- My Campaigns and houserules
- optional rules
Well, miniatures hobbyists, anyway. May all your lead piles of shame be topped up and fortified. RPG hobbyists should just picture a bunch of unused rulesets and adventures instead.
Categories:
- RPG
- Tabletop Miniatures
- Merry Christmas
Xmas Eve gaming and it was a little low energy but it was a fun session.
Categories:
- AP25
- AP26
- Cairn
- Forgotten Realms
- Cairn 2E
- D&D
- dnd
- Druid
- Dungeons and Dragons
- and more…
Everything is alive. Mountains, winds, the earth itself. Even cities can dream.¶ But "city" is an arbitrary concept isn't it? There is no clear boundary, nor any clear membership criteria.¶ This is irrelevant. Everything is alive. Everything strives. Every collection of anything that has any sort of a shared identity. Sentience comes from identity, not structure, and identity is not something that brute material can dictate. We decide.¶ What is a human, except a collection of singular cells that dr…
And now my last(?) gift to shove under the OSR Discord Secret Santicorn tree:¶ Sylvanas_iii - A dX table of medieval dragons that look nothing like any self-respecting dragon should (e.g. the original French tarrasque)¶ First of all, before diving into this assignment, I must ask, who gave St. George all the good press for killing such a puny dragon? I mean, this thing looks like it could barely accost a self-respecting princess. Not to mention an armed and armored knight. This creature looks like…
Categories:
- art
- humor
- inspiration
- Santicorn
2025-12-24
Woking, Surrey¶ 24/12/1953¶ Dear Mr Lacy,¶ It is a strange sensation indeed to be writing a letter which one has read before. Even stranger is the idea that if I misremember parts and write something different then what I read before will have been what I have written even though I don’t remember it! I look forward - and I do remember this part - to discussing the implications with you. I appreciate now why the framed copy of this letter in your stairwell will only contain the first page.¶ Anyway, t…
❤DESERT ROSE(C) 2025 Kyrinn S. Eis All Rights Reserved Worldwide
Nuna needs a few more hours of my life then it’s out into the world. Quickstart rules, pay what you want.¶ Core book coming in 2026. Includes the adventure path Return of the Shamans
My second gift as a member of the OSR Discord Santicorn 2025 Reserves(tm).¶ energycrow666 - Carousing tables themed around winter and/or its attendant festivals, such as solstice, yule, and the new year.¶ by Arthur Rackham¶ Oh no. Don't make me do another D66 list. Please no... 😜¶ Inspired this morning under the influence of two cups of coffee and a bowl of Chocolate Honey Bunches of Oats.¶ Party on!¶ Note: Realized I totally forgot a krampus encounter, as well as a Yule Cat. There are just too many w…
Scarf of Noble Glamour ‘Whatever happened to that twonk of an illusionist we encountered back in Yillga?’ Bakra-do asked as he and his companions stared into the campfire.‘I believe that after you heckled him the locals shook off his tricks … Continue reading →
Categories:
- Magic Items
- Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea
- BD&D
- BFRPG
- Dragonslayer Rpg
- Iron Falcon
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- OD&D
- Old School Essentials
- and more…
Heaven- Leatherface
Categories:
- Punk Rock
- Punk Song of the Day
- music
- post-punk
- proto-punk
- punk
- rock
Fighting filled the noble’s need of something to do, a way to exert himself. It was his substitute for work. His leisure time was spent chiefly in hunting, otherwise in games of chess, backgammon, and dice, in songs, dances, pageants, and other entertainments. Long winter evenings were occupied listening to the recital of interminable verse […]
Categories:
- Book Excerpt
- aristocracy
- Europeans
- tournaments
- war
Of course it is. This is Dungeons & Possums, after all. It’s in the name! The Dungeon as a concept has been written about so much that I occasionally worry that one day our tattered remaining writings, devoid of context, devoid of Rosetta Stone, devoid of keys, will wash up in the future archaeological record in such a way that a human of 3091AD will waste his life trying to find White Plume Mountain on whatever cave drawing of the world (or holographic model) they have by then. The written reco…
Categories:
- 2025
- Blogging A to Z
- D&D
- DnD
- Dyson Logos
- map
- Skerples
The internet is full of advice on the nitty gritty of TTRPG play. I thought I’d leverage my experience slightly differently today and focus on some solid tips that are way more wide angle.
22/12/25¶ Into the Mountains¶ The party decide to stay at Dunfurter another day to give Norgrim more time to recover from his broken ribs. Mid morning a wagon, a carriage bearing the Karzburdger coat of arms, 4 mounted soldiers and a messenger arrive at the Castle. Kepler Karzburdger is here with his wife. Magdalena accosts them in the great hall, introducing herself to his wife, Lady Titia. Kepler is mostly cordial, there are no blackmail threats but he doesn't stay chatting for long.¶ Farfordda m…
Categories:
- Play Report
- The Enemy Within
- The HornedRat
- WFRP
0501¶ Southwest: Valley of Eternal Cheer¶ South: Snomes¶ Southeast: Jinglebell Barrens¶ RANKIN/BASS PRO SHOP: A pyramid of silver and gold. The single obvious entrance at its base is guarded by an angel (HD14) with a flaming sword. He forbids all entrance to the pyramid and is invulnerable to all weapons except for the fiery sword that he himself wields.¶ Anyone who enters the pyramid transcends the fictional dimension and becomes real. They literally enter the real world. This is how Baby Jesus inca…
In GOZR, you have hit points (HP). I'd say 99% of you know what that means. For the others, a HP is your life force. It's a number that gets reduced when you are hurt by something. When it hits zero, you are dead.¶ Or are you? And why did I go with something so common, so ho-hum unoriginal as hit points?¶ DEATH OR DEBASEMENT?¶ I didn't want zero HP to simply mean death. But I didn't want any fiddly "you really really die at -10" type of stuff. So in the end it seemed obvious to me and a light bulb …
In GOZR, you have three primary stats, which are called Action Classes: Cunning, Magic, and Prowess. All rolls are based on one of those stats. The lower your stat's number, the better. Why?¶ ORIGINS OF THE THREE STAT SCHEME¶ Because GOZR's system started its life as another game called Dead Wizards, a sword & sorcery RPG set in the city of Kanebok, which later was folded into the Black Pudding setting of Yria. (I have a lot of lore that only really matters in my head, but I gotta say it out loud.…
Categories:
- game design
- GOZR
- sword and sorcery
It is 6:00 am here right now (give or take), and I am at work in a meeting.¶ Back in September, I got a new job. Similar to what I was doing before, but this time working directly with a University. In fact, I just got a new assignment today to graph various time series in Python. My language of choice for this was SAS or SPSS. Looks like I am getting more Python lessons for Christmas!¶ So...that means some of my plans for 2026 are getting moved. I wanted to dedicate the year to Sci-Fi games to co…
By Ken TaylorRipped Tabard AdventuresCastles & CrusadesLevels 3-5 The autumn wind whispers through the corn, carrying the sound of crows and the rustle of straw. Somewhere in the fields, justice denied walks on legs of wood, seeking those who wronged … Continue reading →
Frank Zappa once proclaimed that “without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible”.¶ This has basically been a part of my game design ethos ever since I've been writing. The other part comes from Robert M. Pirsig (I can't remember whether it was in "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" or "Lila") where there is a concept that progress requires a combination of static and dynamic forms. This is also a big part of Mage the Ascension, which is heavily influence by those two books. Th…
Nadat de Musketiers de problemen in Parijs hebben opgelost, krijgen zij weer een nieuwe missie, die hen naar Engeland zal brengen.¶ Richart Rouzet¶ Bernárd "Benno" de Rothschild (met "Claudia" en "Birgitte")¶ Malo de Guesclin (met "Bertha")¶ Albert D'Arcy (met "Colette" en "Claudine")¶ Gaston Eclair (met "Edith" en "Sophia")¶ Mei 1628¶ De afschuwelijke avonturen uit de lente van 1626 liggen al weer een tijdje achter de Musketiers. De rust lijkt min of meer teruggekeerd in Parijs en Frankrijk (Ha!), hoe…
In which I post comments to subreddits geared towards supporting rookie DM's...
Categories:
- DM's Academy Advice
- Cognitive Load
- D&D
- Dice Fudging
- DM advice
- Dungeon Master Advice
- Dungeons and Dragons
- Game Mechanics
- GM Advice
- and more…
Hollow Shells started life as a one-page RPG. At the time, it was a tight little experiment about scavenging bodies in a dead world, bolting on parts, and seeing what survived longer: the machine or the memory inside it. It was intentionally spare. A few rules. A few tables. Enough structure to generate strange outcomes […]
Vivanter of Mediums and Messages is collating the GLoGgies and so I make my nominations below for the best of the GLoGosphere 2025. Deadline for nominations is Jan 5th if you want to make yours.¶ The Categories¶ * Best Dungeon Post¶ * Best Class Post¶ * Best Monster Post¶ * Best Rules Post¶ * Best Lore Post¶ * Best Theory Post¶ * Best Other Post¶ Adapted from Vivanters original¶ The big theme I have this year is 'tilling the blog-soil' - things that let us get even more use from blogposts past or draw out…
Despite the threats of sinkholes and inheritance claims, community-oriented efforts enrich the lives of the new farmers in Aachdingen.¶ The post A Year in Aachdingen: Autumn and Winter appeared first on Dicey Stories.
Categories:
- Cozy Farming
- Historical
- A Year in Farm Valley
- Art
- Commentary
- GM-less
- RinCon
- Session Report
I was tardy in signing up for the OSR Discord's annual "Secret Santicorn" writing prompt exchange. But I let the organizer know that I'd be happy to pick up an orphan "gift" if need be. And so I was called off the bench.¶ Hello _ !¶ Your gift is for Houndmoon, who asked for:¶ “Set of useful downtime activities & the locations and characters they’re attached to.”¶ I can do this. In the tune of D66, of course...¶ Ooo! Downtime. Whee. Another Carousing Table! Can I roll a Suspicious Rash? Sketchy Busine…
Categories:
- d66
- groupthink
- inspiration
- randumb
- Santicorn
