A Monday Miscellany of Links pt. XV

A Monday Miscellany of Links pt. XV

In the beginning I thought I’d manage to make this a weekly kind of article. But sometimes I barely get a morsel of content for it, sometimes my cup runneth over…

Free Stuff
Hardly something new, but the classic Barbarian Prince solitaire quasi-RPG is available for print and play (and if I remember well it has been since at least the aughts). Of course it also can be found online in reissued versions, so if you’d rather have that go for it.

The Highest Level of All: The Story of Fantasy Wargaming, is a free pdf download at CMU Press dealing with the history of the eponymous (if a bit incongruously titled) Fantasy Wargaming roleplaying game system. Yes, it turns out you can write whole books not only about DnD.

The Serpent-Song Hymnal (I Cast Light!) – A collection of tables for B/X-style games

Aventuria – Mythical Stories Soundtrack by Ulisses Spiele (drivethrurpg) – Nominally for Das Schwarze Auge/The Dark Eye, but really should fit most games

Random Tables

100 Mushrooms and Their Effects (dndspeak)

100 Interesting Rumors (Or Potential Plot Hooks!) (OSRVault)

100 Dungeon Graffiti (OSRVault)

Dungeon Non Combatants in and out of Combat (Elfmaids & Octopi)

d100 Ways for villagers to react to armed adventurers (Elfmaids & Octopi)

d100 Village Weirdos (Elfmaids & Octopi)

3×10 Initiation Rites (Eldritch Fields)

d100 – Boastworthy Bounties & Intriguing Enticements (d4 Caltrops)

D20 Reasons Why Werewolves, Devils, Wights, And So On Are Vulnerable To Silver (Archons March On)

D100+ Pulp City Names in the Vein of Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard, and So On and So On (Archons March On)

D20 Things That Might Go Wrong If You Have Too Many Hirelings (Archons March On)

GM Aid

Too Precious Encounters (The Alexandrian)

Four Tips to Drive Role Playing (Rise Up Comus)

Action: Reaction Rolls, Take Two… (Pits Perilous)

My Stocking Procedure (In Places Deep)

From Random Encounter To Intentional Antagonist (I Cast Light!)

How to never describe a dungeon! (Old Skulling)

Villain’s Schemes: Mayhem (Brandes Stoddard)

Dumb Duels – a Reasonably Engaging Dueling Minigame (Beneath Foreign Planets)

Ideas

The Isle of Wight: Planning the Sandbox (Trilemma Adventues)

Reimplementing Outdoor Survival (Traverse Fantasy)

Wilderness Levels (Methods & Madness)

The Problem Grows – Domains and Rats (Fail Forward)

Time, Gear, Skill: Sneaking (Dice Goblin)

OSR: Psychic Powers (Remixes and Revelations)

Theory

Wargames, storygames and RPGs (Methods & Madness)

John Romero’s Level Design Rules for DOOM (I Cast Light!)

The Underground Maze or Primordial Stack (All Dead Generations)

Situations and Resolutions in the original game (Chgowiz’s Games)

That is a Dragon (Blood of Prokopius)

Hobby History

Zock Bock Radio had an interesting episode on Zakoldovka, the first quasi-RPG published in Soviet Russia, just before that state broke up. Due to the subject matter this episode of this German podcast is actually in English. The rules for this game also can be found translated under Zakoldovka.com (and in my opinion they read as if someone encountered Talisman and Dungeons and Dragons and put them together.

Those Who Cross the Boundaries May Be Attacked: Gamers Hating Other Gamers (Tom van Winkle’s Return to Gaming)

A Monday Miscellany of Links pt. XII

This time a few more links than last week. Maybe even too many this time.

News

Reprint of Shadowrun 1st edition in the works (enworld)

Random Tables

d100 – Weird and Whimsical Wants for Fickle Fey (d4 Caltrops)

100 Interesting Rumors (Or Potential Plot Hooks!) (OSRVault)

Cult generator – D66 Cult names, heraldry and goals! (Dawnfist Games)

Thought

“Played by friends, not strangers” (Grognardia)

I Love Underused Monsters (Tales of the Lunar Lands)

The Ten Commandments of D&D (Grognardia)

My original fantasy sandbox: ICE’s Middle-earth (Akratic Wizardry)

What Choose-Your-Adventure Books Can Teach Game Masters About Pacing and Decisions (DMDavid)

GMing with Joy: GM Tools That Can Last a Lifetime (enworld)

On Hobby Best Practices – Part 1 and Part 2 and Part 3 (Gorgon Bones)

Rereading OD&D: Back to the Start (Coins & Scrolls)

Mystifying and Dangerous (Grognardia)

GM Aid

The Quantum Goodbye Letter (Dice Goblin)

Writing Dungeons Without Dice (Playful Void)

Dolmenwood Dozen (d4 Caltrops)

The BECMI reaction table (Methods & Madness)

Scribes (Dice Goblin)

Magic

Yet another magic system: Chaotic Spells and Strange Charms (Tabletop Curiosity Cabinet)

Encounters

D66 Astral plane encounters (Dawnfist Games)

Friday Encounter: Peryton Party (Tales of the Lunar Lands)

Friday Encounter: Mistaken Identity (Tales from the Lunar Lands)

Terrain

Dungeon Stackers and Triangular Dungeon Stackers (The Might Be Gazebos!)

Monsters

CYTHRONS (from 2000AD’s Slaine) – Monster for Old School Fantasy & Horror (Shuttered Room)

Traveller

Right On Commander! (Elite ships for Traveller)

Papercraft

Niederkassel Dice Tower (papermau)

Sericulture Farmhouse At The Foot Of Mount Gassan (papermau)

Other Stuff

Dungeon Running Sheets (The Alexandrian)

Conan the Barbarian (Newspaper Comic Strips Blog)

Some Observations on Science Fiction Names (From the Sorceror’s Skull)

Notes from Reading “The Prairie Traveler: A Handbook for Overland Expeditions” (Whose Measure God Could Not Take)

A Monday Miscellany of Links pt. XI

Thought

In Defense of the Murderhobo (Grognardia)

GM Aid

Fairy Circles (Tales of the Lunar Lands)

Paper Models

The Village House (papermau)

Sasayama Castle Paper Model (papermau)

Some German Stuff

Neues vom Riesland: Eine eigene Homepage und das Tal der Klagen

Music

A Monday Miscellany of Links pt. X

I actually have not had much time this week for blogging, even reading my feeds was an issue. Which is sad because there was a rather juicy amount of stuff to be found in them. Here are the most interesting:

Random Tables

100 Fairy Peon Quests (Whose Measure God Could Not Take)

d100 Things I Had To Do Growing up a Dwarf (Elfmaids & Octopi)

d100 Halfling Hangups Growing Up (Elfmaids & Octopi)

100 Wonderous Trinkets (OSRVault)

100 Curses (OSRVault)

PAINT THE (VILLAGE) RED: A General Purpose Carousing Table (I cast light!)

Roll Your Own Kobold Tribe (Points of Inspiration)

Wilderness Encounter Details/Activities (Eldritch Fields)

Game Aids

Mist Rapier (Wombat’s Gaming Den of Iniquity)

What to do at High Level (What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse)

10 Fantasy curses and the ritual to break them (Dawnfist Games)

Branching Factions (Space Aces)

Advanced LaTeX features and LaTeX Images for TTRPGs (Vladar’s Blog)

A take on the Monastery of the Fire Opal, including the upper levels (Dyson’s Dodehecadron)

Thought

Gods are High Level PCs (Rise up Comus!)

Monsters

You’re Sleeping on Perytons (Tales of the Lunar Lands)

OSR: Oni (Remixes and Revelations)

RPG History

Game 497: Dragons (1978) (CRPG Addict)

No Longer a Challenge (Grognardia)

Other

Desecrated Tomb paper model (papermau)

A Miscellany of Links pt. IX

Eberhard Marx – Befindlichkeiten, 2010

RPG History

1983: Enterprise – Role Play Game in Star Trek (Reviews from R’Lyeh)

Game Aids

Recovered: Other Crews (Benign Brown Beast)

Bandits! Bandits! – an underrated low-level antagonist (Burn After Running)

The Frenchman’s Curse (Benign Brown Beast)

Forgotten Gems of the OSR – LL AEC Rogues Gallery (Smoldering Wizard)

Evoking Emotion in Classic Fantasy Adventure Games (Grumpy Wizard)

Weak Points in Time and Space (Remixes and Revelations)

Thought

Analog, Digital, Procedural (Roles, Rules, and Rolls)

Cargo Cult (Grognardia)

A blog post is a very long and complex search query to find fascinating people and make them route interesting stuff to your inbox (Escaping Flatland)

Monster

Golden Shrieker (Scribblings or Something)

DIY

LaTeX tables: Basics (Vladar’s Blog)

A Miscellany of Links pt. VII

You might have noticed that most of the links I put in those link posts are the ones I have come across during the week and posted on my dice.camp account. Here they are collected, and expanded with other things I come across.

Crafting

The Rohan House Paper Model (papermau)

Avast! Ye Lubbers: A Pirate Ship in 28mm [Part 1] and Arrr! A Buxom Beauty: A Pirate Ship in 28mm [Part 2] (Wargaming.info)

Cardboard Medieval Style House (papermau)

GM Advice

Skeleton With a Bow (Methods & Madness) is an interesting discussion of monsters used in non-standard ways

Recreation Time in the Hobby (Gnome Stew) says things about when our hobby is recreation and when it is work that sometimes needs to be said

Character Motivation is the Player’s Responsibility (Lich van Winkle) discusses that not everything is the DM’s task

Running Mysteries: The Two Types of Leads (The Alexandrian)

Starting a Sandbox Campaign part 1 and part 2 (Dungeon Master’s Handbook Podcast)

House Rules

Flexible Reaction Rolls (Blessings of the Dice Gods) modifies the reaction rolls. I always like tinkering with that

Stone Encumbrance: Detail & Example (Delta’s D&D Hotspot) is a classic that I am using in my own house rules

Minimalist encumbrance/slots (B/X) (Methods & Madness) has a few ideas I might want to add to my game

Monster

Draugr (The Other Side)

Random Tables

d100 Construction Delays for your Bastion or Stronghold (Elfmaids & Octopi)

Snowbound Hex Generator (The Ideocron of the Oracular Somnabulist)

Sargasso Sea Encounter Generator (The Ideocron of the Oracular Somnabulist)

Other

The minimalist beauty of D&D’s “Dragon Quest Game” (Methods & Madness) goes into an obscure introductory game for D&D, which made me think: maybe we should put together a print-out package of paper minis, dungeon tiles, and some simple rules to get people into the hobby?

objet trouve one-page dungeon (homicidally inclined persons of no fixed address) uses a bit of old propaganda for a dungeon

A Year Atop A Woolly Mammoth (Wyrd Fish) gives us this quote:

“This mix of slow, ponderous friendship and network building approach is perfect for how I want to exist and hobby online. I’m emotionally invested in seeing how other folks I’ve met through the Hobbyverse are getting on – both personally and with their hobby projects. There’s really nothing as satisfying as getting to know someone with a common interest, watching them think a project through out loud online, and then watch their journey through to the end point.”

A Miscellany of Links pt. V

Free Stuff

Palace of the Silver Princess for Cairn (via itch.io)

Papermau collects paper models from all over the world on the blog

A collection of materials regarding Tony Bath and his seminal Hyboria campaign (Tiny Tin Men)

Random Tables

Random Insults (Dawn Fist)

City, Station, Place and Craft Generator for The Galactic Realm of the Hyperspace Sea (The Lizard Man Diaries)

GM Aid

53 DM tips, tricks and hacks (Dawn Fist)

Finding VTT maps (DM Micycle)

Thoughts on PC Death and how to use it in a campaign (Dweller of the Forbidden City)

Floating Islands Should be Weird (The Pastel Dungeon)

OSR Playstyle 101 (Widdershins Wanderings)

Simple Poison Rules (Whose Measure God Could Not Take)

Generating Elevation in a Hexcrawl (Traveler’s Rest)

This Is How I Love To Play Dungeons & Dragons

The Players Never “Miss”

Podcasts

Monster Man is a podcast about monsters (Monster Man)

Other

Tim is hosting the RPG Blog Carnival this month (The Other Side)

BB’s blog shows off the 28mm library he is making with 14.000 unique mini books (BB’s Blog)

Dice Folklore (Stuffed Crocodile)