A Monday Miscellany of Links pt. XVII

A Monday Miscellany of Links pt. XVII

I haven’t done a link post for a while, so this one is a bit bigger than usual. Maybe I should imply in the title that it’s some monthly thing instead of weekly. On the other hand I might just miss a self-set monthly deadline as well.

Free Stuff

Liminal Horror (itch.io)

Wanderer Bill’s Grenzland Fanzine

BLUELITE: A Holmes Basic Hack (Troy Press)

Random Tables

d100 – Magical Spears (d4 Caltrops)

d100 – So You’ve Been Brought Back From The Dead… (d4 Caltrops)

TTRPG Thought and Ideas

Joy and Devilry in the Films of Terrence Hill and Bud Spencer (Taskerland)

The Tactile and Generic TTRPG – Boardgamey tablefeel using bits and bobs (The Lizard Man Diaries)

Toybox Creativity: The Genius of Dragon Ball (Prismatic Wasteland)

The Benefits and Tradeoffs of Random Generation Tables (Grumpy Wizard)

THE KNIGHTS OF THE (OD&D) TABLE: Application to Arthurian Myth (I Cast Light)

Some thoughts on Charisma (Ruprecht’s RPG Blog)

The brilliance of unrealistic hit points (DM David)

Dungeons and Dragons may improve mental health (James Cook University)

FKR Simply Defined (Flintlocks and Witchery)

Your OSR Setting is a Deathworld (Den of the Lizard King)

Level Drain and Loss Aversion in D&D (The Psychology of Video Games)

The Truth About Magic-Users (Doomslakers)

Care and Feed of Hirelings (Back in the Labyrinth)

Literary Archetypes and Encounter Design (Welcome to the Death Trap)

Hobby History

‘Theatre of the mind’: celebrating 50 years of Dungeons & Dragon (The Guardian)

WHAT’S IN A NAME? That Which We Call A D&D By Any Other Name Would Delve Just As Deep (I Cast Light)

DM Aid

A forgotten 0D&D Rule for Fighters (Hall of the Grymlorde™)

Keep Dungeons Weird! (The Hungry Dungeon Master)

Asking The Right Questions (Worldbuilding By Bibliomancy) (dungeonfruit)

Morale & Guards & Patrols (Elfmaids and Octopi)

Way Shrines and Holy Sites as “Civilization” (Welcome to the Death Trap)

Nymphs in your Area! (Traverse Fantasy)

The Same Page Tool (Deeper in the Game)

New Campaign? Finish the Old One with a To-Do List (Alphastream)

How to Run a D&D Heist for Players that Love to Steal (Cats and Dice)

Beginning Of The End (How To Finish A Campaign) (dungeonfruit)

Tips and Tricks: DIY Dungeon Tiles (TTRPG Kids)

The Official OSR D&D Skill List (alch3mist nocturn3)

Four Interesting Reward Types in D&D (RJD20)

Player Aid

Ye Olde Fantasy: Family Matters (Aboleth Overlords)

How To Play A Cleric (The Tao of D&D)

Other Bits and Bobs

Rocksolid Light web gateway to rec.games.frp.misc and rec.games.frp.dnd

campaignwiki.org newsnet forum (available via web and nntp)

Dragon’s Lair (Vintage RPG Podcast)

Medieval Cappadocian dungeon design! (Eldritch Fields)

The only living master of a dying martial art (BBC News)

Bardic Inspiration

[Das Schwarze Auge] Some interesting social skills

Dancing girls at Cairo illustration by David Roberts (1796-1864).

I was reminiscing about skills in Das Schwarze Auge again the last few days, mostly while trying to think about ways of including the parts I really liked into my own DnDish houserule-monster of a ruleset.

Skills haven’t been part of DSA from the beginning. The original boxed set did not come with a proper skill system. Like DnD before some classes had special powers (e.g. the dwarf class had a “dwarf nose” that allowed them to find gold), but the first attempt at a skill system came with the Abenteuer-Ausbau Spiel (the extension set) in ’85. This was quite a basic system, although it did contain interesting bits that were left out of the system with the second edition. Others were developed later, out of other parts of the rules.

Minnekünste (the arts of courtly love) was one that got lost rather quickly. It referred to the more general way to present themselves and was a catch-all term for doing all the stuff that might be expected from a knight in society. Minne (courtly love) is a big part of medieval German literature, and it’s both a sign of Ulrich Kiesow’s academic background, and the whole background of the setting (the whole name Aventuria was based on the medieval idea of Âventiure, the trials a hero had to complete in a heroic story). This was a game about knights doing knight stuff. You might not have thought so from the adventures, but that’s what it was.

Zwergennase (dwarf nose): This one was part of the class features of the dwarf class in 1st edition, became a skill in 2nd, was removed in 3rd, then came back as an advantage in DSA4. It refers to a skill of detecting hidden spaces and other oddities in the architecture that could lead to secret compartments/doors. Not unlike what elves could do in B/X.

Dancing: introduced in 2nd edition (which didn’t have courtly arts anymore) this is one of the most useful of skills there is. It covers both a way to make some extra money in the early game (dancing in the pubs or on markets), and impress people in the later one (at a court, or maybe a witches’ sabbath).

Gaukeln: this is one where we hit the difference between German and English. There is no single good translation of this one. Gaukeln is entertainment, not in the society sense, but in the juggling/fools kind of way. Playing tricks, performing feats with panache. Gauklers can be fools, jugglers, clowns, illusionists, stage magicians, mountebanks, or maybe even the modern professional wrestler. Originally the translation would have been minstrel, but that became mostly limited to musicians around the 16th century. This also a very good skill to have in the game, where it can provide some easy money, distraction, or just a reason to get invited into a noble’s fortress.

Zechen (Carousing): I don’t know how to say this, but this is one of THE most useful skills in DSA. DSA after all is a German game. This governs how well you can drink, how you can hold your liquor, and how well you can handle yourself even under the influence. This comes up a surprising lot in scenarios in 2nd and 3rd edition, and for good reason. This allows you to keep a cool head during social events, might win you a drinking competition, or might help you against the effects of some potions. I think like the courtly love above this also is one of influenced by German folk tales, as there is at least one famous story where the drinking skills of a mayor saved a town from Swedish invaders.

[Review] Stirring the Hornet’s Nest at Het Thamsya

This is a 28 page “temple-crawling adventure” written by Munkao ostensibly for Into the Odd and Cairn (but actually largely system-agnostic), and set in the South-East Asian inspired world of Kala Mandala. I don’t think transferring it into other settings should be that much of an issue, as long as one can come up with a reason why there’s a vaguely Asian-coded monastic community around to set this at. My personal setting is set around a sort of crossroads of cultures so I have absolutely no issue with that), and this might fit in great in some of the areas I haven’t worked out that much yet.

The mission as it is is not one that lends itself to the usual loot and pillage gaming: Het Thamsya is a fledgling temple school in a larger collective, dedicated to the path of Automata. The founder of this school has nearly finished a decade long meditation, but giant (belying the title) wasps have created a nest in the back of the building while everyone else was busy not disturbing the meditator. Your mission now, if you should accept it, is to carry the meditating monk out of there, without waking him.

The complications arise from the guards set by your mission objective (automata of various kinds), the wasps, and a bunch of other intruders that have entered without anyone knowing. Interestingly the wasp nest is detailed much more than you’d think, and there are things going on in there that are way more complicated than what you’d expect, as there’s some bizarre bio-horror twist lying in wait. Which makes for a fascinating chart of faction relations based on the instincts of the wasps and the commands left for the automata and how they interact with one another.

I do feel like I am missing some context for the world of Kala Mandala, as I am not quite sure what some of the things reference. On the other hand it’s easy to just plug in whatever association comes up and go with it. The scenario offers a compelling mission and plenty of complications to make for some interesting play. I think this might be interesting to play with multiple groups to see how either of them make it through.

RPG Magazine Recon pt. 1 – Dragon Magazine 63, 74, 104, 114

Bob Walters 1982, published without context in Dragon 63

Dungeons and Dragons was published 50 years ago, and almost immediately afterwards ‘zines and magazines appeared to give players and DMs more material to work with. And even beforehand things were published in Diplomacy zines and even mainstream magazines.

And there have been a lot of attempts by fellow bloggers to go through these magazines systematically, although in a lot of cases they focused almost exclusively on the holy trinity of Dragon, Dungeon, and White Dwarf. Which after all were the biggest RPG magazines there were in the English language.

So I decided to write down some articles when I find them. Mostly as a way for myself to remember them (I keep coming across useful articles that don’t quite fit with what I am working on, only to half-remember them months later when I could use them). But also because some stuff should not be forgotten just because it’s only in some magazine published halfway across the world 40 years ago.

I am going to use a small rating system for now:

A – for good articles with good game use

B – for articles with some use

S – for articles that are so good they could sustain a whole campaign or at least multiple sessions on their own

H – for articles of historical interest but maybe no actual game use

C – for campaign specific articles with barely any use outside that particular campaign

F – for fiction of note

I – for some general interest stuff that doesn’t fit anywhere else, also stuff that is neither good nor bad but maybe has an interesting idea

J – for jokes, cartoons, and humor of note

T – for things that are so terrible I just have to point them out

That… should be enough for now. I don’t think this will be done systematically as I mostly want to note down when I come across some stuff. If an article is not on the list I didn’t think it was interesting.

So lets begin.

Dragon 63 (1982)

G. Gygax, Featured Creatures: Deva, p.5 H – preview to MMII I guess
G. Gygax (?), Where the Bandits are, p. 14 C – details on the Bandit Kingdoms in Greyhawk
Tom Armstrong/Roger Moore, Bandits! p. 23 B – bandit NPC class, I mentioned before I have reevaluated the use of those. This one might be a bad guy, or it might be Robin Hood. I can see some use for that.
Roger Moore, …but not least: The humanoids. Goals and gods of the kobolds, goblins, hobgoblins, & gnolls, p. 25, B – some interesting ideas for minor gods and spiritual beings of the humanoids. Might be useful for fleshing out some humanoid tribes. Misogynist vibes though.
Larry DiTillio, Chagmat, p. 33, I – adventure level 1-4, arachnid antagonists, very mediocre dungeon, overwritten, slightly misogynist vibes (why do spider care about abducting maidens specifically?), but has an old one-armed swordsman NPC I wanna steal
G. Gygax, A Couple of Fantastic Flops, p.72 H – Gygax trashes the Schwarzenegger Conan movie and promises a D&D movie with the quality of Star Wars or Raiders of the Lost Ark by 1984/85. Gee, I wonder how that turned out?

Dragon Magazine 74 (1983)

Leonard Lakofka/Brad Nystul, Bureaucrats and Politicians, p.8. I (maybe J) – two NPC classes, overwritten and not very useful, although both read more like a joke I don’t quite get
Ronald Hall, Landragons. Wingless wonders of a faraway land, p.12, B – creature feature about wingless dragons, notably the third entry manages to mess up the notation for inches and feet so bad it requires multiple rereadings
Lewis Pulsipher, A player character and his money…, p. 50, A/H – first appearance of the silver standard conversion, otherwise lots of ideas to part the PCs from their money

Dragon 104 (1986)

[OH wow, I was thinking about it, and there was absolutely nothing notable or useful in this issue. The closest was this:]
Christopher Wood, A plethora of paladins, p. 45, I – expands the “holy warrior” archetype from Paladins and Anti-Paladins out into the other 7 alignments. All are NPC classes and all kind of useless. I don’t see any immediate use for this.

Dragon 114 (1986)

Bill Muhlhausen (and others), The Witch, p.8 I – this is the at least third incarnation of the Witch NPC class. Unfortunately it still is barely usable as the class still is predicated on being an evil overpowered demon-worshipper.
Nick Kopsinis/Patrick Goshtigian, Grave Encounters. Creatures that lurk in cemeteries and crypts, p. 22, B – bread and butter article with graveyard encounter tables
Margaret Weis/Kevin Stein, Running Guns. Ground Vehicles for the BATTLETECH game world, p. 78, H – I’d rate it higher, but seriously all that is covered in the core rules by now
Randal S. Doering, High-Tech Hijinks. Integrating technology into an AD&D game campaign, p. 84 B – a bit overwritten

A Monday Miscellany of Links pt. XVI

A Monday Miscellany of Links pt. XVI

100 Village Notable Features (OSRVault)

d10 Graveyard Dressing (Azukail Games)

d12 Mysterious Vapours & Miasmas (Elfmaids & Octopi)

DnD turns 50 and something else turns 200 (Playing at the World)

‘The hobby is only just catching up to what Greg did 40 years ago’: Pendragon 6E, ‘ultimate’ edition of an RPG legend’s masterpiece, reclaims its crown (dicebreaker)

Using TTRPGs to change the narratives around Autism (Roll for Kindness)

Tips and Tricks: DIY TTRPG zines and booklet props (TTRPGKids)

Save the Day: How Young Chinese Are Role-Playing Their Way to Wealth (Sixth Tone)

How to make a monster (Medievalists.net)

Grimoire Of The Pale (d66 spells) (Another Hamsterish Hoard)

A Generator for New Words, Or: Automatically Grafting Prefixes and Suffixes Garned from Wikitionary (Archons March On)

Symbols & Lost Languages to Guide Your Campaign (Dice Goblin)

Flavortown: Why A Soldier Is A Rogue Not A Fighter (Renaissance Woodsman)

Bring Out Your Dead (The Dododehecadron)

Uniquely Undead (Dyson Logos)

Bringing Back the Magic (Magician’s Manse)

Creating monster behavior instead of monster abilities (The Luminescent Lich)

Knots (A Procedure For Elegant Jaquaysing) (Dungeonfruit)

Dungeon Walls, Ceilings & Floors (Elfmaids & Octopi)

The Miners of Redhorn (Mediums and Messages)

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)

Monday Miscellany of Links pt. XIV

Extracted images from 1688 maps (itch.io)

D20 Things that can go wrong with too many Hirelings (Archons March On)

OSR Psychic Powers (Remixes and Revelations)

About those girls and guy playing DnD (Sarah Darkmagic)

…and again (Grognardia)

The Quieter Moments (Bastionland)

Dungeon Doors on 3d8 (Clerics Wearing Ringmail)

Neo-khuzdul (The Dwarrow Scholar)

Ringmail Medieval Battles (Clerics Wearing Ringmail)

D100 City Streets (d4 Caltrops)

D100 Anywhere but the tavern session starters (d4 Caltrops)

Monday Miscellany of Links pt. XIII

A bit late with this one, holiday season was way too busy for my taste, and I got distracted by some retro-computing projects (like my irrational fondness for Usenet and setting up a TTRPG-focused Synchronet BBS on my Raspberry).

Free Stuff

Troika for free (including an adventure). Well, nearly free, for signing up to their newsletter

Into the Dungeon: Revived is an old school ruleset closer to Into the Odd, but with more classic theme

5E RPG Stock Art Illustrations Sample (drivethrurpg)

GM Aid

Some houserules from 1985, from the pages of L’avant garde #74 (August 1985). I think I have to think about caltrops, and of course salt against zombies (which is part of the original Haitian zombie legends and which was excised out of the Holmes edition of DnD)

Schools of Swordplay (Dice Goblin) which is an extension of Block, Dodge, Parry for Cairn, but I think the rules should be adaptable as well

Standoffs and Surprises (The Alexandrian)

The 14 challenges in TTRPGs – All the tools in your toolbox (Dawnfist Games)

Thought

On Discourse – or, how to talk about TTRPGs online (Burn after Running)

What Makes A Good Player-Facing Pointcrawl? (Widdershins Wanderings)

Why are Giants “bad” (Of Slugs and Silver)

A New Genre Itself (Grognardia)

TTRPG History

When in Rome (Grognardia)

Interview with the late Jennell Jayquays about her thoughts in creating Dark Tower and Caverns of Thracia (Vintage RPG)

Random Tables

100 Dungeon Graffiti (OSR Vault)

100 Good/Evil Faction Motivations (OSR Vault)

d100 – Infernal Features & Tiefling Traits (d4 Caltrops)

d100 – Magical Rings (d4 Caltrops)

d50 more memorabila to loot (Seed of Worlds) – how do you even use a d50 table? I think there’s a second half to this I haven’t found yet

Podcasts

Podcast find: Radio Free Muncie goes through all the issues of the Knights of the Dinner Table comic book. I conclude: I have to reread the Bag Wars saga, again.

The Oldest TTRPG Forum on the Net

Did you know there is an online forum for tabletop role-playing games that has been around since the early 80s, and which still is active and operating?

Admittedly in a much diminished state than at it’s heyday.

I don’t know if you ever heard the term Usenet before, and even if you did, if you don’t just connect it with data piracy. Because that’s what it is mostly used for nowadays.

What it started out as were discussion forums.

Back in the late 70s, after ARPANET had been created and email had been invented, a few programmers came up with an idea for an electronic bulletin board that could be read asynchronously. This was the time when computers still were only in big institutions like universities, big companies, and the military, and the whole idea was to create “a poor man’s ARPANET”. Connections between computers were rare and expensive , but possible. So these “news” started as a way to propagate articles and messages along servers that were not constantly connected to the internet. Some of the servers involved would only connect once a day to the network to transfer messages in and out (often at night because charges were lower then). A message might travel for multiple days before it reached all nodes in the network, and some of the earliest were messages about a nascent hobby popular among the people using this network: fantasy role-playing.

From what I can see the first two messages on the brand new group net.games.frp were sent out on the 12th of January 1982.

To give you an idea just how early this was: it was before the abbreviation RPG became common, people were still talking about Fantasy RolePlaying instead, so even today the group-names use the abbreviation FRP.

It’s quite a fascinating system that over time has become ever more complex and popular, before the ascent of html, hyperlinks, and the world wide web pushed it into the seedy corners of the ‘net.

Instead of having websites, Usenet is organized in newsgroups, and those groups are organized in hierarchies. There are the so called Big Eight that have a certain standard for group creation and posting (e.g. rec. for recreational topics, and comp. for topics concerning computers), and there are others, organized in one way or another (famously alt. which had lower standards for the creation of new groups).

Messages are sent to one or more groups (crossposted), distributed around the network, and people respond to these posts. Interesting discussions and arguments ensue, people get angry, flame wars ensue, other people learn something new, weird in-jokes develop, stuff happens.

All that can be read via archives, the biggest of which is Google Groups, which both is a boon and downfall of the service: Google purchased the old newsgroup archives of DejaNews back in the 90s, and integrated it in it’s Google Groups service. In a picture-perfect example of Embrace, Extend, Extinguish the users of Groups had a web interface that allowed them access to their old newsgroups, access to new groups that only existed on Google, but also allowed spammers to flood the connected newsgroups with loads of unmoderated spam. Spam that recently was quoted by them as a reason to cut the connection with Usenet, bringing this phase of the network to an end.

But Usenet still is running, and most likely will be running as long as there are people willing to run servers for it. But the biggest Usenet servers nowadays are piracy servers that keep the text-part of the Usenet as more of an afterthought. At one point someone came up with a way to use the text-only format of Usenet in a way to distribute data that was binary, i.e. not purely text. And this took over most of the system.

But I am not really interested in that and never was. What I am interested in are the fantasy roleplaying parts of that network.

rec.games.frp.*

I said that the forum has been running since the late 70s, but that’s not quite correct. The original structure of Usenet grew organically from the beginning. People were creating new groups when it suited them and it seemed logical. Which soon caused some hierarchies (specifically the net. hierarchy) to swell with groups that could barely be maintained. In a great upheaval in 1987 all the groups were renamed and restructured.

Some old hands are still angry about it and will bitch about it for days. That also is Usenet.

One can argue that the fantasy roleplaying group has existed since before that time. One also could argue that it only exists since 1987. Which still is older than the World Wide Web.

Usenet is divided into hierarchies, and the frp-hierarchy is part of the rec. (recreation-hierarchy) and .games. sub-hierarchy.

There are currently 11 .frp. groups in that hierarchy:

rec.games.frp.dnd	of course… it’s the hierarchy for Dungeons and Dragons. Always one of the biggest topics of the whole FRP forums this one got it’s own group.
rec.games.frp.misc	for basically all other kinds of discussions about roleplaying games
rec.games.frp.cyber	for cyberpunk systems (e.g. Cyberpunk 2020 or Shadowrun).
rec.games.frp.super-heroes	for superhero games
rec.games.frp.live-action	anything LARP goes here.
rec.games.frp.announce	announcements and news about products go here
rec.games.frp.industry	for all kinds of discussions about the rpg industry
rec.games.frp.storyteller	yes, this was created when the World of Darkness was big enough to demand it’s own forum
rec.games.frp.gurps	For GURPS, this part was created because while never the most popular game, it’s fans flooded the main group with so many messages about builds that it was decided to give them their own place.
rec.games.frp.advocacy	all kinds of discussions about roleplaying games as such and how they work. This is where the Forge came from back in the day
rec.games.frp.market	I guess this is for selling stuff. I have literally never seen a message in there.

Most of these lay fallow right now, with me and a few others being the only ones posting there every once in a while. I do have to admit part of it is because I don’t want to lose the that part of ttrpg history to a random deletion request for non-use.

Other TTRPG groups

The main hierarchies are not the only ones. Most normal Usenet servers carry at least the Big Eight, but most also carry others. The big other hierarchy is alt. (…definitely not named for Anarchists, Lunatics, and Terrorists, all evidence to the contrary…), which makes it easier to create groups. This means there are a few other groups here that might be of interest, if they ever would get someone to post in them. Their structure though is not as organized as the ones in the Big 8.

alt.games.frp.adnd-util	about utilities for playing ADnD. I would say, a general groups for RPG utilities.
alt.games.adnd	for ADnD. I am not sure why this exists, maybe because the main one was too stodgy, or it was created because someone thought ADnD was sufficiently different than DnD to warrant it’s own group
alt.games.earthdawn	for Earthdawn. Remember Earthdawn?
alt.games.x-files.rpg	For the X-Files RPG. Remember that?
alt.games.whitewolf	I guess a group for White Wolf games, which is also already covered in rec.games.frp.storyteller
alt.games.tolkien.rpg	a group about playing in Tolkien’s Middle-Earth

There are also local and language dependent groups around. Many languages and regions have their own hierarchies for exchanges between locals and/or in other languages.

uk.games.roleplay	group for roleplaying in the UK
de.rec.spiele.rpg.misc	general group for discussions of RPGs in German
z-netz.freizeit.rollenspiele.dsa	originally this was an Echo in a mailbox network, by now z-netz. is a small alternative German Usenet hierarchy. This particular one about Das Schwarze Auge/The Dark Eye
pl.rec.gry.rpg	Polish-language group
es.rec.juegos.rol	Spanish-language group
se.spel.rollspel	Swedish-language group
dk.fritid.rollespil	Danish-language group
fr.rec.jeux.jdf	French-language group
it.hobby.giochi.gdr	Italian-language group
hr.rec.igre.rpg	Hungarian-language group
aus.games.roleplay	Australian group

There are more, some of which I might not even find that easy because they are not on the servers I frequent (not all servers carry all groups) or are so specialized they might not be of interest to anyone but locals (e.g. saar.rec.rollenspiele exists, but I doubt many people in Saarland (the smallest of Germany’s federal states) still know Usenet exists)

Ok, ok, but how do you actually ACCESS this Usenet thingy?

That’s a bit more difficult, but not much. It used to be ISPs were all running their own news servers, this was actually the REASON you might want internet access as a private person, but that isn’t the case anymore. Google Groups is also going away, so that’s not a real option.

An easy way to check out what is being talked about on the FRP-hierarchy is campaignwiki.org/news. This server makes it possible to read and post on his own small server via a web-interface. The server is only running roleplaying-related groups, including the global FRP-hierarchy, and a few local ones that do not get carried in many other places.

Another way to access it via web browser is via web gateways. There are a few around, e.g. NovaBBS. There are a few of those around, but they might not carry all the groups (NovaBBS e.g. only rec.games.frp.dnd and .misc, because those are the ones with most activity).

The proper way to use it is of course by getting an account on a news server and adding it to your feed reader of choice. True hardcore users use terminal-based readers like tin or Gnus, but many Email programs like Mozilla Thunderbird allow you to subscribe to newsgroups.

But where do you get a news server?

Well, there are multiple free options (these are all technically text-only, although a few have some basic binary groups that allow pictures):

campaignwiki.org/news	(Switzerland) very small server, focused on ttrpg groups, also has simple web-portal
Eternal September	(Germany) popular free access server with wide range of groups
I2PN2	simple text server
NovaBBS	text server, as mentioned above also has web-portal
Solani	(Germany) server
dotsrc	(Denmark) focused on Danish users
Agency News	(New Zealand) server
Chmurka	(Poland) basic server focused on Polish users
CSIPH	basic server
Open News Network	(Germany) focused on German users
Gegeweb	(France) focused on French users
Hispagatos	(Spain) focused on Spanish users
Pasdenom	(France) focused on French users
NNTP4	(Germany) basic server

Most of these have instructions on how to connect on their websites.

Note: This is a redo of an article I wrote 13 years ago. Originally I thought I could just let that one stand like that, but just briefly reading through it I noticed things had changed dramatically in some areas. So I rewrote the whole thing from scratch.

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)