Category: Game mechanics

  • Randomizers

    As every gamer knows, we generally use randomizers within our games. As regular readers of this blog know, I have a working knowledge of probability. As such, I figured I’d give a brief non-technical primer of types of probability distributions and how to approximate them at the table. Some of this is widely understood in…

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    Networks as dungeon generators

    In my previous post, I showed how we can use social network analysis to interpret dungeon maps. When I posted it to r/osr, u/abenf asked if I could use SNA to generate dungeons. As shown here, the answer is yes. However I want to be candid that dungeon generators are a solved problem so if…

  • Dungeons as networks

    A Melan diagram is a way to simplify a dungeon design to its bare topology to show if it is Jaquaysed (i.e., not linear or branching but with loops that allow meaningful choices). In the comments to a Justin Alexander post on Melan diagrams, there’s a discussion of whether explicitly invoking graph theory adds anything…

  • Coding hex flowers in R

    Goblin’s Henchman has done a lot of work on hex flowers, culminating in The Hex Flower Cookbook. The basic idea is to have a random table, but one with memory such that the last result affects the next. A “hex flower” is a hex of hexes, where the big hex is three small hexes to…

  • Oh, the Humanity

    One of the basic design issues with D&D is that demihumans get to do stuff, most notably see in the dark, that humans can’t. Given this, why would you ever play a human? This is a problem as a party that is mostly non-humans feels very high fantasy or even D&D eating its own tail,…

  • Chesterton’s d20

    AD&D as Crunchy OD&D Case Law If you read Peterson’s Game Wizards you see one of Arneson’s many failed projects was an index for D&D. This was necessary because within a few years finding rules spread across the white box and the three supplements was difficult and confusing. Unfortunately for Arneson, the publication of Advanced…

  • Right-skewed dice

    As I’m guessing was true for many of you, my first introduction to probability theory was pages 9-10 of the AD&D DMG in which Gygax explains how rolling one die (including d100) gives you a uniform distribution but summing multiple dice gives you a bell curve. Ever since, it has been a basic principal of…

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    Shadowdark review

    As a Kickstarter backer for Shadowdark I have read the PDF and my bottom line is it’s a really great game that skillfully synthesizes many different ideas and mechanics. If you were turned off by the hype, don’t be. I see it as a really well executed effort for what it intends to accomplish. I…

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    Gift economies

    This post is a reaction to someone asking how to run a gift economy on r/osr. The gamist answer is to say just stick with the presumption in Player’s Handbook that there’s a Target in the Keep on the Borderlands. Modern people are very used to markets which is why D&D has always had an…

  • Hexcrawl compatibility

    [Update 1/2/2024: added Knave 2e] [Update 11/25/2023: added Beyond the Wall and Seven Voyages of Zylarthen] [Update 6/26/2023: added AD&D 2e] [Update 4/21/2023: added Shadowdark] We are often told that the great thing about OSR is that all of the materials are mutually compatible. The idea is that it doesn’t matter if it says D&D,…