Category: Uncategorized

  • The Multiple Designer Model

    While tradition ascribes the authorship of Dungeons and Dragons to a legendary figure called Gary Gygax, a recent wave of scholarship has posited a multi-author model as the best explanation for inconsistencies in the rules. The inquiry began by noting differences in language and then noticing different viewpoints systematically associated with vocabulary and style. Whenever…

  • Halls of We’en

    Over at Itch, I posted a Shadowdark funnel for the Weird Tales game jam. I used the Watts-Strogatz algorithm to generate the map. Also at Itch, my conversion notes for running Hot Springs Island in Shadowdark or OSE.

  • How many repeated attempts?

    Suppose you, the GM, allow repeated attempts at … say, picking a lock. Often this comes with some type of risk (random encounter rolls) or resource expenditure (eg, torch timer, spell expiration, etc). If each attempt has a high probability of success then you can just roll and roll a second time if necessary and…

  • Sew your zines

    I recently got a bookbinding kit on Amazon for $7 as I got very tired of choosing between reading zines on my tablet or paying $10 for the zine + $5 for shipping. I found it works well for anything up to about 100 pages. I don’t expect to buy a printed zine again unless…

  • More Gygax’s Finches

    In a previous Gygaxian naturalism post I gave some thoughts on D&D implications of allopatric speciation. This is what people usually have in mind with evolution, where two populations are physically separated and so diverge genetically, especially if the two environments differ. For instance, a storm blows finches from the mainland to an island which…

  • ,

    Gygax’s Finches

    The dungeon is a strange environment. And I don’t mean that just in the mythic underworld sense, but in the sense of Gygaxian naturalism. One of the basic issues is where do the monsters come from? For undead and demons and such the answer is basically “magic,” which settles the issue. Often these undead or…

  • Tumor table

    Inspired by an r/osr typo. Roll 1d6. Crystoma. Small crystals erupt from 3d10 square inches of skin. Common in mining races and thought to be spread via exposure to xorn droppings. Crystals are most likely worthless but on a nat 20 the afflicted’s survivors can roll on the gems treasure table. Osteoma diabolica. Bony tumors…

  • Hi there

    I expect this blog to consist of: my general thoughts on gaming (sometimes informed by my background as a social scientist) reviews of gaming materials thinking aloud as I write my first module, “Treasure of the Satrap’s Army.” More on that in the next post. My basic perspective is pretty typical for OSR: I prefer…