I’m having an epiphany of sorts. For a very long time, I thought that the idea of “race as class” was just plain weird.  Why couldn’t a dwarf be a fighter?  Why can’t a hobbit be a thief?  It seemed very strange to me, reading about this in Moldvay/Mentzer Basic D&D.  “It’s about the focus… Continue reading Race as Class

So in the latest session, our band of hardy adventurers had gotten split up: Eric – a human cleric of Styphon the Healer-god Reacher – a human “locksmith” Fram – a human priest of Galzar Wolfhead …had all gone through a teleportal that caused them to appear about 20 feet above ground level, near the entrance to… Continue reading The “New” Campaign: Trouble on Second Level

Alternate World Forms:  Several alternatives to the traditional spherical world form are possible. Most occur when a civilization wishes to trap and use energy from its central star, and needs great land surface to do so.  In addition, population pressure (especially on a civilization unable to develop interstellar travel on a large scale) may be a… Continue reading Traveller Tuesday: 1977 Edition Worlds, Part Two

In the three weeks and two sessions since I last reported on my “new” D&D campaign, we’ve added not just one player, but two – I’m up to three players at my local FLGS, and other gamers are beginning to notice.  It’s fun, but I must admit I’m continuing to run into some issues in… Continue reading Update on the “new” campaign

The referee has the responsibility for mapping the universe before actual game play begins.  The entire universe is not necessary immediately, however, as only a small portion can be used at any one time.  In unsupervised play, one of the players can generate worlds and perform mapping on a turn by turn or adventure by… Continue reading Traveller Tuesday: 1977 Edition Worlds, Part One

I just got my copy of Advanced Edition Companion  in the mail from Lulu.  Man oh man oh man….I’ve only had the briefest chance to look through it, but it looks really, really good.  Did I mention really good?  I think Dan’s got my number with this product – almost like he was reading my mind.… Continue reading Advanced Edition Companion: Initial Review and Reflection

“As characters travel through the universe, they already know their basic physical and mental parameters: their basic education and physical development have already occurred, and further improvement can happen only by dedicated endeavor.  The experience which is gained as the individual character travels and adventures is, in a very real sense, an increased ability to… Continue reading Traveller Tuesday: 1977 Edition Experience

As I’ve mentioned before…now with items up for auction! TARGA Announces Pledge-An-Auction Drive TARGA is organizing the 2010 Pledge-An-Auction drive in support of GaryCon 2 and the Gygax Family Fund for use in funding a memorial statue in honor of Gary. Come join our virtual auction and help us to present a great donation to Luke Gygax… Continue reading Auction Announcements

So it turns out that I have a bunch of back issues of Great Plains Game Player and its successor, Gamelog, both of them published by Jim Lurvey.  Jim’s a great guy – I can say that, having known him off and on for nearly 30 years now. It just so happens that in an… Continue reading Digging Around…

Something I like about technology is that it helps us do things that would otherwise be a lot more work.  Without further ado, here are five different online tools that ought to make refereeing a bunch easier: Brad’s excellent Labyrinth Lord character generator page. Peccable Productions Moldvay D&D adventure generator. An interesting and quirky random… Continue reading Five links to make refereeing easier