Over the past week, I’ve been migrating from my laptop, a Dell Inspiron 700m, to a new desktop machine. I had been using my laptop as a substitute for my old desktop machine, which had a significant “blue screen of death” system failure two days after I turned in my dissertation. But the laptop was… Continue reading The Wyrm Biting Its Tail

Just a note to let people know that Fight On! #4 has been released. Fight On! has been the flagship ‘zine of the Old School movement, and has moved to quarterly publishing via Lulu. While I don’t have anything in #4, I am expecting to submit some material for #5. Here’s the info on it… Continue reading Fight On! #4 released

I’m currently in Durham, NC visiting a friend from school, and so out of necessity, this might be a bit short. This is something of a follow-up to a comment I made over on Grognardia. Put simply, if you don’t buy the “evolution” argument about role-playing games, i.e. that games “evolve” somewhat naturally from previous… Continue reading OD&D + Supplements != AD&D 1st Edition

If you go through the list of books and authors that influenced Traveller, it’s a pretty long list. Poul Anderson was always one of my favorites, especially his Nicholas van Rijn and Dominic Flandry series of books and stories. Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle also had their effect, particularly their CoDominium series – A Spaceship… Continue reading Traveller Tuesday: Our Original Inspiration

Rob Kuntz points out the clay feet of the current batch of products: I am afraid these days that such appelations as “Fantasy Role Playing Games,” and as compared to D&D here and present, are losing ground as by-products of their two most important words: Fantasy & Games. Fantasy is the enchantment that led us… Continue reading Rob Kuntz Speaks Truth

The awfully snarky people at Gamegrene.com have posted the first review of D&D 5th Edition. Here’s an excerpt: “And yes, you heard me right: that’s at least a guaranteed level every night. Entitlement is the new word in role-playing, and Dungeons & Dragons delivers. Begone unfairness, imbalance and asymmetry! Everyone is rewarded at the same… Continue reading Would you care for a bowl of cream to go with that?

“Traveller is necessarily a framework describing the barest of essentials for an infinite universe; obviously rules which could cover every aspect of every possible action would be far larger than these three booklets. A group involved in playing a scenario or campaign can make their adventures more elaborate, more detailed, more interesting, with the input… Continue reading Traveller Tuesday: The Influence of D&D

“Trudge: the slow, weary, yet determined walk of someone who has no alternative but to continue.” This whimsical definition is from Barbara Byfield’s The Book of Weird – “being a most desirable lexicon of the fantastical” and therefore of interest to gamers. I ran across a copy when I was a teenager, and found myself… Continue reading The Book of Weird