“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

Ever run across old notes for a game or campaign? Ever find yourself wondering, “Where did this come from? What the heck was I thinking?” That’s what happened to me recently. I found some notes on 3×5 cards for something I dimly recall having named Dungeons & Sorcery. Here’s an example:D&S: Weapon ProficiencyWarriors 1 every… Continue reading Running across old notes: Dungeons & Sorcery

If dungeons are the beginning point of adventure, towns and cities are at the end. After all, adventurers needs someplace to go to rest and recuperate, get magic items identified, and spend all that loot they’ve accumulated from their perilous journeys into the unknown, right? Recognizing this, the earliest D&D campaigns – Blackmoor and Greyhawk… Continue reading Review – CITYBOOK I: Butcher Baker, Candlestick Maker

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I never got a chance to really meet Gary Gygax. I now regret that, if only because he was responsible, along with Dave Arneson, for a significant influence on my life: role-playing gaming. Since Gary died one year ago today, I’ve taken some time to read the memorials written by other… Continue reading Remembering Gary; Thinking of Dave

“This is Free Trader Beowulf, calling anyone…Mayday, Mayday… We are under attack…Main drive is gone… Turret number one not responding…Mayday… Losing cabin pressure fast calling anyone…Please help… This is Free Trader Beowulf … …Mayday…” I started playing Traveller back in 1977. I had been role-playing for a couple of years at that point, and I… Continue reading The Other “Three Little Booklets”

Starting about four weeks ago, my friend Adam was the first player I recruited to play in my Southlands sandbox campaign. Due to vagaries of schedules, the one time I knew I had for game-playing was on Monday afternoons. I knew this would be consistent from week to week, even though it limited my potential… Continue reading New Campaign, Part II: Taking it out for a test-drive

So there I was thinking about clerics, gods, and worship. Part of the idea behind clerics is that they are defenders of their faith, right? And the gods do desire worshippers, right? But where do those worshippers come from? Eventually, Patriarchs get lots of loyal followers, but there’s not much there before that. But the… Continue reading Clerics and conversion

I like reading Grognardia. I suspect a lot of other gaming aficionados do, as well. One of the things I appreciate about James Maliszewski’s exploration of gaming topics is that he’s quite clear that all he is doing is expressing his personal opinion and preferences. “This is what I like – you might think differently.”… Continue reading Like Banquo’s Ghost: Edition Wars and the One Right Way to Play

This particular thread on the ODD74 forum got me thinking about magic items and how to identify them. I’m not fond of the “automatic identify” option, simply because I believe magic items should be special, weird, and mysterious. I think some of this stems from having played with referees in the past who weren’t very… Continue reading “There are runes on the blade….”