TORCHES (6)

A RPG Microblog Collection 5

1. The Moon Realm: One of the minor domains of the OSR is screwing with the moon and Alone in the Labyrinth maintains that tradition with their "exiled stone-age psychonauts exploring the spirit realm". I especially enjoy blogging about settings/campaigns because it harkens back to blogging of yore.

2. Market Instability: Nickoten at Pathika lays out a brief rule for market instability:

The “base” price of a good is 2d6 of your standard currency, which can be rerolled for each item or each shopping trip. This price is then multiplied depending on the price category. So a “Plentiful” good is 2d6 coins, a “Limited” good is 10x that, a “Rare” good is 20x that, and a “Treasured” good is 200x that.

3. Review of Appendix N: False Machine not only does a nice job reviewing Appendix N: Weird Tales From The Roots Of Dungeons & Dragons but I think it also succinctly frames what is attractive about the energy of sword & sorcery stories:

Impulsivity, immediacy and atavism, but always with intelligence, sharp wits and keen senses. These stories are about things happening now. Too late! In the time it took you to read this sentence the Barbarian has killed a man and moved to another scene.

Also, I have this book and I am on my second read-through despite having read a few of the stories like Tower of the Elephant many times before. However, its interesting to consider them all in aggregate. Its also a great gift for D&D fans, young and old.

4. Most Adventures Are Bad: Gus L. has a breakdown of why a published adventure might miss the mark in terms of quality as well as a few questions we all could ask ourselves when putting together something for the table.

5. Where to Start With OD&D: I faced this same issue when running the Gygax 75 Minute Challenge. I am leaning toward WhiteBOX: FMAG as it seems to keep me from overly obsessing about the ruleset, which puts attention back on the game.

6. Holme Alone: This is a nice post about a 2008 thread from Carcosa's author McKinney about looking at Holmes Basic as a complete game. No AD&D supplementation, Level 3 is the cap, and it would last as long as it would take to reach third level which is about 33 sessions. I like this because it matches some of my ideas about level 4 being a natural break point and 33 sessions make for a nice timeframe, especially with today's modern entertainment environment. Its a sorta capsule campaign and something to think about as I frame Tropics of Cancer. Also, Blueholme: Printice Rules is a favorite ruleset of mine. And if you are thinking of such a game, the Zenopus Archives Holmes Reference is a must!