We like playing board games as a family, and it’s always a fun challenge to find age-appropriate board games that all of us will enjoy. It’s easier to find age-appropriate games that only my daughter, Lark, will enjoy, and we play those, too — but the sweet spot is when everyone is genuinely engaged. Looking […]
Kids’ board games my whole family enjoys (around ages 4-7) Read More »
Thanks to a great question from Rogue Prismatic Golem on G+, I’ve updated Hexmancer to version 1.1. This version includes clearer language for the d24 roll, the d20 roll, and the Byways and Waterways section, plus a new logo. (The logo font is Hexatus, by Koczman Bálint.) I also thought it would be a good
Hexmancer update and extended example Read More »
I needed a simple system for procedurally generating hexcrawl terrain and features, so I made one: Hexmancer. It’s two pages long, including design notes and acknowledgements, and you get to roll funky dice. What it does Hexmancer hexcrawls with your hexes, baby! Hexmancer is designed to procedurally generate a fantasy borderlands/wilderness region in “fantasy Western
Hexmancer: Procedural Hex Generation System Read More »
Richard LeBlanc, who produces wonderful, polished old-school resources, just published a free one-page tracker for exploration resources, and it’s glorious. (Here’s the direct download link.) It’s set up to help you keep track of torches, time spent in the dungeon, etc. in one-turn increments, and it includes notes for 0e, B/X, and 1e. This one’s
Free one-sheet time tracker for old-school fantasy RPGs Read More »
Metal Gods of Ur-Hadad (also available on DriveThruRPG; paid link) is a joint production by Wayne Snyder, Edgar Johnson, and Adam Muszkiewicz. Metal Gods is the “DCC is like the best heavy metal album covers” of zines. It’s rarr and gonzo and awesome and rawlished, and I love it. I wish there were more than
Zine roundup: Metal Gods of Ur-Hadad, issues 1-3 Read More »
Via a private share on G+, I followed a link to OD&D Setting, a free PDF by Wayne Rossi of the excellent Semper Initiativus Unum blog. It’s excellent. In 11 pages of logical observations, it pulls apart the components of OD&D‘s (paid link) implied setting — the encounter tables, the Wilderness Survival map, etc. —
OD&D’s implied setting Read More »
I was noodling about zines and the “raw but polished” quality that attracts me to the ones I like best (most recently the DCC RPG zines Metal Gods of Ur-Hadad and Crawl!), and it occurred to me that the portmanteau “rawlished” might actually be useful. It describes a lot of my favorite old school fantasy
I was struggling to articulate my play style preferences last night, during a session debrief, and I kept thinking, “Didn’t I write about this on G+ like a year ago? I wish I could find that — and all those great posts that helped me figure out what I wanted in gaming, too!” What I
Alchemy, agency, and surprises Read More »
Back in January, Epidiah Ravachol issued a fun challenge: Play 51 games in 2015. I paid attention to folks’ posts about it throughout the year, but figured I didn’t have a shot at hitting 51 — it was a busy year. To my embarrassment, I also spent nearly the entire year thinking the challenge was
Below, the War Rig. Witness me as I get single-digit gas mileage all the way to Valhalla Seattle. Day one of two: Miles driven: 597 Caffeine consumed: 1 large coffee, 6 Red Bulls States crossed: 3 Percentage of me that feels like roadkill: 73 Current location: Hermiston, OR Utah Some guy cut off my War
Driving the War Rig from Utah to Seattle Read More »
