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Eow Links 45 |
| 2021-11-07 |
Eow Links 45
"Eow" for End Of Week. TTRPG Links I gathered during the week. This is iteration 45.
For more weekly links, head to The Seed of Worlds Shiny TTRPG link collection.
Most of the links below are found via the RPG Planet that Alex Schroeder built and maintains. If you have a RPG blog, please consider joining the conversation.
Now in a quarantine hotel, using my suitcase as a desk for my laptop. Still in a no images and no comments mode. My favourite post is On running large open table games.
Engine Overview: The Mark of the Odd
Overall, play in a Mark of the Odd game is focused on problem solving and creativity. Combat is lethal even for a relatively high level characters against relatively weak opponents. Instead, player characters must always focus on finding ways to stack advantages.
My Top 5 OSR and Non-OSR Indie RPG Roundup
It is about using the open source language of Basic /Expert or Advanced D&D to create something different. Thus, my favorite OSR games both are familiar, on some levels, and totally new on others.
Coins in D&D and Found Advancement
In D&D, then, coins are not really coins. They are vague, shiny rewards, findable units of experience.
On running large open table games
Nowadays we might call it an overly elongated funnel - a bunch of randomly generated characters thrown into hazard together until eventually out the far side a group of unlikely companions emerges.
The Tension between Armour Class and Hit Points
There were two primary ways of avoiding death. You could stand behind the front line so that no one could attack you in melee. Or you could have a good armour class, so monsters were unlikely to hit you.
Effects of Armor Class on Character Longevity
It seems to me that the purpose of the to-hit roll is not just to prolong the lifespan of the target but, literally and directly, to introduce the likelihood that a hit fails altogether. That sounds obvious, but it's a distinction worth drawing out with different implications for play than simply increasing hit points.
Irony: no longer just a diet rich in ferrous metals. Old-school gaming is now officially old, having lasted way longer than the period of gaming it looks back on.
The basic hex-crawl, in comparison, is dirt simple to understand, design, and run. Hence, this post.
This is the procedure. As always, don't worry if the results are weird - "How can the knight be lawful evil and his wife chaotic good?" because the dice are always right. Roll it up now, make sense of it later.
The Poltergeist of Furze House
The ghost of the late Mr. Furze urged Fry to buy a ring with the money and give the old woman the ring instead. She accepted it. All’s well that ends well, right?
It all boils down to… that thing the good professor invented
We both roll dice. If you roll high, your view of reality prevails. If I roll high, my view of reality prevails. If we're close, we negotiate.
"We're Doing Something Wrong."
I well recall playing a game of Cold War fighter combat (...) in the early 80s where a single pass by two Tornados at an element of MIG 25s that might have taken ten to thirty seconds of real time actually required all afternoon to play.
The Basic Procedure of the OSR
The Basic Procedure, when spelled out, almost reads like a story game, with the idea that the game is a conversation and the rules intervene in and mediate that conversation, imposing some sort of structure.
However, like the shut eye, the trick works best if the dungeon master is practicing a self delusion. All of us do this to a degree, because it is necessary to the very act of imagining.
Ethan Mollick, Professor of Management at the Wharton Business School, gave us a great reminder that the game of Monopoly was, ironically, ripped off from a prior game with partly similar mechanics and a totally different intent
Normal Men, Sorcery, and Alignment
1) Alignment is not a mere philosophy but indicates allegiance to supernatural forces; 2) Human Characters start off as Neutral and become Lawful or Chaotic through the course of a campaign; 3) Magic is either granted or stolen from Demons of Chaos.
(fr) 1982 : Donjons et Dragons aux Editions Solar, traduction ou plagiat ?
In 1982, a lavish "Donjons et Dragons" was published in France, while there were no official traductions. The post asks itself if this was a translation or a plagiarism. Probably neither. Anyways copies of the book now fetch high prices.
