SWN sessions 1-3 play report.

This is a play report of my Stars without number game i started last December, its set on a post apocalyptic planet whose factions range wildly in tech level though most are unable to create modern tech such as firearms and effective medicine. Starting out I had two players one playing John Wailing a solider from the east seeking out his kidnapped
son and the murderers of his wife, the other players Zinaida Sokolov, a Psychonic scientist seeking out other Psionic masters to learn from.

My Players started out on the road, hired by Isabell Avellino, a merchant working on behalf of a distant organization that is journeying to the village of Pitt. In the first session they journeyed to the trade town of Services, along the way they bump into a group of tribal's from Pitt out hunting, John Wailing searched the area for animal tracks and helped point them in the right direction and they promised that he would received help upon visiting Pitt. After a day and a half of travel they arrive in Services, John and Zinaida Sokolov start looking for information on their various goals, after spending most of his starting wealth John finds that the group of Tribal's he's looking for dwell in the mass of ruins known as the great rubble, these Tribal's are often referred to as the dust devils or ash savages, they wear tattered furs and tribal markings made of grey ash as well as strange masks that hide parts of or all of their faces. Zinaida on the other hand hears rumours that the village of Pitt is run by a psychic of some kind.

During the second session the players continued their journey to Pitt along the old road. During the journey a stranger approached their camp one evening, a grumpy old man wearing ragged cloths and a lopsided straw hat. cautiously John demanded that he hand over his weapons, which he complies to grumpily handing over his revolver (which turns out to only have 3 bullets left). Warming himself by the campfire the stranger introduces himself as Charles Smith a cattle herder who as presently lost his herd to a hopper attack (hoppers are giant omnivorous locusts that hunt the grasslands).

After breaking camp they continue onwards to Pitt arriving at the villages outskirts around early evening. The players find that the town is dug into the sides of a old quarry, making their decent down to the village they partway with Isabell who pays them for their services. Mentioning to the villagers (know as the chalk thumbs) about how they helped the hunting party on the way to Services the party is offered a spare house for them to stay in. Once again seeking information the players seek out the village chief, finding him in his house they discover that he is some kind of low level psychic able to see visions and sense psionic energy. Inquiring also about the Dust devils the players hear all manner of tales about them being ghosts or being able to come out of nowhere and disappear just as swiftly, concerned by these story's John expresses interested in arming and training the Chalk thumbs.

During the night the party hears a knock on the door, it turns out to be Isabell who tells them that the machine she was hired to retrieve needs some replacement parts, she believes that a ruin on the outskirts of the great rubble may have the parts she needs. In the morning the players meet up again with Charles Smith, who agrees to travel with them, and set off to escort a group of Chalk Thumbs to trade in Services.

In the 3rd session The players continue their journey to Services arriving at around mid day, John starts inquiring about weapons finding that most dealers are pawning scavenged guns of questionable quality and reliability, finding one store with decently maintained weapons he talks to the owner Philips Carter. Philip informs John that he is limited on stock and would be unable to supply enough guns to arm the chalk thumbs, he does suggest a deal where the players clear a military base for him and he will collect and fix the broken weapons. They also meet up with a priest known simply as Barrel who wishes to travel with them. 

The party starts a return journey to Pitt, getting ambushed by large flightless birds on their way there, John manages to scare them off my shooting into their group a few times. Upon arriving in Pitt, John meets up with Isabell again to discuss the part for the machine and she mentions a member of the Chalk thumbs that may be a good guide for the great rubble, John and Barrel go to meet this guide and make a deal for his services. 

The players then leave Pitt the next morning and journey to the outskirts of the great rubble, their guide Ed grey legs leads them to the ruin Isabell talked about and they approach cautiously. John checks the door for traps before opening it but misses the bell hanging on the inside, the bell rings and John hurriedly scans the room he has just entered. He sees rows of dusty shelves in front of a shop counter with a scrap of fur on it and a large metal door with warning signs on it, approaching the counter he spots a strip of leather coming from behind the counter as well, looking behind the counter he see's a primitive bag made of rough leather and fur, it contained some bullets and some jerky made from an unknown meat. after determining that this room is free of threats John moves to open the metal door, inside a pale humanoid creature with large eyes. John backs away but the door is too stiff and rusted to swing shut, the creature leaps forward and a combat ensues John trying to weave in and out of the shelves for cover while his allies take pot shots from the doorway, after a few unlucky shots the players finally manage to put enough lead in the creature to kill it. 

Searching the room beyond the metal door, they find some canisters of fuel, 2 repair bots (one broken the other in sleep mode) booting up the robot and it introduces itself as R.A.M, the party then decides to loot the rooms they have and recover some spare parts. They begin their journey back to Pitt but on the way they bump into a confused man in a blue jumpsuit with a foggy memory. They question the man (who introduces himself as Stevie) but he struggles to answer their questions or understand where he is he tags along with them back to Pitt.

and that's where the games left off, let me know what you think of this game so far I will try to post more play repots in the future.

M.C.

Video Games and TTRPG's

I have previously discussed the upcoming Darksouls TTRPG and looked through the Fallout 2d20 system on this blog and I think the relationship between Video games and ttrpg is a subject worth discussing. Over the years there has been many video games adaptations of ttrpg's and many ttrpg adaptations of video games (both Official and fan made) and there is defiantly some of cross over in terms of design and fanbase. But when it comes down to the finer details of design I think there are some very clear differences in strengths.

In my opinion it seems obvious that the strengths of ttrpg's are their flexibility and open ended nature, this aspect is often emphasised in the OSR though not exclusive to it. The ttrpg's leave room for the GM to make adaptations and rulings that fit their table instead of trying to have highly complex rules to manage actions and circumstances.

there are certain trends in ttrpg's however that seem to be trying to emphasised things that ttrpgs are naturally weak in, these include making boss fights, increased combat complexity and character builds. I feel that a lot of people try to emulate the wrong things from video games as an inspiration source, they try to copy mechanics that don't translate well to pen and paper, complexity can be very fun in format where such equations are done instantaneously by a computer but watching someone try to do mental maths isn't. 

Closed system ttrpgs that feel the need to have paragraph long rules for every conceivable action are also irksome especially when such systems breed rules lawyers as a natural consequence of the text reading like a legal document, you don't need to spell out what the consequences of casting a fireball in a hay barn in summer is its literally fire you know what fire does don't you?

A living world is again where ttrpgs shine, a video game is great when you first play and you encounter events and npc's for the first time, but sooner or later they end up feeling 2D and repetitive. Ttrpg's on the other hand can be infinite you don't have the same limitations and can improvise dialog on the fly and can react to the player precise actions at the time rather than having to predict their actions at the planning stage of the adventure.

Many people will claim that ttrpgs are a tool box and you can do just about anything with them, this is true but like with any tool understanding their strengths and weaknesses is important for using it effectively. So in conclusion embrace the flexibility and adaptability that ttrpgs have and don't get too bogged down with "Realistic combat" or custom magic systems.

M.C.

Mutant making, Rolling up mutated fauna

Trying to expand my random encounter tables for my Stars Without Number Apocalypse game I felt the need to roll up some Mutants to pad out the world, I've been using some tables from Other Dust and Maximum mutagenesis for randomized mutations and then selecting the combinations I like the most and expand .

1. Pygmy Tiger, this predator is a miniature Saber-toothed tiger evolved out of housecats, they hunt in packs and have remarkable cunning

HD1 AC13 TH+1 DMG1d4 MOV15m ML8 SK+2 SV15+ Number appearing 4d6

2.Drill worm, this is a parasitic maggot with a elongated body and a drill like horn coming out of its head, this could burrow into a person to drink their blood requiring a physical save to remove (with a +1 using a blade and a +4 with proper medical equipment)

1 HP 14 TH+1 DMG1d2 (after latching on deals d4 dmg per round until a successful Physical save) MOV10m ML7 SK+1 SV15+ Number appearing 1d6(may be found feasting on a recently dead corpse)

3. Entangling mammoth, this is a woolly mammoth with a longer trunk that can act as a powerful tentacle strong  enough to lift a fully grown man off his feet,

HD6 AC13 TH+5 DMG1d10(grapple reflex save to avoid/escape) MOV15m ML8 SK+1 SV12+ Number appearing 2d6

4.Raptor hawk, a avian reptile hybrid with razor sharp talons, preys on small to medium creatures that they wear down with lacerating attacks.

HD2 AC14 TH+2 DMG1d6 (2points of shock/AC13) MOV20m(fly) ML9 SK+1 SV14+ number appearing 1d6

5. plane leapers, an ostrich mutant that has the ability to jump twice its normal movement speed, 

HD2 AC14 TH+2 DMG1d6(+d6on pounce attack) MOV15m(30m pounce) ML9 SK+1 SV14+ numbers appearing 2d6

I'm going to continue making some mutants to fill out an encounter table (along with some human wastelanders and robots) and may post the finish table in the future.

M.C.

Keep monsters weird

Generic fantasy is an oxymoron, how can fantasy be generic? Well if every setting has the exact same monsters (Elves are patient 0) and much of the same lore then something of the fantasy is lost, magic is all about the unknown after all you can only expect a bunch of players to feign ignorance over a trolls weakness for so long(even people who don't play D&D know its fire come on). 

Making your own monsters is one good remedy for these problems of course and there's lots of great random generators out there (Tome of Adventure Design by Frog God Games has a good section on generating monsters and The Random Esoteric Creature Generator by Jamie's Raggi is #1 for Weird as well as having a good section on this very subject, though the art may not be suitable for sensitive readers YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED) however I think that its how you put together these random elements that makes the monster.

Another important concept is to think about monsters in a more mystic and less scientific way, think less in neat categories and in more of an esoteric way, creatures grown in a wizards vat or born from a fallen star. A creatures creation story doesn't have to be logical or even be true in universe (unreliable narrator is a great technique for a DM in my opinion) it just has to be a compelling piece of fluff to ignite your and your players imaginations.

I'm planning on sitting down and rolling up a bunch of mutant monsters for my Stars without number game and I think it would be a good way to reflect on monster creation, so expect a post on that in the future. Any why let me know what you think about this subject and if there's anything you think I should go into more detail on.

M.C.

Why I love the OSR, Exploration is king

I think one of the biggest epiphanies I've had playing TTRPG's is that above all else I enjoy the process and rewards of exploration the best, from starting with 5e d&d where exploration is a stated "Pillar of Play" yet seemingly poorly used or understood, with missing dungeon crawl procedures, overreliance on the exhaustion mechanic for overland travel and everything being a DC check to the point where running a hex crawl rules as written must be rolling a dozen d20s every hex (which bogs down the game and is basically just fishing for success/failure after awhile)

It was really when I discovered the OSR that I had this realisation, a lot of the OSR books I have read emphasis exploration, from systems that heavily focus on these aspects of the game like Stars Without Number and Worlds Without Number, to adventure and setting books based around exploration and sandbox-style gameplay such as Hot Springs Island and Carcosa.

So what is exploration? Exploration in the simplest terms is the process of freely interact with a location; The GM creates the elements of the location and then you are free to manipulate the environment through the actions of your character. In game terms there are certain mechanics that form a structure for exploration. These are usually things that have values or measurements to them (Time, weight, size, distance etc) and abstractions for more loose or unpredictable elements (random encounters, weather, reaction rolls etc). This structure helps to ground the actions taken in a sort of virtual reality, but are not meant to precisely model the physics of the virtual reality. For example: the mechanics of the game may lay out how to open a chest with a crowbar or lockpick but the chest itself has certain properties. You could for instance infer that a wooden chest doused in oil may be burnt through (at risk of any flammable content) the rules are in place for abstracting common actions.

A lot of this is me organising my thoughts so it might not be the easiest to read but I hope it makes some sense, I would love to hear your feedback or opinion on the subject and would love to go back to this subject in the future. 

M.C.

A look at Fallout 2d20 part 2, character creation and skills

Character creation in Fallout 2d20 isn't a direct port of the game mechanics in the slightest, you have the familiar S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attributes the skills and perks are a mix of familiar and unfamiliar and the new Origins that hasn't really been an option in any of the fallout games (though playing super mutants and ghouls was apparently a option for the cancelled Van Buren fallout).

Special are the attributes for the game, Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility and Luck, these stats influence some derived stats such as Strength influencing your carry weight, initiative which is a static score equal to your Perception + Agility, defence is based of your agility and influences the base difficulty to hit you 1-8= difficulty 1 9+= difficulty 2, your starting HP are equal to your endurance score + your Luck score, and lastly you gain a melee damage bonus based on your strength score. you start off with 5 in every attribute with 5 points to increase attributes with you can also lower your attributes too though only to a minimum of 4 (so at least a 20% chance of generating a success on any dice roll) 

Skills of course are all linked to a attribute by default though there may be situations where a check requires a different skill attribute, skill ranks range from 0 to 6 at first level you choose 3 tag skills which increase their ranks by 2 and means if you roll a skill check under you  rank for these skills it counts as a critical successes (2 successes) as well as having 9+int score in points to spend on skill ranks though you cant have more than 3 ranks in a skill at level 1,

The skills and their default attributes are, Athletics(STR), Barter(CHA), Big Guns(END), Energy weapons(PER), Explosives(PER), Lockpicking(PER), Medicine(INT), Melee weapons(STR), Pilot(PER), Repair(INT), Science(INT), Small guns(AGI), Sneak(AGI), Speech(CHA), Survival(END), Throwing(AGI), Unarmed(STR), so some skills on this list aren't a thing in the video games such as Athletics, Pilot and Throwing the choices of skills included in this rpg are a mixed bag, i don't like the addition of Throwing as a skill these weapons would be better included in melee and I feel that Big guns is a bit of a wonky option for a ttrpg and liked how fallout new vegas included all the big guns into other weapon categories.

Origins are your background/race options of other games, you have the options of Brotherhood Initiate, Ghoul, Super mutant, Mister Handy, Survivor and Vault dweller. So three human origins and 3 non human origins, the human origins tend to have quite small bonuses compared to the non humans but the non humans also have quite big drawbacks that could change the way they are played or interact with other characters. Ghouls, Super mutants and Mr Handy's are all immune to radiation damage, Ghouls are healed by radiation, super mutants get bonuses to their STR and END (With a lower INT max of 6) and Mr Handy's have 360 vision, integrated tools and weapons and the ability to be modified with the Robot modification rules later on in the books, since origins are mechanics added on it should be relatively easy to make your own custom origins (I might do a post in the future to look at how easy the Fallout 2d20 system is to hack)

Perks are very varied, most perks are relatively standard doing things like unlock crafting recipes, increase damage with certain weapons, decrease damage from certain damage types or circumstances and decrease the difficulty of certain checks, many of the perks deviate from the video game versions either because the TTRPG has different mechanics or the more open play style allows for more flexibility, there are only one or two perks that add brand new abilities (which is good game design in my book) so I'm relatively happy with the way perks are done

let me know what you think of the system so far, I think next I will talk about combat and weapons which is where a lot of the novelty dice that this system uses (not my favourite part of the system)

M.C

Operation Whitebox, OSR WW2

One OSR system that I have pondered over a bit is Operation Whitebox, a WW2 special forces roleplaying game based off Swords and Wizardry whitebox. A very easy to use system that mostly only uses d6s and d20s and with a relatively low level cap of 5.

Classes are charmer, combat engineer, grunt, maquis, sniper, tactican, wheelman and uberlaufer, being based on whitebox each class has 2-3 class features a circumstantial bonus to your saving throw and a bonus gained on reaching 3rd level (usually some henchmen)

weapons like with whitebox all use d6 to varius degrees, and the OD&D rate of fire on range weapons make some appearance though most weapons only have a rate of rife of 1 or burst which can allow for a +2 to hit with more ammo usage or suppressive fire which is more of an area effect which anyone moving through is hit by a random amount of damage, heavy weapons consist mostly of explosive weapons (plus flamer) 

Armour is... non existent, well you have Battle dress uniform which provides a +1 to AC and antiquated armour (that only provides a +1 bonus against bullets and explosions), given that the largest Dex bonus is a +1 (+3 with the advanced ability modifiers optional rules) your looking at a max AC of 12 and its not like your going to find any +1 chain mail in occupied France so cover and tactics are definitely the name of the game, to survive your going to have to think like a special forces operative,

This book also contains some information on the war and special forces that GMs may find useful for running games in the historical setting as well as a time line of the war, Rounding off the main system is a example mission and a mass combat resolution rule.

The standout part of this system however is the mini settings in the back: Nazi Super Science, Nazi Occult and Galaxy War 1939 (WW2 in space!!!), these settings each offer interesting pulp adventure opportunity's and the systems compatibility with other OSR systems and adventures allow you to really go wild just take a look at Bandits keeps Operation Ravenloft a Operation Whitebox campaign that runs through the original castle Ravenloft module https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLG3jiZCzff_4ymaLxY-CuUIzM7e0F3fb9 

the possibility's are endless race to find the Ark of the Covent, gun down hoards of Nazi zombies, shoot a dragon with a rocket launcher or fight hover tank battles on the moon

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/196284/OWB001-WWII-Operation-WhiteBox?cPath=26684

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/251318/OWB001-WWII-Operation-WhiteBox-FREE?cPath=26684

let me know that you think of the system, this was only a brief overview but I hope I have highlighted something you might find interesting.

M.C.

Making the OSR less Deadly?

One of the things that the OSR is well know for is its deadliness, this can be great for those looking for a challenge and is largely deserved but sometimes the deadliness isn't a result of intentional game design but unspoken assumptions and rules not being followed.

The first of these big assumptions is group size, early D&D was focused round groups of 6 as a minimum as well as assuming at least a few retainers or hirelings, many retro clones and even some more contemporary OSR systems tend to run on the same assumptions, a few house rules such as starting with max hp at level 1 or more access to healing (especially if the party doesn't have a cleric)can help make these  systems a bit less of a meat grinder for smaller groups which are more common in the modern TTRPG hobby

Another that I have heard lamented by others who have been in the OSR longer than me, is that more modern OSR adventures don't have enough treasure to level the party at an appropriate rate, this might not be a direct problem to you if you are creating your own dungeons and adventures but keeping in mind that treasure is a crucial resource for levelling in OSR systems as well as providing access to equipment and hirelings that make future adventures possible, it is worth over stocking a dungeon with hidden treasure rooms or optional side areas

lastly be careful about throwing poisonous monsters especially ones that attack from ambush like some giant spiders, poison is one of the deadliest mechanics in OSR systems as most use the classic save or die poison, though as long as your players are aware of the risk such monsters pose and there's some telegraphing (such as spiders webs and snake skins) nothings stopping you from putting pit snakes or giant jumping spiders in your level 1 dungeon (I suppose level draining monsters are similar but they are usually found on higher dungeon encounter tables and rarely on wilderness encounter tables) 

lots of this is just adapting your game to the type of group you have, though I have often found myself running for quite small groups, let me know that you think of this post

M.C. 

A look at Fallout 2d20 part 1, core system overview

This is probably going to be a quick post to start but I wanted to talk about the Fallout 2d20 TTRPG by Modiphius. I have been reading through this system for about two weeks now and I must say I have enjoyed what I read so far. The system strikes a good balance in emulating Fallout and being a playable TTRPG, the 2d20 system is a pulpy action driven system with a minimum of maths. 

The core of the system is the skill checks where you need a number of successes equal to the difficulty of the check(ranging from 0-5) these checks consists of rolling 2-5d20 and every roll bellow you Attribute + Skill level is a success, a critical count as two successes and occur on a nat 1 or rolling under your skill level on a tagged skill, rolling a 20 (though the range can be increased based on how risky the action is) results in an additional element which is something detrimental happening (these are largely contextual to the skill check and ill talk about these when I talk a bit more specifically about certain checks)

By default you have 2d20 for each check though you can get more d20's from spending action points (that are a pool shared by the party) the cost of which increases based on number of d20's purchased (+1d20=1AP, +2d20=3AP +3d20=6AP) or buying action points from the GM(which also increases their action point pool) your party's action point pool is added to for every success over the difficulty level.

Opposed checks are simply where someone rolls a skill check as described before and the number of successes they generate equals the difficulty of the check for their opponent to beat the winner converts any excess successes into Action points, you can assist someone else with a skill check by rolling your own skill check at 1d20 if they get at least 1 success you can add any success you generate to their total successes.

this system encourages team work and cooperation since your successes can help your party to achieve more successes, there's even actions you can do like the Rally action that has a difficulty of 0 meaning ANY success is converted into Action points which could lead to some interesting party comps (high Charisma Hype man anyone?) of course I have it on good authority (a friend who is familiar with the Conan 2d20 system) that its important for the players to spend and buy action points to keep the game moving at a good pace, it is also worth noting that complications don't prevent successes they just add additional detrimental elements to the scene.

the book is ordered in a bit of an odd way so going forward ill be jumping around a bit to pull stuff from different sections of the book, next time I will run through character creation and skills.

M.C.

A Darksouls TTRPG is in the works but can it be done well?

Yesterday I had a chat with some friends about the new Dark souls TTRPG that has been announced, there is almost no information about this TTRPG so far only that Steam forged games (https://steamforged.com/) the same company that made the Darksouls board game will be making it. This announcement has lead to a handful of articles and much speculation one of the big topics is what system will it use?

Steamforged games have produced a considerable number of video game tie in board games and card games, in terms of TTRPG related products they have Animal adventures a system neutral/5e compatible campaign setting and adventures? Adventures and Academia which seems to be a line of miniatures and miscellany for 5e designed for playing in a magic school(so Strixhaven) and their epic encounters series for 5e D&D, 

so... Elephant in the room they have made a fair bit of 5e compatible stuff, many of the aforementioned article's have taken this to mean that the new Dark souls TTRPG will be based off 5e or at least be a d20 system. Personally I don't think that a 5e hack or d20 system can do Dark souls justice, in fact many such fan made systems already exist, for instance Dungeons and dark souls and the Dark souls D&D wiki, both are homebrews of 5e D&DS being a collection of homebrew rules, spells and items for the 5e D&D system and the DSD&DWiki being a hack of 5e trying to be as faithful to dark souls as the system would allow.

Looking at these systems a few issues arise, firstly its trying to cram the feel of DS into 5e in many ways making the system Less deadly (like adding Estus Flasks, giving abilities to avoid dyeing at 0hp etc) or trying to shove Dark souls character progression into a class based system or trying to interpret Darksouls mechanics through the lens of 5e mechanics (And often poorly such as with the rolling mechanics they insist on making just use the dodge action its pretty much the same thing as rolling in DS)

My main reason for dreading a d20 adaption of DS is combat, DS combat isn't just a ,matter of d20+bonuses v AC, when you swing your weapon or block a hit in dark souls it costs you something, you are constantly having to manage your stamina bar when attacking and defending, this of course doesn't have to be a total that you manage like hit points, maybe each turn you have small number of points to spend on actions based off your stats? some actions cost more than one point like swinging a heavy weapon or running and at the end of your turn any points you haven't spent can be used to try and roll of parry attacks? 

level progression and classes are another big factor, DS has starting classes which basically are just starting stats and equipment, after you start playing you can invest your points where you pleases so starting as a sorcerer you can add more points into Dex and use a magic infused rapier for example, this would lend itself well to some form of skill based system like a d100 system (but without skills?) but you would also want to avoid having to change your derived stats every level (too much book keeping)

anyway I'm interested in seeing what becomes of this Dark souls TTRPG, I have been a fan of the Dark souls games for years now so I hope that they come up with something innovative and I'm sure there's plenty of other fans who would equally be interested in such an adaption, 

tell me what you think in the comments, I would love to hear what type of system you think would capture the feel of Dark souls as well as how faithful or innovative the system should be I'm leaning more towards innovative personally 

P.S. another Dark souls inspired game I found is Grave a hack of  the Knave RPG, it gives a more rules light adaptation of a Dark souls TTRPG, my opinion is divided about some of the house rules but its worth checking out  https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/336550/Grave

M.C.

Travel in D&D isn't broken

Just a quick blog post as I've not posted something in the last few days, one thing you can find in abundance on YouTube is advice videos on how to "Fix" travel or "how to make travel more interesting" this implies that travel in D&D is broken or boring and to be honest I disagree I think D&D Travel does exactly what its trying to.

Firstly I think this is an issue about what fiction exactly we are trying to emulate, a lot of the assumptions around "fixing" travel seems to be from the premise that high fantasy epics like Lord of the Rings or Wheel of Time are the examples to be followed, in these story's the journey lasts a considerable amount of time, in a lot of ways more important than the destination, it is during the journey that a lot of character development and action happens this is a polar opposites to D&D's heavily abstracted travel.

If however we compare it to some Swords and Sorcery story's on the other hand this glossing over or abstracting of travel makes more sense, in theses story's large parts of the characters journey are briefly described apart from noteworthy encounters, be it some sort of foe to defeat, obstacle to overcome or character to interact with

This style of travel is a lot more about going from A to B than focusing too heavily on travel, you calculate how long the journey will take, note off any resources expended and roll for random encounters and weather, after you deal with any consequences (combats or roleplay generated by encounters, effects of weather condition on travel etc) you arrive at your destination, it lends it self well to location based play where exploration of a location is the highlighted part and the to and from is more a matter of logistics than anything else.

As I said at the beginning this is just a quick post and this is definitely a topic I would like to talk about in more detail, I am currently running a Apocalypse sandbox using the Stars without number system that I will be starting up again next week so expect some play reports coming soon for that.

M.C.

A list of Free OSR Systems

Hello Again,

Looking at the currently most well know OSR Systems (DCC, OSE and Mork Borg) there seems to be a problem with price and availability. I am in no way saying that any of these systems aren't worth their price tag and indeed I own a copy of all three of these but issues with price, availability of books and specialist dice (which are a pain to get outside of the US) may make these systems not the best option for your first OSR system.

Thankfully there are a wide range of books available for free in PDF and cheap in print that can serve as an affordable option for those looking to try OSR gaming. Here are a few of my suggestions as well as links for their PDFs:

1.OSRIC, in many ways the start of the OSR, OSRIC or Old School System Reference Index Compilation is a retro clone of AD&D, it cleans up the format of the original books, if you want to try AD&D 1e this is a great option though it uses descending armour class instead of ascending which may be confusing to those unfamiliar with such a system.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/359869/OSRIC?filters=45582_2141_0_0_0

2.Whitebox: Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game it is a retro clone of OD&D based off another retro clone "Swords and wizardry white box" character sheets and monster stat blocks are possibly the simplest they can come outside of minimalist or rules light systems. a great option if trying an OSR system for the first time it has rules for both ascending and descending armour class as well as some guidance and optional rules that would be helpful to new DM's (I recommend using the alternative death rules and the binding wounds optional rules especially for groups smaller that 6 players)

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/190631/White-Box--Fantastic-Medieval-Adventure-Game?filters=45582_0_0_0_0

3.Labyrinth Lord: Revised edition, a Retro clone of B/X with some house rules such as Clerics starting at level 1 with spells, it is a good option for any looking for a B/X Retro clone but also suffers from only having Descending armour class, if you enjoy this system you may also want to try Mutant Future, a post apocalyptic system using mostly the same rules. 

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/64331/Labyrinth-Lord-Revised-Edition-noart-version?filters=45582_2140_0_0_0

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/56282/Mutant-Future-Revised-Edition-noart-version?filters=45582_2140_500_0_0

4.Swords and Wizardry Complete, this is another system based off OD&D but with a considerable amount of house rules, it contains both Ascending and Descending Armour class and is overall a simple system with a good amount of depth.

https://www.froggodgames.com/product/swords-wizardry-complete-rulebook/

5.For Gold & Glory, this is a retroclone of AD&D 2nd edition, again like with OSRIC this should appeal to any looking for a fairly complex system with a lot of depth then this system may have what your looking for, however like it uses descending armour class.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/338979/For-Gold--Glory-2e-Core-Rules?filters=45582_2141_0_0_0

6.Worlds Without Number and Stars Without Number, last but in no ways least we have two systems by Kevin Crawford, both of which are less retro clones and more original systems. these systems offer a large degree of character options with different skills, focus(like Feats from 3e and 5e) and duel classes, as well as a lot of tables for world building, deluxe versions of theses books are available which contain more optional rules such as rules for epic hero's.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/230009/Stars-Without-Number-Revised-Edition-Free-Version?filters=45582_2141_0_0_0

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/348809/Worlds-Without-Number-Free-Edition?filters=45582_2141_0_0_0

7. Basic Fantasy Role-Playing: forgot this gem, not only is this system available for free but so are many adventures and supplements. this is based of B/X with some notable house rules such as there being no Race as Class. a fantastic starting point for the OSR the books are ridiculously cheap off amazon too if you want physical copy's

https://www.basicfantasy.org/

8.Dark Dungeons and Dark Dungeons X, forgot to mention these two, they are BECMI Retro clones Dark Dungeons being the more faithful of the two and Dark Dungeons X having a lot more tweaks and house rules (including changing the mystic class to the lupin class) this is another system that used Descending armour class

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/177410/Dark-Dungeons

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/310711/Dark-Dungeons-X

9. Mazes and Minitours: this is a slightly tongue and cheek game that imagines a version of D&D from a universe where the 1963 Jason and the argonauts movie and Greek myth was the main inspiration instead of Swords and Sorcery fiction, an interesting game that uses ascending AC and even has a companion supplement also available for free.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/204635/Mazes--Minotaurs-Players-Manual#:~:text=Mazes%20%26%20Minotaurs%20is%20what%20the,Poul%20Anderson's%20Three%20Hearts%20%26%20Three

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/204636/Mazes--Minotaurs-Maze-Masters-Guide?manufacturers_id=11095

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/204637/Mazes--Minotaurs-Creature-Compendium?manufacturers_id=11095

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/205080/Mazes--Minotaurs-Companion?manufacturers_id=11095

Let me know what you think  of these systems as well as any others options that I might have missed.

EDIT: Thank you Eron for reminding me i forgot Basic Fantasy Role-Playing

EDIT2: Added Dark Dungeons and Dark Dungeons X to the list

EDIT3: Added Mazes and Minitours to the list

M.C.

New Year, New Blog and New Years Resolutions

Hello, 

I've been playing TTRPG's for about 3 years now and OSR systems for about 1 year, over this time I have been trying to learn as much as I can about D&D and TTRPG's in general. I like to think that over this relatively short time I have learned a lot mostly from older more experienced DM's but some also from Autistic overthinking of mechanics and rule implications. I still have a lot to learn and I'm by no means an expert so fair warning I'm probably wrong most of the time. I view this blog mostly as a tool for me to improve and learn though I hope I will be able to provide something of value to others.

Anyway I have a list of TTRPG related New Years resolutions that I hope will be a bit of a preview of what I plan to talk about on this blog. 

1.try more systems, I have played a few OSR systems over the last year but there are a lot I still am looking to play as well as some non OSR systems like Fallout 2d20, Call of Cthulhu and shadows of the demon lord. I am interested in trying new mechanics and exploring different game styles.

2.use more digital tools in the prep and running of games, when I first started playing ttrpgs I had an aversion to digital tools, seeing them as clunky and frustrating to use, however over the last year having started playing exclusively digitally I have been forced to re think this, I have started using campaign documents to prep and record the events of my games as well as using worldogropher to generate maps. I may post some of the game reports that i record during and after play on this blog too.

3.create a mega dungeon, this is something I've tried a bit in the past and definitely a style of play I enjoy, my plan is to create a 30 floor (yeah maybe not that big) mega dungeon over the month of March for the Swords and Wizardry complete rules.

4.build some mini settings, I tend to have a lot of ideas that flash up and then are lost before i can incorporate it in to any game I'm currently working on, the idea behind these mini settings is that they are just small hexcrawls or city crawls, as a archive of game ideas I've had and may want to revisit, the types of settings will vary wildly as well as the system I had in mind for each.

Again I'm quite new to ttrpg's but eager to learn so constructive criticism and advice is always welcome, I hope you have a Happy New Year