Inspired by @prokopetz making the point that "hospitality was a major part of a wealthy household’s basic social obligations" and "at any given time, a large household might be playing host to a bewildering assortment of friends, relatives, friends of relatives, relatives of friends, celebrities both far-ranging and local, dignitaries, con artists, miscellaneous weirdos, and that one guy who nobody can quite place" so that "you’re missing an opportunity if you never talk about the Guests"...| Seed of Worlds
Det sker, at når man gennemgår gamle samlinger af rollespil, at man finder et eller flere ringbind mellem rollespilsbøger, box sets, stakke landkort fra diverse supplementer og charteks med bilag fra diverse rollespilssupplementer, der længe siden forvildede sig væk fra deres ophav. Det fascinerende i samlingerne er ringbindene. Ringbindene er et indblik ind i en […]| Stemmen fra ådalen
Fireball: save or die Alle væsner inden for ildkuglens område skal foretage et saving throw. De, som fejler, dør. Mit Dungeons & Dragons spil, som stødt tager form gennem diverse podcasts og sceneoptræden, sigter mod storladen fantasy, og det er ikke en version baseret på D&D 5th edition, men på summen af D&Dish systemerne fra […]| Stemmen fra ådalen
We are excited to announce that Stern Pinball’s DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: THE EYE OF THE TYRANT [Premium Edition] is finally here and ready for you to begin your quest! This original pinball design includes a unique story that was developed just for this game. You select your character, then level them up by defeating enemies,…| Arcade Galactic - Video Arcade & Pinball Gaming at Valley Fair Mall in West V...
This post contains the first level map key for the cemetery plot and adventure introduction in Part 1 and Part 2. Ground Level A. Gate The fence around the family plot is made of wrought iron, eight feet tall, with ornate spikes across the top. The iron arch over the gate rises to twelve feet […]| RPG Wandering
This five room dungeon showcases a “before” and “after” version of an adult dragon’s lair, and it seems appropriate for this month’s RPG Blog Carnival, “After the Dragon,” hosted by Sea of Stars. I like the layout of the map, but I’m not sure I like how I detailed it. I’m used to old-school maps […]| RPG Wandering
The first time I learned about a nothic was when a friend was DMing Lost Mine of Phandelver. It was a very creepy encounter, as the DM played up the eeriness of the creature by having the nothic whisper unintelligibly in our minds as we entered the area around its lair. After reading the description […]| RPG Wandering
“It’s not easy being green” Even though this was my first time hosting an RPG Blog Carnival, it is actually pretty easy, and the folks of the community did not disappoint! I did not have a lot of time to write this month, but I did get two posts done: a little bit of magical […]| RPG Wandering
One of the players was not able to make it to the first session of my Rusheniya campaign, and I didn’t want to run the first adventure without everyone there, so I decided to run a set of prologue scenes, one for each PC there, and a final one with all the PCs. Each individual […]| RPG Wandering
We played a session zero for the Rusheniya campaign this weekend, and it was great fun. The players had enjoyed the work and detail I put into the setting so far, and did not disappoint with their connections to the city! We started the session with player introductions and a discussion of Lines and Veils, […]| RPG Wandering
My backyard is blooming, so I thought a list of mundane and magical plants might be interesting. It also works as part of this month’s RPG Blog Carnival theme: It’s Not Easy Being Green…| RPG Wandering
What happens when two engineers turn Dungeons & Dragons into a testing ground for AI? They end up with a working AI-powered game engine that doubles as a blueprint for building more intelligent, reliable agentic systems. The post The D&D Blueprint: How Role-Playing Engines Can Guide Next-Gen AI appeared first on ShiftMag.| ShiftMag
Murkmail had a cool idea for hex/sub-hex encounter tables - Mixing hexcrawl encounter tables and I gave it a spin as part of Hexcrawl25. I...| seedofworlds.blogspot.com
Thieves guilds and assassins guilds are ubiquitous in AD&D cities and towns. Both assassins and thieves are found on the DMG's city/town encounters matrix:| Blog of Forlorn Encystment
Adventuring is dangerous business. Dungeons are filled with monsters, tricks, and traps. The wilderness is littered with small armies of orcs and bandits, and strongholds ruled by hostile high-level characters who demand jousts or tribute in the form of magic items, or send player characters on quests via geas to obtain such items.| Blog of Forlorn Encystment
It's easy to think of treasure as purely reward - the player characters have overcome the challenges of the dungeon or wilderness and have s...| forlornencystment.blogspot.com
Wer das „größte Rollenspiel der Welt“ leiten möchte, kommt schnell auf das Spielleiterhandbuch. Dieses verspricht in einem Band alles zu vermitteln, was Spielleitungen brauchen, um Abenteuer zu erschaffen, magische Gegenstände zu verteilen und erklärt nochmal die wichtigsten Regeln. Wir haben für euch reingeschaut, wie nützlich die Neuauflage ist.| Teilzeithelden
I wrote about " rebooting a campaign with 2d20 Conan " - spinning up a new campaign in the Scaled Lands. In the grand tradition of getting ...| seedofworlds.blogspot.com
"Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em, and little fleas have lesser fleas and so ad infinitum" - Augustus De Morgan (Siphonaptera)| Seed of Worlds
tl;dr: continues the stable trend since 2023 - 5e still 2/3 of campaigns, very little sign of change anywhere. So on the one hand, this is a 'nothing to report' report - on the other, the stability is the point.| Seed of Worlds
On the theme of 'how I prep' - sometimes you hit inflection points or changes to the campaign that require some unusual prep. My home campaign has been running a while, I have talked about 'shifting gears' before but there is an unusual prep condition that crops up when you *shift back* in trying to recapture an old campaign mode. This could also apply where you are trying to spin up a lore-true campaign in a setting with a lot of books; say a Baldurs Gate campaign with players who are Ed Gre...| Seed of Worlds
This post is part of the Appendicitis N blog bandwagon, originally put forth by Marcia of Traverse Fantasy. The challenge to bloggers was to compile a list of inspirations that impact their game design, akin to Gygax's APPENDIX N: INSPIRATIONAL AND EDUCATIONAL READING, originally found in the AD&D 1e DMG.| Blog of Forlorn Encystment
An excerpt from the AD&D DMG, under MONSTER POPULATIONS AND PLACEMENT , page 91: I found this paragraph interesting for a few reasons. Firs...| forlornencystment.blogspot.com
Apparently my special interest now is writing about the annoying mundanities of AD&D city/town life - taxes, tolls, intentionally misleading encounters, and irritating and expensive NPCs. To this end, I've been reading all about henchmen in the DMG. Boy, it is a lot more difficult to recruit these people than I gave it credit for!| Blog of Forlorn Encystment
Look at this guy's face: He's mad! Why? Probably because, per the AD&D DMG, dealing with NPCs "should be expensive and irritating": The exam...| forlornencystment.blogspot.com
Illo by Mikołaj Ratajczak This is the eleventh map in the Index Card Dungeon II set. This map sits directly underneath Map 10 (Lost Dungeons) and Map 9 (Ancient Sewers) above that. A single set of …| Dyson's Dodecahedron
Mød De rejsende, når de samles på en scene for at spille Dungeons & Dragons live. Fantasy Festival, Esbjerg, 20. september Svalegangen Teater, Århus, 24. november — Billetter Hotel Cecil, København, 13. januar 2026 — Billetter DE REJSENDE LIVE Oplev et live Dungeons & Dragons rollespil, når de tre spillere Elias Eliot, Maria Månson og […]| Stemmen fra ådalen
Have you been to Moria yet? That’s right, the OG megadungeon, the greatest of the dwarven halls, Khazad-dûm, where Gandalf stood alone, upon Durin’s Bridge, to block the passage of […]| Dragon's Lair Comics & Fantasy
Since I wrote about indentured magic-users and clerics being encountered among the city guard/watch, I've been poring over the rest of AD&D's city/town encounters. Yes, yes, that's the part of the book with the infamous harlot table:| Blog of Forlorn Encystment
Here's something that I mentioned very briefly in my post about the AD&D DMG's section on "taxes" (including duties, excises, fees, tariffs,...| forlornencystment.blogspot.com
You ever just realize everything about something you love changed when you weren’t paying attention? It’s happened to me twice when it comes to tabletop Roleplaying Games. In 2014 Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition released to the public and took the ttrpg space by storm. It was a throwback, self-referential, nostalgic game that built on […]| Gnome Stew
The Bramble Marches is a campaign I've been working on that's meant to include TSR-era exploration and end-game content into 5e D&D. A friend of mine has actually done more with it so far than I have. ;p| Trollsmyth
And back to my series of character classes for my mad mashup D&D game based on B/X but including rules from all over. This time, a bit of Hindu myth that really, really harshes on what lots of folks consider a core element of the Old School vibe.| Trollsmyth
Last week’s post covered most of the silly names in Power Behind the Throne, and sharp-eyed readers called out a few more in the comments. This week, I’m moving on to the adventure itse…| Graeme Davis
The Graxworm is a massive dead dragon of mythic scale, several miles long and large enough to contain a town in the mouth. Creatures have set up here to “mine” the massive corpse for it…| Dyson's Dodecahedron
These weapons are intended as a replacement for the weapons in the official rules. They have been modified somewhat to work with Bold Against Monsters (BAM) and ShadowDark, but could be used with T…| Dungeon Master Assistance
The blogosphere is celebrating Stanley Yelnats's birthday by posting hole . It's a blog bandwagon! A holewagon. The following post is my hum...| forlornencystment.blogspot.com
Illo by Mikołaj Ratajczak This is the seventh map in the Index Card Dungeon II set. This map sits directly underneath Map 6 (Dungeon Ruins), which in turn is below Map 2 (Northern Ruins). There are…| Dyson's Dodecahedron
“Slaying the Dragon” by fireflythegreat is licensed under CC BY 2.0. This is an optional rule for Bold Against Monsters (BAM). Also, heroic actions can replace Weapon Masteries in D&…| Dungeon Master Assistance
An excellent module haunted by some unfortunate flaws.Review Originally Published May 22nd, 2001The Forge of Fury is the second in WotC’s Adventure Path series of modules for D&D – d| thealexandrian.net
No, I'm not actually going to describe one hundred thousand encounters with a dragon. How would I even do that? If you want an exhaustively ...| forlornencystment.blogspot.com
These are class reference sheets for BAM. Download the free PDF HERE. If you aren’t familiar with BAM, it is my rules light 5e comparable RPG named “Bold Against Monsters” that I …| Dungeon Master Assistance
The Premium Edition of Stern Pinball's Dungeons & Dragons: The Tyrant's Eye, is coming to Arcade Galactic in Utah.| Arcade Galactic - Video Arcade & Pinball Gaming at Valley Fair Mall in West V...
Das Spielerhandbuch – das wohl essenziellste Buch und Eingangstor in die Welt eines jeden Rollenspiels. Schließlich enthält es die wichtigsten Regeln zum Spielen und zur Charaktererschaffung. Nach zehn Jahren erhält das Spielerhandbuch für Dungeons & Dragons eine neue Edition voller Änderungen, Verbesserungen und Neuerungen.| Teilzeithelden
When I first read Jack Vance's Tales of the Dying Earth (and other Appendix N literature) and became familiar with Mazirian the Magician, C...| forlornencystment.blogspot.com
Something I often struggle with when creating a sandbox is the level of detail to give to each location, and at what point in the process to do so. My sandboxes tend to be big - probably too big. The 100-hex sandbox was my attempt at codifying a procedure for creating a play area that felt big enough to contain the bare essentials that I would want for a campaign without going overboard. | Blog of Forlorn Encystment
Here's one that came to me when I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't get back to sleep. I've written before about my social in...| forlornencystment.blogspot.com
Listen, I’m a snob in many areas, but especially in how I have fun. If a game is pitched to me as “popular”, I’m wary of it. “Everyone’s doing it” is one o…| DREAMING DRAGONSLAYER
I am happy to announce the upcoming publication of the book chapter "'Dr. Holmes, I Presume?' How a California Neurology Professor Penned the First Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set," co-authored with Zach "Zenopus" of Zenopus Archives. It will be published in Fifty Years of Dungeons & Dragons, scheduled for release on May 14, 2024.| The Cryptic Archivist
I guess the Trollkin class set my mind on the track of "slightly monstrous adventurers with death-avoiding abilities". I googled "OSR skeleton class" and found only this: https://www.necropraxis.com/2014/02/06/skeleton-class/ so consider this class inspired by Necropraxis's. Essentially I've codified a bit more what it means to be an undead PC, and made the class rather more party-dependant.| Homebrew Homunculus
These are some of the kookier ideas I’m kicking about. The Elven one, I think, is a really flavourful and small change that makes them more Moorcockian/ Melnibonéan, which I dig. The Cleric change is something that makes sense to me fluff-wise, but I’m not sure if it might break the game too much - please let me know what you think. The Magic-User one is the most kooky, and has the biggest impact on how the game plays, so I've saved it for last. Any of these can be implemented separate o...| Homebrew Homunculus
D&D B/X is, I would wager, the most popular basis for OSR games. Therefore, B/X style ability modifiers are the most common. In case you didn't know, ability modifiers in B/X range from -3 to +3 and are determined like this:| Homebrew Homunculus
Observation 1: Most of the Thief skills in B/X D&D improve in increments of 5%, which makes using a percentile die rather pointless. You can take the percentile (and x-in-6) Thief skills table, convert all the values onto a d20 target number, and it looks like this (TN rounded up):| Homebrew Homunculus
Edit: It turns out most people just want the rules and not the editorial - If you don't want to know why you should use encumbrance and will just take my word for it, skip to the last section, or see the printable PDF of the rules here and the new inventory sheet here.| Homebrew Homunculus
You’re probably aware of the multi-attack abilities fighters have had over the years. There’s the “Melee attacks per round” table, where Fighters in AD&D could have 1/1, 3/2 or 2/1 attacks per round. That fractional value of 3/2 means your number of attacks alternates each round: twice in one round, then once in the next, and so on. Sure, it’s not hard to understand - but it’s still an additional thing to remember in the heat of battle, which I don’t want in my game. Newer edi...| Homebrew Homunculus
Attacks. Each jouster wields a shield (+2 AC if proficient) and a lance (1d12, use Strength for attack and damage rolls). On each pass, each jouster rolls an attack with their lance.| Homebrew Homunculus
The AD&D wilderness inhabitation tableshave infected my mind. They have wormed their way in, forcing me to make sandboxes I may never use. Now that they've burrowed deep beneath the surface, living (rent free!) in my brain, so too have I begun to dig beneath the surface. I'm increasingly interested in analyzing and rationalizing the implications of these tables, picking apart the little oddities that likely exist only because Gary Gygax simply wasn't thinking that much about it.| Blog of Forlorn Encystment
This post is part of the papal conclave Blog Bandwagon/Blogclave . As the world turns its gaze towards the Vatican, the blogosphere turns it...| forlornencystment.blogspot.com
Thinking about +Joseph Manola's post on time and distance, I'm going to give my PCs 1-3 months downtime between every adventure. A few loose rules for downtime actions.| Permanent Cranial Damage
Carrion is the endless city. Time began in Carrion, and in Carrion shall it end. When the world was new, the Hornèd Mother's child, the ...| permacrandam.blogspot.com
Dear Mr Dragonslayer :) How do you handle resource management in an open table campaign? Your wrote a great article on “returning to base” each session in an open table campaign. We are…| DREAMING DRAGONSLAYER
Capturing this now for a few reasons: This is the most organized I’ve ever been as a GM or DM — in fact, it’s the first time I’ve had a regular set of tools that I’ve …| Echo Station 5-7
As you've probably noticed, I've been spending some timeusing the tables found in Appendix B of the AD&D 1e DMGto populate my sandboxes, which I will definitely use in a real game at some point...| Blog of Forlorn Encystment
The knock spell first appears in original D&D's Book I: Men & Magic. It is a 2nd-level magic-user spell. The description is as follows:| Blog of Forlorn Encystment
My most recent foray into using the AD&D DMG to stock a hex map sparked some discussion about the frequency of "totally deserted" castles. ...| forlornencystment.blogspot.com
I typically propose very minor alterations to D&D: how to fix summoning , how to fix shapechanging , how to fix weapon damage . I'm not real...| forlornencystment.blogspot.com
Alright so look I didn't test this for probability and I don't care how fair this and honestly if you're worried about cheaters tell them to go to hell. This is definitely funnest with a real Rubiks Cube. But if you absolutely want something fair, use this: https://ruwix.com/puzzle-scramble-generator/| In The Land of Twilight, Under The Moon
DISCLAIMER: The concept of Random Advancement classes was made by one Zak Sabbath, and indeed his work is referenced below. However, I will not be linking to it. While I believe the work he started transcends him and can be used without being tainted, I will not be linking to his blog or books so as not to give him views he does not deserve. I don't support rapists.| In The Land of Twilight, Under The Moon
So, what if Magical Girls were Power Rangers? They already kinda are but let's apply the latter's action tropes.| In The Land of Twilight, Under The Moon
So, Magical Girls. I've written several classes for them, but what if that's not what you want? You just want like, a taste? Well, one of my players unlocked it, you see.| In The Land of Twilight, Under The Moon
Persona. Awesome video game series. It involves kids who do traumatic things to summon that trauma out of their heads to fight demons, and it's awesome. How is that not OSR-ified already? Or you can use this class to do Jojo's Bizarre Adventure stands, or like any other thing where someone summons a Fuck Off Monster out of themselves. Because honestly, that shit is dope.| In The Land of Twilight, Under The Moon
Cardcaptors are people who aren't competent at normal spellcasting, necessarily, but discovered the workaround of befriending spells instead of creating and casting them. A Cardcaptor not only needs to be everything else expected of a magician or adventurer, but they must also be an empathetic and kind person if they want to go far. Their spells, their cards, are all full individuals with personalities, wills, temperments, and desires. Should they be sensitive to them and believe in the heart...| In The Land of Twilight, Under The Moon
