Re-post - On the 10 (ish) Best Versions Of Dungeons and Dragons

http://hackslashmaster.blogspot.ca/2013/08/on-10-ish-best-versions-of-dungeons-and.html

Really makes me want the B/X sets!

Mega Dungeon Adventure Seed

Here is the adventure seed for my mega dungeon, its just a way to get the PC's into the huge complex I've been working on.  I've decided to finish it as soon as I can! as its been driving me nuts, once its cooked I'll put it up for free.  As a side note, go ahead and steal the idea just change the name of "Zane Valenzafob" as I'd prefer that to be an on going character in my campaigns. 

I've thought long and hard about what system I want to use with this, and kicked around about 10 different retro clones that I could stick to.  What I've decided is to mash em up and make a semi system agnostic module, the real gist will be the AC's , I'm going to do my best to put both ascending and descending in there.  

Tacked to a tree outside of town you come across a very interesting sign.  It reads…

“In need of alchemical ingredients, foolhardy adventures need only apply!  You will be compensated for your services.  Inquire at the hut on the edge of the forest

-Zane Valenzafob

You make your way to the ancient hut on the outskirts of the forest.  Sitting in the shade of an oak tree is a wizardly looking chap, A human about middle aged with a wildly long moustache, wearing a green overcoat and gently strumming a lute.  He looks to you and says. 

“Ah I see someone has read my sign perhaps? Or are you here on some inane quest to have a wart removed?” grumbly. 

(wait for PCs)

“Well here is my proposition, my stocks of alchemical ingredients have slowly dwindled over the last few years, obviously I use a few here and there making potions, but my confounded apprentice Sailice drops and burns more ingredient’s than she uses!  I will gladly pay you for whatever you can find for me.  Have you ever heard of the Underworld perhaps?”  Most of what I seek is below the surface.  I will pay you reasonably for any items you can find, some more rare items the price will obviously go up.  So what do you say?

Zane stands up and hands the characters a small sack, and explains “this is a bag of teleportation, I created it, handy little contraption if I do say so myself.  It’s extremely helpful when out exploring, you just pop the ingredient into this bag and it magically transports it straight to me! (if the PCs ask about there money) “Ah yes, well I will transfer the funds right back to you, provided of course the samples are of decent quality.  Alternatively I can keep a good account of what you’ve sent me and pay you upon your return”.

One of the entrances to the underworld is a cave about a day or so’s journey from here, It may be inhabited with a few goblins, but I’m sure they won’t be too problematic for you chaps eh!”  After that, find what you can. 

Free eBook

This post is not entirely related to RPG's or OSR , as the blog usually is.  However I figured it would be nice to point out some really good works of fiction that are now available on drivethrufiction.com

A friend of mine , Author Victor Epp has released 3 exceptional ebooks on drivethrufiction.com , one of which is FREE! You can check out Vic's site at http://talkingebooks.wordpress.com

Here is a copy of his latest blog post.

More OLD SCHOOL POSTS COMING!

Elder Scrolls Homebrew?

Been doing a little thinking about Skyrim & the rest of the awesome bethseda Elder Scrolls titles.   After reading thru microlite & basic fantasy, I think it would be very straight forward to create a homebrew RPG based specifically on this world, most importantly the races of Tamriel.   To learn more about the races of Tamriel - http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Races_(Oblivion)

Another great thing about the games is the world is already built for you, there is a rich history, especially if you r a fan of the game.  What I find really interesting playing thru Skryim is there are references to Oblivion and Morrowind within the game, same goes for Oblivion and Morrowind.

As far as OSR is concerned, if you take a races like a Khajiit & Argonian , they work quite well as thieves in the games, if you based your ability scores etc on something like a Halfling, that would probably work well.  In the games there are a few different races of Human , Nord (Think Viking) Redguard's, Imperials.  Of course there are a bunch of different types of Elves, one of which is similar to a halfling.  The one stand out thing in all these games is there are no dwarf's, they were erased from existence for some reason.

Most D&D type classes would work fine if you wanted the games to be similar, as well as specialty classes like Assassins.

After stretching my google powers I found this blog with interesting information on how to run a Skryim/Elder Scrolls type OSR game

http://bardsandsages.com/juliedawson/2013/05/20/skyrim-homebrew-campaign/

http://bardsandsages.com/juliedawson/2013/05/20/skyrim-character-creation/

OSR Manitoba!

WOW! I'm really excited to see that there are like minded OSR Individuals in my community!

What is OSR Manitoba

OSR Manitoba is a place for people who are interested in classic RPG gaming and specifically as a community in Manitoba.

This forum is what will be used for scheduling games for this community for the time being.
This is especially important for online games such as with Hangouts in Google+

If you wish to schedule a game please contact Scott Hadaller at lord.transcona at gmail dot com.
You must be a member of the OSR Manitoba Facebook Group to receive announcements and have the OSR Manitoba Google+ Page in your G+ Circles in order to join a Hangout Session at OSR Manitoba.
Of coarse you can host your own Hangout with anyone you like with your own G+ account for OSR Manitoba listed events.


What is the OSR? See these links below:

List of Old School Renaissance RPGs

List of OSR Web Sites
Links to Wisdom - OSR Resources
orsgaming.org

What "dead" RPGs do you want to bring back to life? - either for a campaign or a session. Let us know so we can schedule some games

OSR Manitoba Facebook Group
OSR Manitoba Google+ Page

http://osrgaming.org/main/index.html

Noir RPG?

I've got a confession to make! Every since I played "LA Noire", I've been addicted to the whole Noir genre of books.  I recently just finished reading "Everybody kills somebody sometime" By Robert J. Randsis .  Its a Rat Pack Mystery, really good stuff.  There's a few other ones in the series that I'm going to hopefully make my way thru (thank god for library card!).  This noir thing just reminds me of a simpler time, the 50's, of course this was just after the war, the real hey day for Hollywood, and before nuclear fears.  Not to mention the cars were so friggin bad assed.  I mean who hasn't dreamed of having a 50's black caddy?  Not to mention all the reading I've been doing, my onstage persona not consists of a dark green fedora (I'm in a rock band called One Blue Door).  And as soon as I put it on I'm transported back to that era, you automatically feel more like a gentlemen somehow.  All this Noir got me thinking, there must be some Noir based RPG systems out there, so I went ahead and posted it on the Google Plus OSR Forum, and I found a few gems, in case you were thinking of running that type of game.

 d6 Adventure - You can find it right here - http://opend6.wikidot.com/

The next system I found is more of a spy one, but I'm sure you can covert it to be a bit more 50's noir, (which I'm planning on doing) its based on SRD, published by Microlite , here's the link to the pdf http://www2.abillionmonkeys.com:3389/spylite/SpyLite.pdf

A future based Noir game called "technoir" http://technoirrpg.com/index.php

Hoodlums & Hideouts - https://sites.google.com/site/hideoutsandhoodlums/

Mystery Men - http://matt-landofnod.blogspot.co.uk/p/mystery-men.html

Weird Adventures - http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=97722&src=Blog

Some mini's you can print off - http://www.rpgnow.com/product/24109/Pulp-Set?it=1

And of course I'm sure you can work some Call Of Cthulhu in there somewhere!http://catalog.chaosium.com/index.php?cPath=41

It seems that this idea has already been well thought out! which is awesome.  I'm not entirely sure if I will ever run something like this, as it really depends on my players who rooted in fantasy, but its something to think about at this point.  In the mean time I'll put my fedora on, grab a scotch neat and open my latest Robert J. Randsis novel, and enjoy.

Cheers

Random thoughts;...

Doing a little surfin thru google + this morning and I stumbled onto this, which I absolutely love http://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/2013/07/13/isometric-osr/  - I really dig all the maps this guy creates as well (Dyson Logos)  I've been tryin to emultate them and failing miserably so I'm just taking a few cues from his style and moving on to something that's more me.  :) I think that's the point isn't it?

I had a really interesting idea for an adventure, after watching Percy Jackson and Sea Of Monsters (Movie) which BTW was pretty decent, good story line, however don't go see it 3D as it kinda blows, not a lot of the over the top 3D that your used to when going to a 3D movie.

So that being said I've got a cool idea for a adventure involving as many mythical Greek/Roman creatures as possible, a quick flip thru Basic Fantasy's creature's and I got Pegasus, Minotaurs, Golems (Greek statues) Hydra, and the list goes on... (also can't remember all of them at the current moment).  I'm guessing this is going to have to be for higher level PC's though.

Have a good weekend!