/osr/ - The Old School Renaissance

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>>53891717
>Do you have a favorite OSR zine?
I read and enjoy plenty of them, but Knockspell is a cut above the rest.

>>53891717
>Do you have a favorite OSR zine?

Fight On!, although someone posted a table a few threads back that led me to some guy's blog and he had a whole bunch of zines that were solid.

I really can't offer more information than that since I didn't bookmark it, but I hope someone knows what I'm talking about. They were all a bit artsy and full of tables.

>>53891717
>Do you have a favorite OSR zine?
Never found zines that had the stuff I was after, but blogs got plenty of it.

>>53890063
It's lawful to slit your mother's throat if your mother is chaotic.
(or even neutral, if you subscribe to Arneson's school of thought)
It's chaotic to slit your mother's throat if you have something to gain from it.
It's neutral if you have nothing to gain from it.

Regardless, slitting your mother's throat is a faux pas.

So are you waiting for the release of an especial OSR?

I was thinking of paring down casters to two levels of spells that can summed up as "affects one guy or a few guys" and "affects a few or a lot of guys" depending on severity of effect, of mostly simple, fairly direct effects (damaging, cursing, charming, protecting, whatever), and having fighters with a set of stances meant to function as mechanical trade-offs, and maneuvers meant to scale as they level up (there would only be a single level, and they wouldn't all be attacks, but might also include things like extraordinary mobility or great feats). I can't really decide what to do with thieves though.

Hey, folks? I was wondering if you guys could help me out? I'm trying to track down the names and crunch for all the races that were available in Basic D&D, but I literally know nothing about it. Can you help a fellow out? I want to fix up the list of D&D races article on 1d4chan.

Some other anon elsewhere on the net gave me this list, but I need to know if there's more.

Hollow World: Warrior-Elf, Shaman, Wokani, Beastman, Brute-Man, Hutaakan, Krugel Orc, Malpheggi Lizard Man

GAZ10 Orcs of Thar: Kobold, Goblin, Orc, Hobgoblin, Gnoll, Bugbear, Ogre, Troll

PC1 Tall Tales of the Wee Folk: Brownie, Centaur, Dryad, Faun, Hsiao, Leprechaun, Pixie, Pooka, Sidhe, Sprite, Treant, Wood Imp, Woodrake

PC2 Top Ballista: Faenare, Skygnome, Gremlin, Harpy, Nagpa, Pegataur, Sphinx, Tabi

PC3 The Sea People: Aquatic Elf, Kna, Kopru, Merrow, Nixie, Sea Giant, Shark-kin, Triton

Hey guys, I haven't heard anything about Wolfpacks and Winter Snow for a while. Did Cavegirl abandon us for a blog, respectability and fewer spergs, and if so, has she released any of the supplementary material she was working on? I vaguely remember a module concept that sounded really cool, with ice sheets and ancient radioactive devices.

>>53892193
I can't be bothered to find the exact link (maybe some other anon who has it on hand will help you) but the Vaults of Pandius has an exhaustive list of every class officially published for Basic and in what book/issue of Dragon. Your list certainly looks very much like that one.

>>53892344
Thanks. And if they could organise their fucking layout better, it'd be even more helpful. Still, appreciate it.

/osrg/ - scenario tiem.

One character of dubious alignment gets greedy, wants to sneak away from the party to make a bargain with an evil magical spirit that is trapped in the dungeon.

How do you fairly adjudicate this situation?

>determine whether character can sneak away
>determine how long until party notices him missing

What happened to the /tg/ zine? Why do people seem to hate it? It was decent.

>>53891717
>Do you have a favorite OSR zine?
Vacant Ritual Assembly.
I crave for the mood and tone done by the Red Moon Medicine Show couple (dark modern fantasy, a bit after the implied setting of LotFP). They just do cool stuff I really dig.

>>53892596
Pass notes.

>>53892814
Only one guy cared, and he was so desperate for content that he used every submission.
What with the first issue being terrible and all, he never got enough material for a second issue.
At some point he just stopped asking. I assume he doesn't even cone to the thread now.

>>53891717
Is Runequest OSR? I'm looking for a pdf of the second edition.

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>>53892077
>I can't really decide what to do with thieves though.
Not sure if it's the kind of thing you're looking for, but here's this...

>>53893291
>the first issue being terrible
Stop meming this, it's not even accurate. The problem was that most of the prolific content creators got their own blogs instead, so there wasn't much left.

>>53894034
>Is Runequest OSR?
OSR is a rubric that's been applied specifically to D&D games, but someone here might know where to point you.

>>53894034
>Is Runequest OSR?
It is not. Occasionally there are "Old School Runequest" threads on /tg/, but they invariably die after 20-30 posts because the fanbase is very small and they're not as dedicated to it, since it lacks its own particular play style and is just one system among many for new-school play.

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>>53894479
Or this...

>>53894528
>>53894584
Thank you guys

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I posted a question in the old thread without realizing that a new one was made.

>>53894680

>>53894524
That's a shame. The art and content were good, but it seems like there were only a few contributors. Why not reach out to prolific creators like Zak S. or James Raggi?

Also the first issue is nearly a year old. Fuck me.

>>53894712
Those guys have their own cliques and their own zines, and I don't think they like 4chan much.

>>53894781
How come? Isn't this place right in line with zine/DIY culture?

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>>53892034
S O O N

>>53894707
>Does anyone here have experience with playing OS or OSR D&D with kids, or have played when they were kids? Did you need to change anything in the rules to make the experience better?

When I was a kid, I played with kids my age and with younger kids. But that was a million years ago and I can't recall much with clarity. At least when I started out, I made all the rolls myself and didn't worry them too much with the rules. I'm not sure what age group you're talking about, but using a fairly streamlined system isn't a bad idea (B/X over AD&D). I do remember that I used to have to ask leading questions sometimes to get people pointed in the right direction (or just to keep them moving).

>>53894712
>Why not reach out to prolific creators like Zak S. or James Raggi?
What would be the point of that? There's no reason to make a /tg/ zine if it's not made by /tg/.

>>53894679
>>53894034
Check the archive pdf in the PDF share thread (>>53880572) for a link to Runequest stuff. If you search the document for "runequest", the second result (Huge Tabletop Collection...) gives you a link that appears to have 2e core.

>>53894846
/osrg/ is pretty different from the google plus clique. We're anonymous and banter, they're public and pretty strict (in the "justify your statements" way).
I think a lot of them are afraid of 4chan because they imagine it's full of harassers.

Hello /osr/. First time poster and juste learning about the osr thing.

I want to run a megadungeon and make it infinite but not lolrandom. Do you have a good system centered around dungeon delving ? Do you if this has already been done and where I can find ressources ?

>>53892034
what >>53895024 said, also Blueholme and Mutant Crawl Classics

>>53895034
Thanks for answering. Do you remember if you were strict with death and dying? I could imagine kids getting pretty peeved if their character dies.

>I'm not sure what age group you're talking about
Around 8-12.

>>53895394
what is Blueholme?

How do you handle the transition to domain-level play in your campaigns?

>>53895466
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dreamscapedesign/blueholmetm-journeymanne-rules

>>53895389
Just grab Stonehell or Barrowmaze.

>>53895396
>Around 8-12.
That's probably about the same range I was playing with when I first started out.

>Thanks for answering. Do you remember if you were strict with death and dying? I could imagine kids getting pretty peeved if their character dies.
I was a self-taught 4th grade DM with no previous play experience in the days before internet and computer RPGs, so to say I had no idea what I was doing was a bit of an understatement. I started with B/X and ended up just rolling dice and making up shit a lot. Dealing with the rules was solidly on my shoulders and being new to things, I found that trying to run things by the book made things grind to a halt (and I'v always had a thing for immersion, cinematics and keeping things rolling.

As far as death goes, I typically tried to contrive things in a way where folks wouldn't die (they're only knocked unconscious, or something like that). I would occasionally get frustrated when everybody was unimaginative and aimless though, and let the weight of fickle fate come crashing down on them, but that was more about pique on my part than any sort of sensible decision.

I will say, however, that playing Paranoia with that same group of people a few years later was just about perfect. In fact, my adult experiences with Paranoia have all been disappointing, because only kids that age seem to have the right attitude. They moan and groan when they get fragged, but bounce back enthusiastically to try to fuck their friends over in revenge. Adults seem to be a bit too zen about things. They expect to get screwed over and so take it in stride, which takes all the fun out of it.

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I made a custom class that effects wandering monsters. Using ideas from Goblin Punch. https://goblinpunch.blogspot.com/2017/06/the-ranger-and-wandering-monster.html

Any sort of feedback mechanical, grammatical, or organizational would be helpful.

>>53895336
4chan is a toilet with some good threads among the shit that take forever to learn how to find and a culture that's plain fucked up. It's not a place you want to be associated with /directly/. On top of that,the blog crowd are a bunch of attention whores looking for headpats and succ. I watched one kickstarter darling get crucified here because they not only took all the bait, but also had never had anyone tear into their system without so many layers of verbal circumlocution that they couldn't take the hint or the entire clique ganging up and shutting down the one pointing it out.

>>53894707
The author of Into the Odd is a 5th Grade teacher.
IIRC, what you're asking about is why he wrote Maze Rats?

>>53895389
>Do you have a good system centered around dungeon delving ?
We only discuss one* system here, and it's a system specifically for dungeon delves.

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>>53896629
>On top of that,the blog crowd are a bunch of attention whores looking for headpats and succ

Now I want headpats.

>>53895614
I'm just writing a blog post about it, but the answer is "at level 1, through taxes".

>>53897031
The author of Into the Odd is not the author of Maze Rats.

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>>53892814
>>53893291
Pretty much. /tg/ is not big into collaboration, despite all the "gets shit done" threads. /tg/ is very good at producing ideas and going "eh, someone else will put in the hard work of finishing this off. I'm going to go produce more ideas!"

And that's fine and all. It makes for a good board. But 4chan's rapid anonymous structure does not mesh well with collaborative efforts.

And yes, if you create content, blogs are the better way to do it. PDFing a bunch of blog posts and putting them together seems silly. It means you can't do hyperlinks and tabbed references without hopping back and forth between a PDF and a browser. Some zines are little artbooks too, which is nice, but most are pretty forgettable.

>>53897141
Headpats are gateway drug to heavy petting.

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>>53897234
And that could lead to sex. And as we all know and greatly fear, sex could lead to dancing.

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>>53895889
Right off the bat, it's not bad. But you're sticking to a very... conventional style. You're telling us the who, the what, the how big. But you're not helping me visualize this.

Compare your description to something like: http://falsemachine.blogspot.ca/2013/08/cave-giants.html

Compress and generalize. Your entire mechanical Restrictions section could be condensed into 1 very short table.

The bonuses to thrown stuff and smelling is fiddly. It might work in your game, but I'd probably forget about it in mine.

Move Silently has a copy/paste error from "Thief".

Overall though, it's not too bad. It just needs to be condensed and made more evocative. Give me a reason to want to play these guys. Let me get inside their heads.

>>53894034
Just for curiosity, why people tend to look for RQ 2e when there is mythras and other newer editions? does it really change a lot?

>>53895889
That way that font puts a black dot in the lowercase gs is ugly and distracting.

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>>53895614
> How do you handle the transition to domain-level play in your campaigns?

Because I like you: https://coinsandscrolls.blogspot.ca/2017/06/osr-death-taxes-and-death-taxes.html

Tax your PCs. It's a good idea. It's a fun idea. And it's a very medieval idea. Find out how here.

>>53897801
>That way that font puts a black dot in the lowercase gs is ugly and distracting.
I have to agree

Somebody give me a title for my OD&D-esque writeup of how I play OSR that I eventually intend to print and bind layflat style.

>>53897936
"How I play OSR"

>>53897962
That'll look lame on the front of the book.

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>>53897936
Editing Not Required
The Oxford Comma Is Western Imperialism
Summonings and Bindings
Badger, Todger, Banter, and Rodger
Swell Fellows

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>>53897936
>>53897978
Most of My Opinions are Objectively OK

Staples Sold Separately

Judge's Guild 2, The Legend of Gary's Gold

Some Tables Required

People Always Talk About Hit Dice, But What About Miss Dice?

I Swear This Is Useful

I Should Have Blogged This

Oh Fuck, Another File

Thieves, Tools, Thieves Tools, and Tool Thieves

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>>53897936
>>53898127

Origami Instructions On Back

This Space Intentionally Left Dank

To Print Armor Class Hero

Morale Checks and Balances

Arneson's Son Arnie is a Carnie

(Got one you like yet?)

>>53897936
The Ankheg Laws of OSR (The ALOOSR)

>>53897936

"That weezer song really saved role playing games"

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If you make people in your game spend money to get XP, and even add in a rule that says they get bonus XP for spending it on frivolous shit, how likely is it for your players to embrace the rockstar lifestyle of an adventurer?

>>53898411
very likely

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>>53898411
Last session, I told my players that 10% of any money spent on purely frivilous stuff counted as XP. Normally, any money looted counts, so this is a pure bonus.

They IMMEDIATELY demanded to know what counted, and started planning outfits, religious donations, and bear-baiting excursions.

Then this session I'm introducing taxes:>>53897806

I might be evil.

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>>53898127
>Most of My Opinions are Objectively OK
GOAT
>Judge's Guild 2, The Legend of Gary's Gold
*Judges Guild 2: The Legend of Gary's Gold

>>53897936
The Campestri's Dirge

>>53897141
Degenerate inbreeding filth!

>>53897806

>Peasents owed their lord EVERYTHING THEY HAVE and had ZERO RIGHTS!

Is this a parody? Is this a joke? Literally not how it worked.

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>>53898538
>Degenerate inbreeding filth!
I have no idea where the headpats gif is from. I just googled "headpats gif" and picked the cutest one available. So help me, the only anime I've watched in the past 2 years is Nichijou, and that's only because it's Monty Python's Flying Schoolgirls.

>Judges Guild 2: The Legend of Gary's Gold
Mea culpa

>>53898639
OreImo
Ore no Imōto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai
My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute

Good on you for watching /a/ Seinfeld though.

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>>53898638
>Is this a parody? Is this a joke? Literally not how it worked.
I'm putting all the rights into the Estates post, but... no, not really a joke? Before we go on I'd like to say that did study this so if you're going to throw down, feel free to bring it to an academic level. I'm always happy to see new sources and cool research.

Peasants had a lot of rights. They were protected by a lot of laws. But for practical, gamable RPG purposes... they are tricky to deal with in a meaningful way.

Plus, there's the difference between "rights" and "practical realities", and the practical reality is that if you're a) poor and b) in the 3rd estate, everyone fucks you over, especially in disordered times.

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>>53898681
>My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute

>>53898905
The Japanese animes are a pit trap, Anon.

>>53898696
>the practical reality is that if you're a) poor and b) in the 3rd estate, everyone fucks you over, especially in disordered times.
I like the bit in Froissart where one of the Gascon adventurers points out that the local peasants loved him and his men because they bought livestock for food and paid well in good coin -- to them, a literal robber baron was a better master than their real lords.

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>>53899193
>the local peasants loved him and his men because they bought livestock for food and paid well in good coin

Proving once and for all that the old saying "Fuck you, pay me" always applies.

What about using a non-feudal setting for OSR?

I know you can argue that you could just use the generic weird medieval capitalism that most settings have, but what about something just a bit weirder? Like in the style of India with palaces and rich merchants and shit but different feudal structures? Or palace economies? Or a medieval like society that runs off good ol' fashioned capitalism?

>>53899571
>What about using a non-feudal setting for OSR?
It's fun and easy to do, if that's your speed. Check out Yoon-Suin, Qelong, Arrows of Indra, Weird Adventures, HMS Apollyon.

(The last is a series of blog posts about a gargantuan ship, on the Dungeon of Signs blog. The rest are books.)

>>53899625

I'd rather make my own then copy from a book, but thanks anyway.

>>53899571
>Or a medieval like society that runs off good ol' fashioned capitalism?
It's tricky when all the capital is held by either the church or some asshole with a title and no one has any purchasing power.

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Hey /osrg/, what special powers would a gymnomancer have?

>>53900140
Expose Harsh Truths
Protection from Normal Mobs
Grease

Their spellbook in their beard

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>>53900277
I don't know, but I have their miscast table.

>>53900140
Curse gynomancy upon others.
They don't have to use it.

>>53897536
>>53897611
Well if the only complaints are cosmetic, then this is pretty good I suppose. Isn't generalizing something and making something evocative opposing ideas? Also I don't see any dot inside lowercase G's.

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So besides the lame 'bonus to hit for different armor types', what interesting rules do you guys have for differentiating weapon types in combat?

>>53897806
Thanks, looks like an interesting way of introducing it. Although the tax rates seem... rather high. Even if they might be realistic.

Looking forward to the Estates post. I always like incorporating the Estates of the Realm.

>>53900140
Going off Diogenes, the main powers should be that as long as you own nothing and wear nothing your Charisma and Intelligence are raised to 18, and you can use the spells Anticharm and Avoid Consequences at will.

Possibly, also extremely good saves. As Dwarf?

>>53900551
>Diogenes
Wasn't he an autist?

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>>53900539
Don't think of it as high taxes. Think of it as future investments in potential gain. You're basically paying bribes for upward social mobility. And yeah, the players are going to throw a fit, but in my games, it's not GP spent by GP stolen that counts, so there's no actual XP loss. So it goes. If they think it's unfair they can ditch the entire feudal system and live like bandit lords or mercenary leaders.

But one day, they'll think, we can tax people ourselves. And then we're going to be /rich.

>>53900465
> Isn't generalizing something and making something evocative opposing ideas?
I wouldn't say they are opposing. I think they can be on different axis.

Generalize the boring bits (i.e. height, weight, HD, that sort of thing. I don't give a hoot and if I needed to I could guess it). Then fill the space left over with evocative text.

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>>53897806

You know, I see all your legit posts about medieval European stuff, about the first, second, and third estate and think it's all really cool for a historically accurate game.

But then I remember most of your rules and setting stuff is taken from goblin punch and you have a whole bunch of weird ass -ling races.

How in the fuck is that supposed to work? You're telling me it's all peasants and tithes and lords and castles but like half the people are man goats?

>>53900631
I'd just count taxes (and especially bribes) as "frivolous spending"

>>53900631
Just following the details found in Basic.

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>>53900632
>How in the fuck is that supposed to work? You're telling me it's all peasants and tithes and lords and castles but like half the people are man goats?

That's correct. The king is a bird. He's a big annoying bird who ate too much and now has knobbly knees.

Plus, I try to write the general use medieval posts as -ling free as I can.

The whole point of the setting is that the veneer of goat-man weirdness disguises the weirdness of the medieval era. It's a red herring for the players. It also gives me an excuse to add in all sorts of regional variations. Nobody really gives a hoot about the 5 kinds of lower Dutch but they instantly "get" lizards vs birds or whatever. It's allegorical for the fragmentation of small communities. It's much easier to go "that guy from the other village is a weirdo" when he's a slug and you aren't.

>>53900632
58% of the people are furry, and only 10% are human.
Unless I'm misunderstanding something, any given village only has like 2 or 3 types of furry.

>>53900596
No, he BTFOd Plato and didn't afraid of anything.

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>>53900660
It's called Basic for a reason. Do what you like though.

>>53900655
That might be a good idea. It'd encourage proper lawful behavior. Nice thinking anon. I give you 3 free rolls on the Camp Followers table. https://coinsandscrolls.blogspot.ca/2017/06/osr-table-of-camp-followers.html

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>>53900716
>58% of the people are furry, and only 10% are human.
I also correct the table to account for regional variation, but yes, correct, give or take. I'd argue the furry bit in light of >>53900686
but this is /tg/ and I'm not holding out hope.

Rolled 15, 93, 35 = 143 (3d100)

>>53900719
Do they pay taxes on the funds I misappropriate to them?

>>53900741
If they're smart, they do. But if they were smart they wouldn't be camp followers. At that point they're more or less outside the feudal system anyway. They'll need to pay taxes if they ever want to own, say, a house. Or land. Or a horse.

Spouse - drunk most of the time, surly while sober. Not particularly attached to you.
Cook - tries new ingredients. 2cp for a bowl of latest creation, 1-in-10 chance of being awful/delicious. Haggard.
Old Woman - knows which herbs cure common ailments. Demands liquor and better living conditions.

Huh. You've just rolled "my wife."

If I post a screenshot of >>53900719, >>53900741, >>53900769 on your blog, will she see it?

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>>53900686

I'm surprisingly ok with this.

I'll give you a pass this time, my man.

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>>53900791
She's looking over my shoulder and laughing. Not to worry anon, she used to be on /tg/ in the good ol' days. Drew the first lolicron, as I hear it.

>>53900798
Good to hear.
I also included them because it gives the players some variety, and they'll be going through a /lot/ of characters.

>>53900838
>Drew the first lolicron, as I hear it.

just as I suspected
women are the best loli artists, after all

>>53897806
>https://coinsandscrolls.blogspot.ca/2017/06/osr-death-taxes-and-death-taxes.html
I feel like this significantly omits the status of burghers, especially the citizens of free cities. third estate, but they don't necessarily owe anybody dick (as long as they're not trading in the market and/or possibly paying the fee to enter town, depending on where you are and what you're doing).

>>53901383
He'll do a post on Guilds eventually.

Preferably while referencing Rinconete y Cortadillo.

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>>53901586
Burghers... are a tricky issue. Yes, I definitely agree, I ignore them completely. That's because for the purposes of an OSR game, burghers are a) questgivers, b) vendors, or c) a retirement plan. I can deal with those 3 options all at once in the Estates post.

>>53901383
Absolutely I will.

>>53901656
>That's because for the purposes of an OSR game, burghers are a) questgivers, b) vendors, or c) a retirement plan.
I don't know about that, man. Given your rules for feudalism I'd make a lot of choices based on what would end me up as one, especially if I were playing a wizard.

>>53901656
>>53901586
Aren't guild s just unions?
I've yet to meet a person who likes union dues
Or the union management, for that matter

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>>53901730
>Aren't guild s just unions?

The answer to that question is so complicated that I'm not even sure if it falls on a yes-to-no axis.

Sort of? In theory?

>>53901708
>I'd make a lot of choices based on what would end me up as one

True, true. I'm also drawing heavily from a time period and area where the burgher class, as a whole, hadn't gained a lot of traction yet. If I was writing a game about Venice you bet your shorts I'd be writing very different posts.

It's almost like "City Life" is an expansion pack to Feudalism, and I haven't finished writing the core game yet.

>>53901730
They are not. They're LIKE unions, but not just unions, not least because they had far more control. They comprised both the employer and employing class at once, so, in many ways their objectives were very different from a modern trade union's -- the treatment of apprentices, for instance, the (typically very strict) insistence on high standards of workmanship, or the fact that the Masters had no scruples about making a fuckload of money. All the socialist baggage was just absent in general, for obvious reasons.

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>>53901830
>All the socialist baggage was just absent in general, for obvious reasons.
Not true! There were (initially, not later once the guildmasters became an elite political class) organized strike actions. And throughout the history of guilds, they maintained hospitals for their sick, pensions for their elderly and wounded, buildings, monuments, and collections for the souls of the departed. There were socialist trappings.

>>53901795
>I'm also drawing heavily from a time period and area where the burgher class, as a whole, hadn't gained a lot of traction yet. If I was writing a game about Venice you bet your shorts I'd be writing very different posts.
>It's almost like "City Life" is an expansion pack to Feudalism, and I haven't finished writing the core game yet.
All fair; just as you would no doubt be writing very different posts if your game took main inspiration from the Merovingian Franks instead of the Hundred Years' War. At the same time it's a pretty obvious direction for the player mind to go in, especially one coming from the standard D&D hodgepodge medievalism. Even in the aprropriate period, though, you had Paris, Toulouse and Lyons, not to mention London with its ancient privileges and the German Free Cities.

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>>53901904
>Merovingian Franks instead of the Hundred Years' War
True, but I'm still writing a goddamn long post with tables copies from the Historia Francorum, so who the hell knows what I'm doing?

> it's a pretty obvious direction for the player mind to go in

MY PLAYERS KEEP EATING DUNGEON MEAT! They keep killing each other with bad plans, misfired spells, and SANDWICHES.

I wouldn't trust them to think of water if they caught on fire.

>and the German Free Cities.
And the Swiss, who deserve a whole RPG of their own. Also, that's just in Europe! Good lord, history is complicated...

>>53901934
>MY PLAYERS KEEP EATING DUNGEON MEAT!
Because you told them to once, and it almost panned out.
On a related sidenote, bring a one-armed bandit to your games in the future.

>>53901850
When I say "socialist baggage" I don't mean stuff like strikes, which are a type of force action (or, indeed, provisions for the needy within the guild, which just form one more part of its holistic control/provision of the members' lives). I mean the rhetorical/ideological underpinnings, like "exploitation of labor" (guildmembers would have scoffed at this idea; everyone takes his turn at the oar), class struggle, universal provision (the guild is for the guild, not anybody else), provision of needs without working for it, and so on.

I think it's a serious problem if you ascribe inherent socialism to certain concrete actions or provisions, because it clouds understanding. Kings arguably provide hospitals for their sick and pensions for their wounded and too old/young to work in the King job, for instance.

Socialism is an ideology about how and when to do these things, an ideology which is markedly different from the one animating the medieval guild.

>>53901934
>I wouldn't trust them to think of water if they caught on fire.
What did they think of when they caught fire?

>>53901934
>MY PLAYERS KEEP EATING DUNGEON MEAT! They keep killing each other with bad plans, misfired spells, and SANDWICHES.
I have no explanation for that.

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>>53901996
>What did they think of when they caught fire?
In order: run away, get a friend, spit on it (yes really), attack self with sword, attack goblins with sword.

>>53901988
Ah, fair enough. That makes more sense.

>>53901963
They've got a one-legged bandit named Tito. He's an ex-PC. He runs the worst gambling hall they've ever seen.

>>53901934
>I'm still writing a goddamn long post with tables copies from the Historia Francorum, so who the hell knows what I'm doing?
As for this, damn near everything can be adapted when it's delivered in small chunks, and besides everything doesn't need to be useful in the same game.

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>>53902022
Sounds like one of them thought of water!

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>>53902022 c >>53894707

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>>53902159
I don't get it, sorry.
>>53902072
Well, yes. He'd just been mutated to have 5 mouths so he was excited. "I can spit five time as well," he said.
"So... as much as five guys spitting at once," I replied. He considered this and decided to actually deal with the fire... next round.
>>53902032
Oh I hope so. At the very least it's hilarious.

>>53902200
>At the very least it's hilarious.
Would you say it's... BISHOP Hilarius?

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>>53902256

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So if I'm using ACKs, how would I go about making a class that's basically an elemental druid with a bit of thief or fighter stuff thrown into the mix? Say like I want the class to cast fire based magic like cast fireball or smokescreen but also be able to hold a one handed weapon? Is that possible?

>>53902568
For any Red Mage-esque classes I'd say, "start with a Cleric, change the spell list, the alter class abilities to taste", but last I checked Druids /were/ Clerics.
Or do Druids work differently in ACKS?

>>53902200
This image drives me up the wall every time I see it. Those huge preposterous empty spaces inside the walls are bad enough on their own, but paired with the existence of large numbers of town houses outside the walls, it's just... argh.

I mean, I'm aware that it's (supposed to be) Dublin, but that shit can't be right.

>>53902614
Thanks for the advice! I'm not sure if Clerics are really considered Druids though, I never really paid sttention to the class that much

>>53902614
>For any Red Mage-esque classes I'd say, "start with a Cleric
E L F
L E L
F L E

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>>53902032
>>53902256

"As he said this he struck spurs into his horse and rode full tilt at Guntram Boso; but he failed in his assault, for his lance shattered and his sword fell to the ground. When Guntram Boso saw death staring him in the face, he prayed to our Lord and invoked the miraculous power of Saint Martin. Then he raised his pike and jabbed Dragolen full in the throat."

Saint Martin was a busy fellow.

>>53902617
Not that implausible, considering grazing/gleaning areas, interior fields, orchards, middens, squares, assembly areas, and other sites. It could be worse.

>>53902680
Clerics beat face and cast spells.
Pansies beat face or cast spells.

>>53902711
This is the same Guntram Boso who later has fully two Merovingian kings wanting to kill him for his insane litany of misdeeds and tries to escape by holding a bishop hostage, right?

Looks like he didn't learn his lesson about venerating men of the church.

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>>53902677
>>53902680
>>53902714
Oh yeah, and another thing, I want to try and incorporate beastmen classes in my game as well. Do you think it's feasible to make a catch-all template for standard animal racial traits and abilities and let players pick from it according to their selection?

>>53902714
WTF are you even talking about, the Elf class is the best F/MU ever to exist in D&D.

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>>53902904
>Guntram Boso
The very same. He was a real rascal.

Not like the two kings were saints here. And yes, I think he held 2 bishops hostage at different times.

>>53902905
No, but only because it would bog down char gen.
How many beastmen do you need anyways?
Random tables are handy, but don't sound like your cup of tea.

Just let them play werewolves, wererats, and wereboar.
You've already got stats for those and everything.


Let them tack on actual classes up to, I don't know, level 3?
1st at 0xp, 2nd at 3rd level xp, 3rd at 6th, no further progression.
Stated as the relevant monster + class abilities at level 1.

Boom. Done.

>>53903054
4 at the most, probably. Mainly for the majority of the beastmen found in the area, dogs, cats, horses, and birds. That sounds like an alright plan though.

>>53902905
>Oh yeah, and another thing, I want to try and incorporate beastmen classes in my game as well. Do you think it's feasible to make a catch-all template for standard animal racial traits and abilities and let players pick from it according to their selection?
probably best to base them off one of the existing Racial Class templates and modify and add new stuff where needed

I assume you have the Player's Companion of course

>>53902954
>Not like the two kings were saints here.
King Guntram is a literal saint, actually.

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>>53903400
>King Guntram is a literal saint, actually.
I'm aware. So is St. Thomas Aquinas (who deserved it completely, but had some very dodgy miracles). So is Saint Barbara, who didn't even exist! Gregory has how many saints in his family tree (though again, most of them deserved it, probably).

I'd put your average clerical PC's chance of being canonized at 1-in-6.

Rolled 4 (1d6)

>>53903468

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>>53903545
Sorry, better luck next time. A 4 is "local saint in a small town in Finland, not recognized outside of town, and forgotten by the modern era."

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How do you actually like your magic to look, /osrg/?

When your MU casts sleep, does a magical wave of butterflies conjure out of thin air and drift into the eyes of your opponents, who then fall to the ground as little glowing pillows appear under their heads? Or do they just suddenly fall over out of nowhere as an invisible magical effect takes over them?

How do you worldbuild, /osrg/?

>>53904781

Check out the /wbg/ World-building threads to get started.

Latest one ---> >>53875686

>>53904928

Those threads are horrible. Everyone just posts their own material in response to vague questions and ignores everyone else. There's no discussion, it's just endless, pointless info dumping.

>>53904781
Sketch out an initial environment for play, and expand on it as the players reveal their interests. No use fluffing out a complex political situation if the players just want to raid dungeons.

That could be a town with a few enounters inside a day's walk, or a somewhat expansive hexcrawl (maybe a 150 square mile area, though dungeons and cities can hold numerous sessions of content if needbe).

I usually have some ideas of what lies over the next horizon, but unfortunately adult responsibilities usually prevent games from lasting that long.

I require players to give me an idea their plans for the next session so I don't waste prep time.

>>53904781

I get ideas from the weirdest places. Keep a half dozen faux-moleskine gridded notebooks that walmart had on sale a while back for jotting game ideas down. While fixing a torn page and looking for space to write new stuff in one, I started thinking about a setting that IS a book a bored wizard is writing. Sort of a meta, micro-setting within a standard campaign world.

He gets bored and scribbles a few paragraphs? The world changes, a new people show up. Gets frustrated and rips a page out? The world is ravaged.

That's how my current setting was born.

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The PDF of Mutant Crawl Classics was released today to backers. Any of you super cool OSR bros have it? I missed the KS and have to wait for my pre-ordered physical book.

>>53906457
Better odds in the file share thread.

>>53906582
An anon here a few days ago said he'd post it up as soon as it was launched. I posted in the share thread as well though.

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>>53904972
So start some. If not you, then who? If not now, when?

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>>53902004
>dungeon Meishi: the idiot years

>>53904781
I have a setting centered on my megadungeon already, so most of what I do now is add scraps to it, which will rarely see any use since the players are perfectly content with raiding the dungeon.

Still, I plan to use this same setting indefinitely, so it's not wasted effort.

>>53904781
A brief (and tenative) sketch of the world.
A slightly more detailed (but still just a sketch) map of a country or two.
A map of the region in that country where the PCs start.
A hex map based off that map.

You can flesh things out as you go.

>>53906457
A lot of us aren't getting access to the downloads on Backerkit. If no one else does, I'll post it later once I actually get it.

>>53892251
Bumping this question

>>53896629
>I watched one kickstarter darling get crucified here because they not only took all the bait, but also had never had anyone tear into their system without so many layers of verbal circumlocution that they couldn't take the hint or the entire clique ganging up and shutting down the one pointing it out.


Who/when was this? Now I'm very curious.

>>53907603
That'd be awesome, anon. Thank you.

>>53909308
>>53907603
>>53906457


I have it, I sent the entire thing to Troveguy, it should be up in a day or 2. I just dont know how to rid myself of personalized copies.

>>53910143

Thank the maker! Bless you good sir!

>>53910143
Hopefully Troveguy expedites that one!

here you go, you slutty old elves

https://www.sendspace.com/filegroup/KQ3k9pmCnRbxlomwUtlugO%2FzIdQlOKzA

>>53910715
Thanks senpai

>>53910715
You're a legend in the eyes of those who live on the battlefield.

>>53912575

Just remember, traveler: The Dice Must Roll.

>>53912886
The Spice Must Flow?

>>53910715
What're these?

>>53913476
Mutant Crawl Classics.

>>53910715
The core book won't open in Adobe Reader, SumatraPDF, or Evince. Help me out here?

>>53897806
Maybe works as an incentive to get the PCs to make political connections and try to gain status within the game, but the figures you suggest are not at all gameable and will result in players leaving the table more often than not.

>>53915032
>the figures you suggest are not at all gameable
I have to agree with this. I like the work you do, Skerp, and this post is interesting as historical background, but there's no way to run that. Any players I've ever known would just take it as a provocation to open war against the whole social structure because it fucks over the PCs' big score.

Has anyone here ran/played Maze of the Blue Medusa? How was it?

>>53914678

Worked fine for me as PDF. Many thanks to the anon who posted it! I missed KS but have preordered everything available for mcc

>>53897806
You seem to expect your player's characters to have day jobs.
How much does food cost?

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>>53915032
>>53915350
> will result in players leaving the table more often than not.
>but there's no way to run that.

I'd like to disagree.

Say I give you fifty imaginary internet comment points for replying. You did a good job. Then I take 40 away for no reason. Are you sad? Not really. You didn't buy into those comment points. You didn't earn them.

But if you had earned them, via gameplay or whatever, it would feel stupid and arbitrary if I later took them away.

But if I told you "all internet comments without the letter Z in them will get 2 points, and all comments with the letter Z get 10 points," you'd start using Z more often, even if, by not using it, I was "penalizing" you.

People are... weird. Brains are weird.

Anyway, yes. It fucks over the PCs big score. That's what they signed up for. None of this was hidden info. There is also /explicit/ encouragement to hide the big score in the text.

Think about it. You only get taxed on what people know about. Hide stuff in the woods and come back to it later. Use it to pay an assassin to kill your lord, then marry his widow and get his land, title, and a good excuse to loot more tombs.

It's like a pit trap. If your players walk into a pit trap and die, despite knowing it's there, is that unfair? No. They're idiots. You warned them.

Same with taxes. If you are stupid and play by the rules, you'll still make money, but not much. The system is designed to keep you in place. So it's designed to make you cheat. To cheat you have to think. Thinking is good. It makes you a better gamer. It's what you signed up to do (if you joined one of my games).

For beer and pretzels fun it's an awful system. For training, or worldbuilding, or getting the players to think laterally, it's excellent.

>>53904972

>Disregards all the good links at the beginning of the thread leading to online resources on world building.

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>>53916527
Trivial amounts. That's the thing. The values given for treasure in my examples and earnings and expenses are /ludicrously/ high. Enough that even a failed looting expedition will still pay more than baking bread.

https://coinsandscrolls.blogspot.ca/2017/03/currency-in-osr-games.html

Lunch is 5cp in a rural area. 1gp=10sp=100cp.
An "adventuring-quality" horse is 10gp because that's reasonably expensive, even if horses are somewhat abundant.

I've tried to balance things by very wide approximations, but it's not /horribly/ inaccurate.

And the players have a day job. They've just said "fuck it, we're going to go get rich instead."

>>53916713
> The system is designed to keep you in place. So it's designed to make you cheat.

Okay, so what's the players' motivation for letting their patron know about ANY of the loot that they have? If I'm a PC, what makes me not just hide all the gold I found in the caverns?

In your post, you talk about how the endgame of paying taxes is to make the patron consider you profitable and gift you titles and land. Are PCs really going to consider having X plot of fictional land that only causes more problems for them to be more valuable than splint armour they could be commissioning the smith for? If they hide all the money they make, they can keep getting items that have utility to their murderhobonomics rather than being "gifted" plot points by the DM.

The way I see it, huge taxes become de facto limits on player agency. You give the incentive for players paying any level of tax at all being that their patron gives them titles and legitimises them, which is functionally the DM's decision. The DM decides who the baron is going to give the manor to, what the manor is called, what plot points exist on it, etc. The DM by doing this also prevents the PC from spending their gold on things they actually WANT. And yes, I get that this is literally the idea of taxes but is it really necessary to take 100 percent of your players' income (or whatever the fuck percentage it actually tables out to based on what they hide)? Explain what makes finding treasure still fun when you get to decide what the treasure gets spent on just because you wrote a backstory for your baron NPC and you want to play it out?

I'm not trying to attack you here btw, I love your blog. I just think you're off base both in intention and execution of this concept and that you're more concerned here with historical accuracy and less with what makes for a fun game.

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>>53917397
>If I'm a PC, what makes me not just hide all the gold I found in the caverns?

You can hide it all. How are you going to spend it?

Sure, assuming you've got a good reason to travel, you can spend it somewhere where word isn't like to reach your lord (assuming you aren't robbed or whatever). But it's taking a risk.

Second, feudal mindset. Everyone's irrational. It's not a rational age. Nobody's read "The Prince."

Third, it's smart. You aren't just giving your lord money. You are paying for protection and for future considerations. It's not just vanishing without effect.

>Are PCs really going to consider having X plot of fictional land that only causes more problems for them to be more valuable than splint armour they could be commissioning the smith for?
I think that question is too general to really answer. I know my PCs are really, really excited get land. They are also really fucking dumb:>>53901934
>>53902022

>The way I see it, huge taxes become de facto limits on player agency.
But there are loads of limits on player agency. You can't play a catgirl. You can't set people on fire for fun and get away without consequences. Even the most lolrandum games have some limits, even unstated ones.

>. The DM decides who the baron is going to give the manor to, what the manor is called, what plot points exist on it, etc.

DM also decides who gets attacked by the dragon (or rolls for it, which applies in either case), where the traps are, and how much gold is in the dungeon.

>. The DM by doing this also prevents the PC from spending their gold on things they actually WANT.

What does a medieval PC want, anon? What's their end game? Shinier swords and +2 damage? Security? Peace? No more orphans? Lots of orphans in Foreign Parts? Hookers? Blow? Who are you to say that not paying taxes

cont'd

>>53898411
low, they will treat it as a mechanical thing - which is what you have done to it.

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>>53917570
Whoops, cut off too much
> Who are you to say that not paying taxes
makes the end goals easier, given feudalism?

>100 percent of your players' income (or whatever the fuck percentage it actually tables out to based on what they hide)?

Varies and gives you a damn good incentive to get into the Second Estate if you can.

>Explain what makes finding treasure still fun when you get to decide what the treasure gets spent on just because you wrote a backstory for your baron NPC and you want to play it out?

You don't understand anon. I don't do worldbuilding. I build systems to allow worldbuilding to happen as needed. I have tables of names and systems for taxes and I build stuff as needed. The world exists to suit the players, even if they don't know about it.


What's the core trajectory of OSR games? Loot stuff, don't die, get XP, loot more stuff, get castle (if game goes that long?), end game?

This doesn't change any of that. I could reduce all treasure amounts by 90% and nobody would notice. I've just changed the order to make it more feudal. Rather than banking 100,000,000gp to buy a castle, you are being taxed up front much, much less to have a chance, if you're smart, to get far more.

That's the other thing. The system exists to be manipulated by smart players. It's a huge pile of hooks and ladders.

>I'm not trying to attack you here btw, I love your blog.
No worries, this stuff is useful.

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>>53895889
>>53897536
Coming back with a revised version and looking for any feedback again. Added some more flavor, messed with the formatting, and scrapped the capture rules in place for some rules on collecting monster parts that are simple but could add an interesting resource.

>>53916409

you're welcome, desert wanderer

Hey I'm in the process of making one of those red-mage based characters I talked about earlier in the thread. Could any of you take a look over and see if I'm on the right track so far? Using ACKs by the way.

Class Category - Eremi Mercenary
Hit Dice: [d4]
Fighting: 2 BP [1000 XP]
Attack Throws: +2 per 3 Levels
Weapon Selection: Narrow [+ 2 CusP] [+300 XP]
Armor Selection: Narrow [+3 CusP] [+450 XP]
Fighting
Styles: Two-Handed Melee & Two Weapons [+1 CusP] [+150 XP]
Damage Bonus: +1 per 3 Levels
Cleaves: 1 per Level

Thievery: 1 BP [+200 XP]
Divine: 1 BP [+250 XP]
Arcane:
Prime Requisites: CON & DEX
Saving Throw Progression: Fighter

XP Requirements for each level:
2nd - 2500 XP
3rd - 5000 XP
4th - 10000 XP
5th - 20000 XP
6th - 40000 XP
7th - 80000 XP
8th - 160000 XP
9th - 280000 XP
10th - 400000 XP
etc.

Total CusP: 6
CusP:
-Acrobatics
-Darkvision 60r
-Fighting Fury
-Alertness

Skills:
-Move Silently
-Hide In Shadows
-Backstab

Eremi Spell List:
1st:
Incinerate (Blast) - 1d10 per Level, Maximum 4d Damage, Elemental (Fire), Target 1 creature, 5 diameter sphere, attack throw required to hit target, range 150', duration instantaneous, source divine [Cost 8.6]
2nd
Smokestep (Transmogrification) - Current form becomes gaseous, target self, duration 1 turn, can stop at will [Cost 20]
3rd:
Solar Flare (Healing/Harm) -
Starting Equipment:
Crimson Gargoyle Leather Suit, Smoke Scented Sable Robes, Charcoal Desert Shemagh, Khyber Sword with Bone Handle, Yataghan, Traveller Boots, Waterskin, 1 weeks Iron Rations

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Is Labyrinth Lord unpopular? I've got an attempted online game going as well as an IRL game going and no one's signing up. Help

>>53919123
LL is to Bx as OSRIC is to AD&D.
It wasn't made for play.

It was made to so module writers could dodge IP ownership.

>>53917625
Skerps, it's really disingenuous to say that you "don't do world-building I build systems to allow world-building to happen as needed". You don't present your taxes as a setting neutral entity. I really like your super-medieval europe setting, but you present your rules on taxes as a consequence of the setting. Are they as an essential thing as resource management in a dungeon, because it sounds like they were added as kind of an after thought from the setting rather than a mechanism of gameplay.I would like to see you expand on taxes as a system to be manipulated by smart players rather than as a component of the world.

>>53919210
lmao. so what would you recommend in its stead

>>53919438
If I had a dollar for every game in the Trove that was actually just Bx, I could buy several people very shitty lunches.
But if you're running Bx and it isn't heavily houseruled (ACKS, etc.) thens say you're running Bx.

>>53919123
My real advice though is that while online games are fine and all, I recommend you find groups offline.

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>>53919407
>It's really disingenuous to say that you "don't do world-building I build systems to allow world-building to happen as needed"

I don't think it's disingenuous. I just think I did a shitty job explaining that bit because I was in a hurry.What I don't do (or, to rephrase, what I try to avoid) is going, "Ok, who lives in the village? We've got Pete the barman, Steve the farrier, his daughter, and she's involved with... and the Lord is... and the Barons are..." and get all that set up before game starts.

Creating fully fledged living worlds populated with dozens of well-imagined NPCs, races, political factions, mountain ranges, and hat styles is /fun/. It's also, IMO, masturbatory. And like masturbation it prevents you from getting anything done if you do it too often.

So I try to avoid it. I try to build /systems/ (like my Tax system, or my Table of Byzantine Rulers) that allow me to rapidly create and improvise as the session requires, in tone and on time.

>but you present your rules on taxes as a consequence of the setting.

Correct. They're also a consequence of the medieval era. I didn't invent this shit. I have citations for ~90% of it, give or take. I just adapted it (very slightly) to deal with PCs and dungeon delving loot-stealers. It took very little effort.

>because it sounds like they were added as kind of an after thought from the setting rather than a mechanism of gameplay
Also correct, in the sense that I put my brain-time into "Can I get a group together, teach them dungeoneering, build a plausible medieval world, design new classes, balance a homebrew, and also make it medieval" in that order. If I had unlimited time I'd probably make sure I had all my ducks in a row, but I don't, so I have to move at the speed of "oh fuck I really should write this down."

>I would like to see you expand on taxes as a system
I'm writing up a post on "why I designed it this way and what lessons it teaches" now.

>>53920805
Those are tools, not systems. Not even subsystems.
And building an implied setting is still a building setting.

>>53882626
Or do you think Against the Wicked City doesn't count as a setting?

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>>53921170
>systems
Again, I think this is a terminology thing. "System" doesn't mean "has classes, a bestiary, and grappling rules" and all that, thought that's one definition.

You have a system for telling if fruit is rotten. You have a system for any task you've had to do 100 times. You might not know you have a system, but you have one. A chain of actions. A plan. A sketch.

So when I say "I build systems to produce NPCs rather than write NPCs", that system could be one table, provided that one table was built with very clear intent and utility in mind. You don't need to roll for height and length of rule and beard colour because you can make up shit like that on the fly. You need a system to handle all the stuff you can't hold in your brain at once.

>>53903581

That's not Finland.

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>>53921243
It's not?

>>53919438
LL is perfectly playable, and actually does a few things different that I prefer. But just plain old B/X is the best place to start.

>>53921233
System is a reserved name in the RPG namespace.
>si fueris Rōmae, Rōmānō vīvitō mōre; si fueris alibī, vīvitō sīcut ibī

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>>53921315
If I did that I'd be defining time in exploration rounds and I'd be using a system that wasn't designed and (and I'm being charitable here) "written" by Arnold K. I'll accept the confusion and dismay I cause with good grace though.

When in Rome, nick the statues to build Constantinople.

>>53919210
That's not really true. I mean yeah, it was made for the IP reason TOO, but there's clearly much more backing for actually playing LL, not least that it's based on a far more playable system. But they would've never published stuff like the AEC if OSRIC-level referentiality had been their intent.

http://bettermyths.com/the-tempest-or-prospero-pisses-on-his-enemies/
What are some "good" rookie-dm-level traps?

>>53922036
>What are some "good" rookie-dm-level traps?
Regular pit and dart traps, realistically. If you have noob players you don't want to go full Grimtooth.

In fact, never go full Grimtooth.

>53919523
>My real advice though is that while online games are fine and all, I recommend you find groups offline.
Vain advice for 98% of the world.

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>>53924423
>TFW I pulled "permanent rope burn" and the thief fell for it.
Made the dungeon hard as fuck when your stealth/utility can't use their hands.

Roommate and a friend played their first OSR and everyone fell in love with how simple it is. It felt good seeing their eyes light up as they rolled their first crit, killed their first skeleton, avoided a fight they weren't going to win, and got the first piece of loot. Only problem I'm having is they aren't planning for the journey, they kind of just left the town and said fuck it.

I am planning a Dark Souls based encounter with a single undead soldier blocking a pass. He has tattered armor, a worn broadsword, and a cracked shield and helmet. He is guarding the pass to atone for some sin that doesn't allow him to rest. He doesn't attack anyone but warriors. Players need to Uncurse him after he is defeated.

I honestly think it will be interesting to watch how they handle it. Will they kill him, claim victory, only to hear the guards of a caravan were slaughtered by it? How about throwing him in a cave and causing a cave in making him live until it's reopened? Will they give him a warriors rest only to find it refilled and him guarding the pass again?

>>53925649

As cool as that sounds, I foresee many Monty Python Black Knight quotes incoming

>>53925912
I suppose it's more like a side mission. Every time they walk through the pass they have to find a new way to try to keep him Down.

I wanted my combat system to be as dirt simple as possible, but the more I think about it the more I wonder if I should add in something like injuries when monsters roll maximum on their damage rolls, making it so players will get minor ailments as they travel through the dungeon, and making the ability to heal these wounds even more important.

I would probably make it a base saving throw on taking max damage, which you get to add you Con modifier. If you fail, roll on an injury table? How does this sound?

What is a good example of high fantasy osr game/setting?

>>53927321
Forgotten Realms Gray Box. Just forget everything after.

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>>53919055
Bump

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Almost done with this.

>>53928013
I would argue that Moonshae is a fine addition. But yes, the Gray Box is an outstanding setting.

>>53929575
Looking pretty good, there.

>>53927321
Yeah, the other guy got it in one, to be honest.

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Hot damn, why didn't anyone tell me that Spears of the Dawn was such a good system.

>>53935561
I would have but I've never heard of it.

What are some of the most Dying Earth and/or Leiber-inspired settings around?

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Does anyone have a table of sins out there?

I'm working on a Table of Indulgences and costs for clerics and corrupt priests and I need some ideas.

(Yes, I know that's not how it worked. No, it didn't work that way either. It's an elfgame, what do you expect?)

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>>53935786
Do you mean, like, petty sins?
Or instances of sins?
What's wrong with the big 8?

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>>53936204
>What's wrong with the big 8?

Insufficiently granular.

I mean, surely lusting after your sister requires a larger indulgence than lusting after your wife. Should punching a priest in the head be worth more or less than killing your neighbor's horse out of spite?

Basically, I just need a nice long list of all the bad stuff (according to the Church) you could get up to in ~1300. Then I'll assign gp values to the sins and allow PCs to sell indulgences, assuming they are ordained, etc.

>>53936417
>The fucking guinea pig

>>53935786
>>53936417
I don't know about Christianity, but you could always use the 613 commandments.

>>53936738
Or even English Common Law, at that rate.

https://books.google.com/books?id=mCc0AAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover
https://books.google.com/books?id=R20aAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover

>>53936738
>>53936871
Actually, screw things that developed organically.

>>53936417
Your God just hands out mandates then sticks with them even if they barely work out, right?
Nick the Code of Hammurabi wholesale: http://www.sacred-texts.com/ane/ham/

What are the fonts / layouts that Labyrinth Lord and other OSR games use? Shit looks nifty and hearkens back to a specific tone/feel that I love.

>>53938255
I don't know about LL specifically, but take a look at A Brief Study of TSR Book Design, by Kevin Crawford (it's in 01 in the Trove).

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>>53936990
>Actually, screw things that developed organically.
A-greed.

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>>53936738
>>53936871
>>53936990
Those are some pretty nifty ideas, thanks. I'm going to mix in some https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trials_of_the_Knights_Templar#Charges_against_the_Templars

And some https://books.google.ca/books?id=cBqgOXfMxAoC

Because I just realized that if the Templars had rules against something, it means that at some point, a Templar did that thing and needed to be written up for it.

>Writing classes based on famous philosophers

Do you think this is a dumb idea?

>>53939175
Writing classes based on famous philosophies is dumb.
Writing classes based on famous philosophers is pants on head.
Post it when you're done.

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>>53939175
>famous philosophers
Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimmanuel Kant was a real pissant
Who was very rarely stable...

>>53939383
Kant revolutionized philosophy, you can divide philosophy by before and after Kant.

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>>53939435

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>>53938531

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>>53939546
I edited that image just for you anon. I made it blue-board safe just to make that joke here, today, in this thread.

And you go and shit on my hopes with proper etymology.

I've never been so proud.

>>53939175
Would read. I enjoyed Dungeons and Discourse.

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"He had great pits dug deep into the bottom of the river at this spot, and then the water concealed this booby-trap as it flowed in. When Guntram Boso appeared, Mummolus stood on the city-wall and shouted: ‘If he comes in good faith, let him advance from one bank and I will move forward from the other, and then he can say what is on his mind.’ As soon as they were both in position, with this particular arm of the river flowing between them, Guntram Boso shouted back: ‘I will come over, if you don’t mind, for there are certain matters which we ought to discuss in private.’ ‘Come on then,’ answered Mummolus. ‘There’s nothing to be afraid of.’ Guntram Boso stepped into the river, with one of his close friends, who was weighed down by a heavy mail shirt. The moment he reached the first of the pits in the river-bed, this friend vanished under the water and was never seen again. Guntram Boso was just being submerged by the swiftly-flowing current when one of his men on the bank stretched out his lance and pulled him back to land once more. Mummolus and Guntram Boso exchanged a few insults, and then each drew back."

Got to watch out for them pit traps in 583.

>>53897205
Yeah if you read 1d4chan and look at all the half-baked system hacks with a core gimmick and absolutely nothing to make them playable whatsoever that's pretty much the problem.

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Heyo /osr/ what's up? Haven't posted in a month, hope this long, rambling post and 80 adventure hooks make up for the silence.

http://www.occultesque.com/2017/06/4d20-adventure-hooks-how-to-use-them.html

>>53941275
Are you MS Paint Anon?

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>>53941331
There's like 4 MSPaint anons I think, but yeah I've done a few of those.

Most notably the Exploding Death Man pic that was based off another anon's post. It's not really my OC.

No.53941692, we're normally happy to have people post here instead of on their blog but

>>53941741
did u aneurysm?

>>53902617
Funny story. I wrote my archaeology masters thesis on architecture as a reflection of ethnic identity in early medieval Dublin and the surrounding countryside. That image is spot on, actually.

Has there ever been a system where the thieves were considered OP?
It seems like a forgone conclusion that they'll be shit in most games.

>>53942179
They're pretty shit here, too.
On the other hand they level up really, really quickly.

>>53942179

I start them with a 40% chance to do every thief skill, +1 to sneak attacks and stealth checks. They get +5% to the former every even level and +1/+1 to the latter every odd level. I'm sure they're still shit but hopefully with decent HD, the best saving category (hazards, much more universal then the other classes) it'll balance it out a bit.

I feel like putting locked door every other room is another way to keep then balanced, but I don't want to annoy my players too much.

>>53942339
Hackslashmasterguywhatever suggests locked doors about 1/3rd of the time works well for him. Might not be as bad an idea as you think.

Are there any good actual play podcast/video series out there?

>>53942752
I watch Thrilling Intent, but that's heavily houseruled Pathfinder and has more animation and narration than discussi g actual mechanics with people sittin at a table.

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Has anyone done a Flagellate Class to go with the new crimson Court DLC?

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>>53942892
Or Crimson Curse effects?

>>53942892
Younknoe the whole point if that pdf is using stock classes for flavorful characters, right?
It'd probably just be a Cleric. Or maybe probably not) a dwarf?

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>>53942497

The only other issue is keeping the number of thieves always useful. More fighters, clerics, and wizards is ALWAYS super useful. But more thieves? The only useful thing I can think of is maybe getting more chances per turn to do Rogue stuff, more sneak attacks, and more scouting but only if you split up the party, which nobody wants.

The best ideas I got is to male it so Rogues are the ranged combat experts, leave fighters pure melee and let the Rouge got the ranged to give them combat utility.

The second, and possibly more interesting idea is to tie it in with Rangers from Goblin Punch. Not to shill that blog anymore then it needs to, but the idea is basically letting the character get a better idea of wandering monsters and either avoid them or even force one wandering monster group to meet with you in case you need to.

>>53941889
>That image is spot on, actually.
That makes me even more annoyed. What the FUCK, Dubliners!

Thanks for contributing the actual knowledge, though, for real.

I'm new to OSR - what does "B/X" stand for? Is it a separate edition of OD&D or AD&D?

>>53943972
It's Moldvay's Basic and Expert. Most of OSR favors it over both O- and AD&D, and a fairly large majority of retroclones it for it as well.

>>53943991
Thanks mate. Could you also tell me the biggest differences between Moldvay and OD&D (that's the one I'm most familiar with)?

>>53944066
Moldvay pretty much takes Men & Magic, Monsters & Treasure, The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures, and Supplement I -
Greyhawk, distills the core essence of those books, streamlines the contents, and presents it in a readable format that's easy to reference.

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>>53944569
Cool, thanks!

Here, have a Maze Rats rulebook. Minimalistic OSR with many random tables. I've found recently and didn't see it in the Trove.

Spell generation is interesting - produces combinations like "Scrying Moss" or "Screaming Fog". Really gets your creativity working.

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>>53941369
You made it your OC, anon. I gift it to you.

>>53941275
Nice! Good work.

>>53935561
What distinguishes it from any other retroclone?

>>53946634
The setting and art. It's Kevin Crawford's OSR system. What makes it different is that it's an africa based setting (and art) instead of a european base.)

>>53935561
>>53946825
Fantasy Australia game when?

>>53947822
KonoSuba setting?

>>53947896
Bakuretsu bakurtsu

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>>53941275
I love these. They're so evocative and eerie and colorful.

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Would someone know where to find the Living Greyhawk journals. I desperately need them.

Do you goyim have any house rules for blocking / parrying outside of abstracting it into Armor Class and HP?

>>53953309
Parry reduces 1d12 of the in coming damage, you can do this once a day

You can block an attack at any momement, but the shield breaks

>>53953309
Judges Guild probably made partying rules.

>>53953471
Time to bring 10 shields with me.

>>53953695
It's what the vikings did, yeah. But they're neither light nor easy to carry around.

>>53953720
Still goofy.
I would probably limit it to once a day or something if a player was stupid enough to actually try it.

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>>53916527
>>53915032
>>53915350
>>53917397


I wrote a post trying to explain why I think the tax system I created is good and useful and fun.

https://coinsandscrolls.blogspot.ca/2017/06/osr-death-taxes-and-death-taxes-part-2.html

There are also pictures.

If you haven't read the "Death, Taxes, and Death Taxes" post you should probably do that first. https://coinsandscrolls.blogspot.ca/2017/06/osr-death-taxes-and-death-taxes.html

Are the becmi scans in the trove the ones from drivethru?

>>53954069

So if I made my own OSR blog would I also be allowed to shill it every 50 or so posts like you do?

>>53955032
Yes.

>>53955032
Yeah go for it man.

>>53955032
You could make up a URL and start shilling pretend posts /right now/ and break no rules.
But I, personally, would prefer it if you were a bit less on the nose about it.

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>>53955032
Absolutely! Heck, if you produce lots of new content at a furious pace, you could probably shill every 20 posts.

>>53955172
>Break no rules

I'm sorry anon, but it would appear that you are both violating global rule #6 with your post and inciting others to do the same.

>The quality of posts is extremely important to this community. Contributors are encouraged to provide high-quality images and informative comments.

In the future, please try to improve the quality of your advice!

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>>53955266
This is 4chan, anon. I think we're OK with moderate politeness and cheerfulness rather than mandatory OC all the time. These 2 are doing great...
>/pfg/
>/5eg/
in context.

>>53955266
>>>/r9k/

>>53953776
>I would probably limit it to once a day or something
>>53953471
>you can do this once a day

>>53955478
He's talking about the shield thing, not the bonus-hp-by-any-other-name.

Does anyone have a PDF of wizard's world?

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So, poor medieval people.

I've separated the Third Estate into Poor, Rich, and Wizards. Wizards and Rich people I can deal with.I have sources and ideas for both.

But what exactly should I include in the Poor section? What useful notes help someone play an urban drudge or a rural serf from the Third Estate?

Is DCC's mighty deed of arms worth stealing?

>>53957862

Maybe you should stop regurgitating this myth that everyone who wasn't a knight or bishop was some poor old peasant with nothing.

Farmers were jacked as fucked, worked hard, knew many skills. They build houses in the summer, and party all winter until Christmas. Harvest time is busiest and you can't go out adventuring around the harvest or planting seasons.

For urban people I like to imagine a lot of the little jobs we don't even consider today; errand boys, street sweepers, coal boys. Imagine having to pick up coal and place it in people's ovens and stuff by hand, since it's not easy to get clean hands in those years. Makes sense to have some poor little boy do it. I can also see rat catchers as a big job, your camp followers post already had a lot of good inspiration in it.

Basically just stop implying every farming serf was some poor old codger.

>>53957862
Why do you have urban poor people but no burghers?
>>53957950
It's not worth it, but that's never stopped the fools who came before you.

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>>53957972
>Maybe you should stop regurgitating this myth that everyone who wasn't a knight or bishop was some poor old peasant with nothing.

The way I'm thinking about it, farmers with lots of skills, apple-cheeked wives, forearms like tree trunks, and diets like kings don't go die in tombs for gold. I'm not trying to write a comprehensive medieval survey. I'm trying to write tools for PCs.

But that's a very good point. I do need to make it a little more clear. Maybe I'll put in a Skilled and Unskilled category.

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>>53958031
>Why do you have urban poor people but no burghers?

Because they are in the Rich section, and I don't need advice for them (yet, knock on wood). I have lots and lots of sources to steal from because primary sources

>>53938531
>>53935786
I was watching some more Jordan Peterson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdrLQ7DpiWs
and he very briefly touched upon Inferno.

He quickly segwayed into betrayal and the social value if trust, but before that he made a good (and relevant to your interests) point:
Dante subdivided all the sins as far as he could, then sorted them (as best he could) by severity.


http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1004

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>>53958936
Well don't I feel like an idiot. I have 2 copies of the Divine Comedy in this goddamn room! Thanks anon!

>>53898905
You probably realized by now but that's the same anime three times in different spellings

Watch Daily Lives of Highschool Boys, aka Nichibros. If you can stomach something more overtly animu try Konosuba, which is a spoof of isekai/battle harems but turns into anime It's Always Sunny in Philadephia at its best.

Got a question, guys - what are some cool, minimalist retroclones that do not use the whole array of dice? I like the style of only using d6 for hitdice and damage, but lists like taxidermicowlbear don't state what dice the system utilizes.

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>>53960667
Whitehack only uses D6 & D20, same for Microlite74 from my recollection

>>53960812
thanks for the reply, but I'm not the greatest fan of ML74's formatting, and Whitehack is a tad bit too long for my needs - I was looking for something under 10 pages, for ad-hoc, convent style play. There's plenty of 2-3 page long systems, but they all tend to use variable dice sizes. I know I could convert stuff, but I'm looking for more out-of-the-box experience

>>53959176
Is that a degenesis pic?

I've always been a pretty staunch believer in the old roll 1d6 per room for random encounters kind of thing. If the players get two in a row I just lower the numbers and say it's some reinforcements to the last group, or the last group they fought trying to sneak up on them if they ran away the first time.

However I do like the idea of making it a d20 with modifiers for how encumbered the party is and all that. Is a really cool idea when you consider how it would make returning to camp much more dangerous.

>>53957972
see
>>53843715
and
>>53843733
for how villeins and serfs generally felt about their lords and ladies (read: it was basically pic related). This is from "A Distant Mirror," a book about the 14th century, written by a historian, well-regarded by historians, and winning the 1980 National Book Award in History. So, y'know, pretty reliable as history books go.

In case you can't see dead threads for whatever reason, I will copy and paste the relevant passages in subsequent posts.

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>>53962303
Oops, forgot my image! I've attached it here.

Anyhow, here is the first excerpt:

Truer to the mass is the peasant who cries, in the French tale Merlin Merlot, “Alas, what will become of me who never has a single day’s rest? I do not think I shall ever know repose or ease.… Hard is the hour when the villein is born. When he is born, suffering is born with him.” His children go hungry, holding out their hands to him for food; his wife assails him as a poor provider. “And I, unhappy one, I am like a rooster soaked in the rain, head hanging and bedraggled, or like a beaten dog.”

A deep grievance of the peasant was the contempt in which he was held by the other classes. Aside from the rare note of compassion, most tales and ballads depict him as aggressive, insolent, greedy, sullen, suspicious, tricky, unshaved, unwashed, ugly, stupid and credulous or sometimes shrewd and witty, incessantly discontented, usually cuckolded. In satiric tales it was said the villein’s soul would find no place in Paradise or anywhere else because the demons refused to carry it owing to the foul smell. In the chansons de geste he is scorned as inept in combat and poorly armed, mocked for his manners, his morals, even his misery. The name Jacques or Jacques Bonhomme to designate a peasant was used by nobles as a term of derision derived from the padded surplice called “jacque” which the peasant wore for protective armor in war. The knights saw him as a person of ignoble instincts who could have no understanding of “honor” and was therefore capable of every kind of deceit and incapable of trust. Ideally he should be treated decently, yet the accepted proverb ran, “Smite a villein and he will bless you; bless a villein and he will smite you.”

>>53962315
And here's the second:

An extraordinary passage from the tale Le Despit au Vilain breathes hatred with an intensity that seems more than mere storytelling. “Tell me, Lord, if you please, by what right or title does a villein eat beef?… And goose, of which they have plenty? And this troubles God. God suffers from it and I too. For they are a sorry lot, these villeins who eat fat goose! Should they eat fish? Rather let them eat thistles and briars, thorns and straw and hay on Sunday and pea-pods on weekdays. They should keep watch without sleep and have trouble always; that is how villeins should live. Yet each day they are full and drunk on the best wines, and in fine clothes. The great expenditures of villeins comes at a high cost, for it is this that destroys and ruins the world. It is they who spoil the common welfare. From the villein comes all unhappiness. Should they eat meat? Rather should they chew grass on the heath with the horned cattle and go naked on all fours.…” These tales were addressed to an upper-class audience. Was this what they wanted to hear, or was it a satire of their attitude?

In theory, the tiller of the soil and his livestock were immune from pillage and the sword. No reality of medieval life more harshly mocked the theory. Chivalry did not apply outside the knights’ own class. The records tell of peasants crucified, roasted, dragged behind horses by the brigands to extort money. There were preachers who pointed out that the peasant worked unceasingly for all, often overwhelmed by his tasks, and who pleaded for more kindness, but all they could advise the victim was patience, obedience, and resignation.

>>53962315
>>53962322
Note: None of this is to suggest that literally everyone was either nobility or some poor bastard starving to death, but the latter was by far the bulk of humanity in Europe at the time.

>>53962331
*starving nearly to death,

Important distinction. But my point as a whole stands.

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>>53961047
see >>53944731
or even pic related if you want something really loose.

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>>53962303
>>53962315
>>53962322
>>53962331

>French peasants
>Filthy mainlanders actually believe that generic high fantasy medieval tokenism is based off the psychopathic evil french elite instead of the far more noble, good humored, and egalitarian society of the Britons

Educate yourself, my dude.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P4eCopYK_Q

Warning; Once you watch this documentary you will scour youtube to find the other ones done by these same people and be sad after you watched them all, because they're great. I highly recommend Tales from the Green Valley, which details an entire farming calendar year.

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What's the best way to handle an actual war sequence in an OSR game? On one side there's a couple hundred villagers - noncombatants included - and a small band of level 3-4 player characters, then on the other side an appropriately-sized horde of northman barbarians.

Are there any rules or supplements or just really good hints on how to manage this?

>>53944731
Oh fug. I use this constantly, yet I completely forgot there's an actual game attached to the tables. Nonetheless, I'm not sold on static damage, honestly.

>>53962452
Oh God, I really don't want to sound like a whiner, but I'm actually running this ATM. I really liked the idea, but in longer play I find its combat jarring on a philosophical level - if I wanted it to get lethal, I can't just declare an attack and drop a d20 vs AC. Every time I deal damage to PCs, I feel too responsible instead of delegating the hit resolution off to the game's rules and dice. I know a player who will bitch at me to death for that, he was already sperging hard when he read that you reroll your entire hitdice pool every rest. I was specifically looking for something with AC and to-hit rolls.

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So I don't use Clerics in my game because I want healing magic to be rare or something that is only done with potions and out of the dungeon.

However I also wanted to give Magic Users a healing style of spell to keep them useful in other situations beyond just combat and puzzle solving. Because my magic system doesn't use daily limits however; so I'm thinking either the health isn't permanent and only lasts a few exploration turns (cast before combat can be useful to keep someone injured alive, can't go over their normal maximum) or it can be permanent but you can't use that spellslot until the health would have healed naturally, which takes like 1 day per HP so it's basically only on downtime do you get your spell slot back.

How does this work as a way to give MUs very limited healing/support magic?

>>53963309
>So I don't use Clerics in my game because I want healing magic to be rare or something that is only done with potions and out of the dungeon.
Clerics are good for a whole bunch of other things besides healing, though, not to mention have a fair bit of flavor and fluff behind them.

Why not simply nerf healing or ban it altogether?

>>53963097
An Echo, Resounding by Sine Nomine.

There's a whole chapter on resolving mass combat quickly and in a way that merges well with Labyrinth Lord or Basic D&D.

If you're familiar with Stars Without Number, it shares some similarities.

>>53963332

Because I like having exactly 3 classes, with magic, fighting, and sneaking/stealth/thievery to be separate and distinct categories.

I wouldn't even necessarily be opposed to clerics at this point, it's just my game feels so complete without them that adding them might fuck everything up. I don't know, I just kind of like the idea of parties only having a chance at having healing magic, and it's exactly the type that the Wizard might just dispell to reopen that gaping chest wound of yours if he wants to use that spell slot to memorize a new spell.

>>53963180
>I really liked the idea, but in longer play I find its combat jarring on a philosophical level - if I wanted it to get lethal, I can't just declare an attack and drop a d20 vs AC. Every time I deal damage to PCs, I feel too responsible instead of delegating the hit resolution off to the game's rules and dice.

It's the core mechanic of Dungeon World shrunk down into one move. Maybe give the Dungeon World Guide or the "16 hp dragon" article a read.

I prefer to-hit and AC too, but these looser games are fun for one-shots and conventions.

>>53963309
It's time-consuming and drains them spiritually. 1 turn and 100 XP spent per hit point.

Going to visit my dad and some other family who all do or used to play tabletop RPGs a lot. Figured we could get an adventure in there. My dad has played a lot of the old modules. What's a good OSR module from the past decade or so to blow their fucking minds?