5th Edition? Roll yer own!

Posted on by
3

I must admit to being distinctly uninterested about the whole D&D 5th ed “D&D Next” affair.  Wizards of the Coast lost my gaming dollar once I realised they wanted me on a new edition tread mill after 3.5, which I never got the same gaming mileage from than say 1st Ed, Basic/Expert or even 2ed.   Even without the fiasco of Monte Cook leaving the project, its very unlikely that I’d invest.

You see I’d much rather ‘roll my own’* 5th Edition from various bits of Open Gaming Content and my own common sense additional rulings. This is pretty much what I did for Crypts and Things, but only more so to make my own version of the Class Based Worlds Favourite RPG.

  • It would be heavily Old School in tone and most rules
  • The four core classes (Fighter, Thief, Cleric, Magic-User) with additional classes I like (Ranger, Druid, Paladin, Bard).
  • Races (Dwarf, Elf, Gnome, Half-ling, perhaps Half-Orc BUT no fecking Half-Elves)
  • Ascending AC from 3.0.
  • From Araskia’s Sword and Sorcery rules, I would take the Skills system (but tie it to a separate Skill number rather than Saving Throw),  the Sanity System and possibly weapon damage by class.
  • Keep the Vancian magic system – which for me is one of the big selling points of D&D.
  • Have a more class based XP system, like 2ed , or even NO XP AT ALL!

And as much fun spells, monsters and magic items that I could cram in a 6″x 9″ US trade paper back of say 200-300 pages 😉

 

If you support creativity and the OSR go pledge!

Posted on by
1

“Eh what’s Newt babbleing on about here?”

I’m talking James’ Raggi the Fourth’s Lamentations of the Flame Princess Indiegogo.com pre-order campaign for his upcoming “Monolith from Beyond Space and Time” & “The God that Crawls”  modules.

4 Days to go at time of writing, and just under $800 to reach the Goal. Thralls of Sorcerer Under Mountain go pledge! For I know what a shot in the arm, a pure vindication of what you are doing a successfull IndieGoGo.com campaign is from the one I ran for Crypts and Things end of last year.

Personally I’m a huge fan of LoTFP and what Jim’s doing. It would be safe to say that there would be no Crypts and Things without LoTFP, so it was a no-brainer for me to put my money down.

C’mon four days to go lets push it over the edge 🙂

Crypts and Things aftermath somethoughts

Posted on by
6

So here I sit in the rosy glow of a not-quite-yet-spring-but-definitely-not-winter day.

C&T has now been out about three weeks, and has been selling quite nicely. Its definitely joining the ranks of the likes of OpenQuest as one of D101’s steady sellers.

Critical response to the game, especially in the light of it being released alongside Adventure Conqueror King and joining the similar (but not the same) Genre space as Lamentations of the Flame Princess, has been a good mix. From the frothy “OMG I LOVE THIS GAME SO MUCH”, to the nicely balanced “There’s bits I don’t like, but there’s bits I do like”. I’ve also had a nice stream of complementary emails and comments, which warms my jaded Game Designer heart 🙂

I’m very glad I gave C&T a very definite BRAND and a different vibe to regular D&D, especially looking at the long list of OSRIC modules which all seem to tribute AD&D of yore.

One of the most gladdening things to happen post C&T release is that Rik Kershaw Moore, author of The Company and a long time Call of Cthulhu keeper (member of the Kult of Keepers who ran the UK Cthulhu Nationals) has picked up on the game , loves it and is writing a scenario to run at Continuum 2012. I’m sure with a bit of arm twisting I should be able to get him to write it up 🙂

Blood of the Dragon is literally down to the last couple of adventure locations. Its a short, around 20 pages, but sick little module – with a short gazeeter (for those of you that want a bit more setting detail) and an adventure featuring a short weird lands trek and a mini-dungeon, which is weird and quite deadly. While short the whole thing is meant to act as an intro adventure for new players and Crypt Keepers. Also its 100% compatible with other OSR games, so if you just want to grab a butt-kicking S&S adventure to run with your favourite RetroClone go fer it.

Finally I’m immensely humbled by the positive reaction that the game has gotten. Especially some of the ongoing blog posts and mentions. There’s a lot of material on my Hard Drive that could become C&T product, and the obvious love the game is already getting pushes to make sure that becomes a reality 🙂

Crypts and Things review round up

Posted on by
2

Here’s a couple of reviews that have popped up post release

Swords & Stitchery – Old Time Sewing & Table Top Rpg Blog

EdOWar’s Blog

The Space Cockroach’s Hideout

DriveThruRPG.com buyer review – a very nicely balanced review in that the reviewer doesn’t like some mechanical aspects of the game (specifically the old school To Hit Tables, although C&T also has Ascending AC) but doesn’t let this get in the way of recommending the game overall 🙂

Thanks to all of you have taken the time to write these reviews.

D101 Games at Conpulsion

Posted on by
1

Hi all

I’m attending Conpulsion at Edinburgh University’s Teivot Student Union over the Easter Weekend.

I’ll be running some Crypts and Things/OpenQuest and if the organisers can fit into their scedule doing a talk about Crypts & Things.

If you are going hope to see you there. Also if you fancy running either a game of C&T or OQ for me, I can supply scenarios + characters, drop me a line on newt@d101games.com.

More about the con here.

D&D scenario recommends

Posted on by
7

In answer to Mick Red’s question ( Adventures for the OSR ) over at UKroleplayers.com.

From the current OSR releases I can heartily recommend

The Cursed Chateau(Rogue Games )by James Maliszewski. A big old haunted house scenario, oozing with atmosphere, marvellously presented and explained.

The Grinding Gear (Lamentations of the Flame Princess) by James Raggi. Yes it’s a Death Trap dungeon, but its small and logical and very very well designed and written.

The Nameless City( Mythmere Games ). Inspired by an HP Lovecraft short story of the same name, a small city of the Serpent People dripping with S&S goodness.

Weird New World( Lamentations of the Flame Princess ) by James Raggi. Imagine the American North East as a vast unexplored fantasy wilderness. Put your characters in a boat and hit go.

From the good old days…..

The Gauntlet & The Sentinel (TSR ). The first part is truly creepy and full of nice twists. The principal of which carries through to the second part that really ramps up the Epic in a believable way.

All that Glitters.(TSR ) One of my all time favourite adventure modules. The characters are going up the river following an old partial treasure map. At the end of their journey which takes them through an old magical tunnel that goes through the impassable mountains, through a post-apocalyptic desert leads them to a conclusion they will not be expecting.

Worth noting that the authors of the above would go on to be part of the team that did the WHFRP 1st Ed Enemy within Campaign.

Irillian from Best of White Dwarf Scenarios III . A city adventure in which the characters take part in an epic crusade against evil. There’s a great twist in the underlying premise that stops it being cliché and predictable. While the party is hunting down the source of the ills that inflict the city they get a guided tour of the city itself, which has seen much better days (think Italian Renaissance city, much down on its luck and gone to seed).

And as an out of the box setting, that would work with all the above scenarios, I can not recommend enough ‘Pelinore’ which was Imagine magazine’s D&D campaign setting, which carried on into Games Master Magazine.

Would you go to a UK Old School Con?

Posted on by
23

[poll id=”4″]

Ok seriously considering this one for 2013.  D101 Games has a bit of a split personality, in that we have our OSR games ( OpenQuest  and Crypts & Things ) and then our Storytelling/indie games ( Monkey, WordPress and our HeroQuest supplements ).  This means that its always abit fun and games when I go to conventions. Which side of D101 should I show off the most? Well the answer depends on the focus of the con.  While most UK cons are a good mix of old and new, with indie games probably scoring a little bit higher because everyone wants to try new stuff out, unlike the storytelling/indie stuff there’s no dedicated con like Indie-con and Old School games while happening are sort of this novelty game in the corner type affair. In short I always feel a bit odd, that on one hand I meet some cracking players who I have a great game with but come away from the gaming table to the bar and wandering around and Old School gaming is a bit unloved.

So I’d like to have a dedicated residential con for Old School Gaming.

Game policy would be pretty draconian: Nothing after 1989 OR that doesn’t demonstrates a strong influence direct in its rules or game play, ie. a modern edition or a tribute game.  I would also want to encourage a wide selection of games, so its not just an OSR D&D con.

So talking three groups

Published before 1990: OD&D, D&D basic/expert/companion, AD&D 1st & 2nd ed, Traveller, RuneQuest II & III, Judge Dredd (GW), Warhammer Fantasy 1st Ed, DragonWarriors, Golden Heroes and of course Call of Cthulhu!

Retro-clones/Tribute Games: Labyrinth Lord, OSRIC, Swords and Wizardry, OpenQuest, Crypts and Things.

Modern Editions: MRQ2/Legend, Warhammer 2nd Ed (but not 3rd)

I do have a time and venue in mind, but I want to see if this one has legs before I risk the wrath of the short wee wifey.  D101 would be doing the organising (so it would have “D101 Games presents”), but I would hope to have other Old School publishers involved.

Drop me a line if you would be into helping with this at newt@d101games.com.

Leave comments below if you have any ideas.