Velocitree2

Not OSR but gumshoe lineage, but Eversink from Swords of the Sepentine is a banger, with a great intro adventure. My PCs destroyed most of a neighborhood shortly after arrival. Easy to port to any system.

A gimmick a flimsy encounter generator

There are folk who see new tech, settings or procedures and say, “No thanks, too silly. I’m pretending to be an elf here - this is serious business.”

To them I say, “Pah!”

In this blogpost, I present House of Cards Encounter Tracking.

bommyknocker.bearblog.dev/a-gimmick/

#blog #ttrpg #osr

Shadowfeats: OSR character customization rules for Shadowdark.

Finish first RPG supplement, check. Start business: check. Tmrw brings business bank account and drivethrurpg and itch account applications: starting to feel real y’all! Just in time for Zine Month:

The front cover of my forthcoming Shadowdark supplement.

Its alive! And coming soon…

In case you missed it: Total//Effect Jam starts two weeks from Monday! You can make content for existing games with the system or make your own.

Well heck thanks for the nudge Clayton. If you have loved anything I have written so far, please nominate me. But I am new to this craft, and all y’all following me know what the Bloggies are, so this post is really to remind myself to nominate other folks by Saturday!

Inspired by brilliant card fanatic @69dinguses.bsky.social, how about the Dungeon Deck: darker reactions as you go down… dreamshrike.blogspot.com/2026/01/hung...

Couldn't let Velocitree have all the fun, here's a remix of their post using a deck of cards

tbr.bearblog.dev/overloaded-r...

So glad you like it! Ya made my morning. :)

Easy path: add a d20 to the tower. Hard path: add a d6 to the tower, pay a cost. I foresee great dungeon fun from a dice clocktower!

The Bloggies 2026 A yearly celebration of blogging in tabletop roleplaying games.

The Bloggies 2026 submissions are closing this Saturday night!

Please submit your favorite blog posts, blog series, and newcomers on this year's official web page:

www.explorersdesign.com/bloggies-2026/

(And please, share this far and wide 🙏)

Common, Recalled, Obscure Landmark, Hidden, Secret reframed for character knowledge.

What if I change Landmark, Hidden, Secret to use for character knowledge? idk!

elmc.at/common-recal...

But as for uncareful words, I don’t think all people think of Reagan as the devil himself. I took those words as silliness. Even tho I didn’t write them, I am saddened they made you upset. Not liking Sanderson is not liking black licorice. They miss out.

I think magic systems in RPGs face different needs than ones in fantasy fiction. Soft magic systems are wonderful in fiction—le guin earthsea magic is unlawful greatness. Soft is harder in RPGs, to run well. I think it’s an imagination and time tax issue. Books got both free: the author did the work

Blog Preview: Rating Every Room in White Plume Mountain | Prismatic Wasteland Get more from Prismatic Wasteland on Patreon

A blog post that is nearly 3 years in the making, one of my longest posts, and a treatise of dungeon design advice that is disguised as a review of an old module. Patreons get to see it about a month or two early
#osr #ttrpg

So glad y’all like it! The monster modifiers were something I came up after playtesting, and some discord comments today have given me more ideas there. General monster Meins translated to +/-, good reputations giving Advantage, the benefits/drawbacks of factions, etc.

YouTube video by Direct Sun Perils of the Tower Wizard w/ guest Amanda P

You've heard of wizard towers before, but how about a tower wizard? Today we climb the PERILS OF THE TOWER WIZARD by Ill Hierophant. It's Puzzle Dungeon Workshop with guest @weirdwonder.bsky.social

youtu.be/VN_dXqco1A0

Overloading the reaction roll Reaction rolls are my favorite part of OSR/NSR play.  But they have been around forever, in largely unchanged form, since the early days of ...

Overloaded reaction rolls are good fun: dreamshrike.blogspot.com/2026/01/over...

A screenshot of Homer Simpson with the caption that "Money can be exchanged for goods and services"

Wanted to throw my hat into the ring with a functional analysis of treasure in #osr and adjacent games

tbr.bearblog.dev/on-the-natur...

Lightweight Memory Tables Generating weather with a toy memory

Found the world's greatest clipart for my new blogpost.

The bottom line: rolling 2d6 with advantage or disadvantage can give your weather tables a functional memory.

bommyknocker.bearblog.dev/lightweight-...

On sustaining creativity: lessons from my War of Art Due to new medication, I'm battling insomnia this week.  So today I want to talk about health, and to share how I sustain my creativity.  Th...

Insomnia post! dreamshrike.blogspot.com/2026/01/on-s...

Playtest Early, Playtest Often — Prismatic Wasteland To design a game, you have to break a few eggs and discard some rules or completely rewrite them. But you won’t know what to discard and what to rewrite until you feed those eggs to your players.

A tale of playtesting and how you don’t really know what mechanics work until you bring ones that don’t work to your table, maybe more than once

Arcane Tools, Treasures & Trinkets by nebmia 100 new magic items for old school roleplaying

Arcane Tools Treasures & Traps is my favorite magic item supplement. When I say "magic items should be more interesting than a +1," this collection of artifacts is what I think they should look like.

And it's PWYW? That's the real magic.

nebmia.itch.io/arcane-tools...

Bow to the d12: Two more random ways to glory Joel over at the Silverarm wrote a funny, yet serious, post  advocating for greater use of Her Dodecajesty, the d12 .  In the spirit of havi...

Following the clarion call of @joelhines.bsky.social, two more ways to use King d12: d12+d4 encounter tables and 2d12 Love/Hate reaction rolls! dreamshrike.blogspot.com/2026/01/bow-...

Nimbler: Reviewing Nimble 2e, part 1 I received Nimble 2e for my birthday in October, about time I reviewed it here.  Nimble started out as a 5e rules hack to make it faster, bu...

Two part review of Nimble 2e: roses (part 1) and thorns (part 2). And some homebrew tweaks to this interesting 5e/PF2e/Into the Odd hybrid: dreamshrike.blogspot.com/2026/01/nimb...

dreamshrike.blogspot.com/2026/01/nimb...

d48 OSR Shadowdark Quirks: PC challenges For my Shadowdark homebrew, I created feats for fighters , thieves , priests , wizards , and all classes.  Feats are meant to be even-level ...

Quirks! PC challenges for the OSR. Btw I am looking for sensitivity readers (DM pls). Bonus points if you get the image reference! dreamshrike.blogspot.com/2026/01/d48-...

Every brand-new blog needs a year in review post 🏴‍☠️ dreamshrike.blogspot.com/2025/12/2025...

Well personally I blame Yochai for misleading me into this chaos. But I *am* sticking around for cake…

d20 OSR Shadowdark Feats, part 3: Priests Inspired by the number of potential feats across DnD- and OSR-dom, I came up with "badass normal", OSR-compatible feats for Shadowdark.   Pa...

dreamshrike.blogspot.com/2025/12/d20-...

2026 in preview: 1) a complete system of non-superhero OSR feats for Shadowdark and OSE. 2) Pirate Borg and Nimble 2e rules hacks. 3) OSR quirks (drawbacks) inspired by Knave. 4) talking about monsters and death in role playing games and magic and stories and loads of random things. Fun!