Gus L.

Hey that's my game.
Using your D&D dice for wargames is objectively 46% better than just using six siders.

WD put this together to be small but allow exploration - a hard task and while space constraints are always limiting I think he succeeded and has included some weird wizardly touches that don't feel "gonzo" but manage to feel very Appendix N fantasy.

part 2! regardless of whether or not we know which author contributed which passages, can we poke major tendencies and axes of difference across od&d? and do the poles of such axes correlate?

traversefantasy.blogspot.com/2025/08/od-h...

I helped a friend out a drew Amanda a mediocre map - she made it look pretty good.

Sniff

I'm for rules jail though ... anyone who adds multiple new die rolling mechanics for a single ability, event or attack ... 2-5 in the State (Rules) Pen.

It always makes me happy when people run my stuff! Let me know how it goes.

Bissette's D&D art was always some of my favorite, and as a kid it was very inspiring in that it suggested D&D monsters had material culture and complexity through visual storytelling. Never knew who had drawn it though. Perhaps someone should make figs based on the art for real?

Drew a quick Isometric villa for a friend to key up. I think I'm getting this map style down a bit better.

I'm just not sure if this headline is a mealy-mouthed request or a threat... is there an implied "...or else"?

Change is hard. I find a crispy bagel interior far superior, but that's the way I have done it since I was a child in the 80's and bagels were a strange delicacy only to be had from specialized shops or frozen and tasting vaguely of chemicals. I like capers and cream cheese on mine.

Jay makes very thoughtful games ... not my style of games, but very good and well thought out games. Yazeba's, Mythic Bastionland, and His Majesty the Worm were my favorites this Ennies. All are worth you time - if they happen to be your thing.

Shrines of the Lower Ossuary by riseupcomus A dungeon for His Majesty the Worm

AT THE SHRINES OF THE LOWER OSSUARY is a new dungeon for HIS MAJESTY THE WORM, released as PWYW until July 20th as a thanks for your support!

Can you:
* Cleanse the four shrines?
* Defeat the terrible clown queen?
* Trade with the strange merchants?

riseupcomus.itch.io/shrines-of-t...

It's a good one - an experimental piece that still holds up.

Fantastic Medieval Campaigns by Traverse Fantasy A new version of the original role-playing game

also published one last update to FMC to correct outstanding mistakes and reupload the B&W version of the PDF

thank y’all for your continued interest in this project! :)

traversefantasy.itch.io/fmc

7 Maxims of the OSR, from All Dead Generations by Gus L.:

blogsontape.paperspencils.com/2025/07/04/e...

I'd make a distinction between my play style (which I've started calling "Dungeon Crawl" as Retired Adventurer's "Classic" is only tangentially related and it's most active proponents and me absolutely don't see eye to eye) and OSR. It's a Post-OSR thing focused on procedural exploration.

It's a good map - and notably it's not too symmetrical.

This is taking me back to living next to a big time vampire larper in college ... so much late night drama! If only I had known the rules, I could have chided them for mechanical infidelity while they fought about the relationship kind...

Continuing on the theme of wilderness travel, @benlaurence.bsky.social‬'s landmark orienteering approach is really compelling! I've never run a proper exploration game, but this makes me want to. blogsontape.paperspencils.com/2025/06/27/e...

I've followed this game for a bit, but I've only played it briefly. A nice look back at older CRPGs with a sort of "dark fragglerock"/"fey-realm clayamation" aesthetic and clear table top inspiration.

Nostalgic enough to take me back to playing on an Amiga in 1990, but with modern mechanics.

Designing Dungeons: Or How to Kill in a Party in 30 Rooms is complete! Its a great series of collected wisdom from the old-school brain trust on dungeon design with the goal of 𝓹𝓵𝓪𝔂𝓲𝓷𝓰!

Fantastic collab with @riseupcomus.bsky.social !!

Cramped, handwritten spell lists

Cramped, handwritten spell lists

My friend Flo's dad was involved in the fanzine culture of D&D in the 70s, and made some contributions to early gaming magazines. She recently shared some of his handwritten notes about the spell systems he and his friends used.

I think these are FASCINATING

The best thing about deciding the OSR scene died in 2019 is that I don't have to care very much about what people keep saying about it these days.

Milton Bradley's Operation, edited to have common topics of RPG discourse

Lawd are we discoursing again?

Related to the prep below, while six 6-mile hexes (including village & megadungeon) might not seem like a lot of adventure, when zoomed in to 2 miles/hex, you easily see how there is plenty of space for activities.

World building doesn't have to span a continent when a county will do. Art: HexKit

It's neat to see your maps of the White Jungle. I take it the rings are some sort of shelf fungus?

10 Budget-Friendly Typeface Resources for RPG Designers Tired of using free fonts? Here are 10 foundries and type designers who make and sell quality typefaces and fonts for indie-level budgets.

So, you're looking for fonts that'll stand out. There are hundreds of open-source/free ones, but you want something more obscure, something that supports a type designer.

Here are 10 type foundries, collectives, and designers perfect for indie rpgs...

www.explorersdesign.com/10-budget-fo...

I remember making trips there as a kid with my anime loving friend. A long ride on the 38.

Reading this I think you're almost not talking about a sandbox ... I'd call this project "Build a Setting" because once you have this thing up and running it can build up over several campaigns. Campaign too often means "this is my 15 year old game" when you can have a five or ten session campaign.