This Week in the OSR: Megadungeons

So this latest issue in the OSR seems to be about and around the Mega-dungeon.
There are a lot of reasons for this but they are better explained elsewhere.

http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=24039
http://aldeboran.blogspot.com/2012/10/schroedingers-room-and-fuck-diddles.html
http://muleabides.wordpress.com/2012/10/09/in-defense-of-the-megadungeon/
http://wondrousimaginings.blogspot.com/2012/10/played-dwimmermount-last-night-sucked.html
http://warlockshomebrew.blogspot.com/2012/10/empty-room-syndrome.html
http://dreamsinthelichhouse.blogspot.com/2012/10/lessons-from-running-mega-dungeons.html

Me? I am not trying to stir up any shit.  Here are my points of view.

• James is good guy. We don't see eye to eye on most things, but I enjoy his blog still.  He will get done when he gets done.  
• That being said, I hate to see the Kickstarter well poisoned or tainted.  Delays are happening in about half of the kickstarters I have funded, while I am not mad or even irritated, I am getting a little anxious. 
• Mega-dungeons are not my thing.  Sure I get the appeal, but give me the outside or the city or the planes.  One could argue that those are just different kinds of mega dungeons.  One might be right.

So it's Friday and typically slow around here.  So I wanted to capture your thoughts on this.

Read more »

TBBYANR: Beyond the Pale Gate

I was reading a post over at Pork's Expanse! about taking this time during a lull (lull? what lull I am blogging my tail off over here!) in blog posts to read or find a blog you don't often read.
http://theporkster.blogspot.com/2012/10/find-that-blog.html

Frankly I think that is a brilliant idea. There are a lot of quality blogs out there waiting to be read.

So to that end I wanted to revive an old favorite feature of the Other Side, "The Best Blog You Are Not Reading"

The idea behind TBBYANR is simple. Find a blog in my blog roll that has under 40 followers and let you all know about it.  Why 40?  Because back in the early days I languished at 40 followers forever.  While I was appreciative of every single one (and still am) sometimes it felt I was talking to myself.

Today's TBBYANR is Beyond the Pale Gate. http://ramblingsfrombeyondthepale.blogspot.com/
Very much an oldschool blog, focusing on the OSR.
The author's (David) style is self-described as train of thought, but that is fine with me.

What really made choose this one was his recent post on Copyleft, http://ramblingsfrombeyondthepale.blogspot.com/2012/10/im-copyleft-type-of-guy.html
I don't totally agree with him on all points, but I agree with what he is saying in principle.   Plus my current "game" computer is running Linux now as well so I can relate.

I also liked the fact that despite his self professed Old School leanings he professed to really enjoying the Pathfinder Basic Box, http://ramblingsfrombeyondthepale.blogspot.com/2012/09/blasphemy-from-my-month-of-madness.html

And he likes Jimi Hendrix! So that is always a plus in my book.

If I had one complaint it is the background to his blog. It looks awesome, but it makes it difficult to read some of the posts.
ETA: He has changed that and it is much easier to read!  My old eyes are thankful.

So please. Check this blog out and if you do, drop David a note and let him know what you like about his blog.

If you have a blog that you think would be be good for TBBYANR, let me know!

Read more »

We are talking about this again

Another article basically asking the current status-quo in fandom to stop being a bunch of jerks.

http://comicimpact.com/2012/09/cosplay-lay-off-the-babes/

We only get this on the periphery in the RPG community, but it is there.  Maybe only because old-fashioned table-top RPGs are not quite as popular in the same way comics and comic book movies are.

I talked about this back in June, and again, I hope that we as gamers are doing better.

http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2012/06/dear-gamers-we-had-better-be-doing.html

Read more »

Genre Favorites Blogfest

Alex J. Cavanaugh's The Genre Blogfest.

In this blogfest I need to talk about my favorite Genre of Movie, Book and Music.  Plus my guilty pleasure.

So here we go!

Movies
My favorite is still Horror.  I love all that scary stuff. I do enjoy other movies, but horror is my go to.

Music
I would have to say Classic metal or even classic rock.  I still love to listen to Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Dio.  My wife accuses me of living in the past, I prefer to think of it that my tastes are so refined that I know exactly what I want.

Books
Again, gotta say horror, but I enjoy the Modern Supernatural genre as well.  The ones where it's all teh same creatures as horror, but living in the world of today.  Things like The Dresden Files.  I do still enjoy fantasy.

Guilty Pleasure
This is a hard one.  I have so many!! Well, so many that others might call guilty, I don't feel any guilt in these.
But to narrow it down to one...well that can only be my love for really, really bad movies.  I am not talking your average B or C movie, I am talking about Z grade, unfit for human consumption.  Things they might have considered doing on MST3k, but were to bad.

What do you enjoy?
Read what others have posted too: http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.com/2012/08/bourne-legacy-review-ninja-news-tv.html


See what everyone else is doing!

Read more »

What is going on at White Dwarf?

If you come here for my White Dwarf Wednesdays you know I am a big fan of early (pre #100) of White Dwarf.

While I was not a fan of WD after it became devoted only Warhammer I didn't fault it because that was the trend for magazines at the time.

I might be stuck still in the 80s but White Dwarf did move on, in fact there was a recent posting about how we are going to be getting a new and improved WD magazine, http://lasgunpacker.blogspot.com/2012/09/white-dwarf-relaunch.html

But it also looks like Games Workshop is having troubles with some of the older issues.  Namely being able to prove what they may or may not own.

A post over at Pork's Expanse explains it better: http://theporkster.blogspot.com/2012/09/what-gw-owns.html
As does Russ Nicholson himself, http://russnicholson.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-horror-of-it-all.html.

I really enjoyed Russ' art in WD's golden age, and I hope he can get this all sorted out.  


This and the latest Kickstarter-based-project drama though shows me one thing:
I don't have a clue about what drama is going in the various gaming blogs.  

Well, unless I start it of course.   I don't think I am being particular obtuse and I do read all the same things everyone else is (I assume).   I mean I am not reading message boards hardly anymore (ha! see what I did there) and my Google+ participation is not as high as it could be.
I'll see some good posts and think to myself, "that is a good post, but what the hell are you talking about?"

Maybe it is the nature of blogs.  We sometimes feel that everyone is reading the exact same things we are because they are reading at least some of the same things we are.

Random thoughts on a Sunday.

Read more »

It was on this day...

12 years ago that I stayed home from work so I could be at my FLGS to buy a copy of the new D&D 3rd Edition Player's Handbook.

Sorry if I choose to be selective on how I remember this day.

In truth 9/11/2001 was also a watershed date for me personally.  I had just gotten laid off from my "Dream job" in the Dot Com world (they had laid off 65% of their workforce that day).  So I was home with a new baby when all the events went down.

I then spent the next few months (before I swallowed my pride and went back to teaching) working on various RPG products.  One, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG, lead to many, many other projects that eventually landed me Ghosts of Albion.

Since 9/11/2001 was 11 years ago, it was also a Tuesday when it happened (perpetual calendars are 11 years long), so to me the "big anniversary" of something is not 10 years, but 11.  Weird I know.  But that is why it is on my mind more today than say this time last year.

Read more »

Genre Blogfest

I enjoy these blogfests.  Mostly for the community building and to see what other people have to say.  But I also enjoy them because they help me get out of the posting rut.

Alex J. Cavanaugh, who has run so many blogfests, presents another.
The Genre Blogfest.

I will be participating in this one, it looks fun!

Read more »

Kickstart your week!

Another Kickstarter that I thought looked cool.

Invasion of the Saucer People - Card Game
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lestersmith/invasion-of-the-saucer-people-card-game

A cool looking card game from Popcorn Press, the same folks that are bringing us Cthulhu Haiku next month.  Check them out and see what they have!

Read more »

More Monster Images

Since I want to make this more inclusive here are some more image fro you to use to link back.

Read more »

MONSTROUS MONDAY!

This year I wanted to do something extra for Halloween (which in my mind is the entire month of October).  So I am going to be hosting the MONSTROUS MONDAY Blogfest!

The rules are really simple.

1. Sign up below
2. Grab a button and link back to my site
3. Post your Monster on Monday October 29th 2012!

That's it!

What kind of Monster?  Well that is up to you really.  I am going to be posting Monster stats.  You can do that, or post a monster you like/love/hate, or tell us about the monster in your new book coming out.  Anything would be great really.

I will be posting some more soon.

Here are some banners for your use with some code to link back here.

Code:

<a href="http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/"><img alt="MONSTROUS MONDAY!" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7lFVHh3eoCIaIZ46vs29YTJsZl1urCJjVDZGKb9l4gXNR1on0xhWHxkpGPIxdDbiAmZpBxmCooTE8SKvnWxNgtaDjyaHd20V1I_LbH6kf2LEEzIbSvAQVSsrAv5EOl8CCJhyphenhyphenqVVfMRh4/s1600/MONSTROUS_MONDAY1.png" /></a>

Code:

<a href="http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/"><img alt="MONSTROUS MONDAY!" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZLA-hPOlofopAP-oiV1my29-gXPdDkub5Vx1d9MF4xmTceFqTrYgbbkXJTMkgiNfckzpLu-rfxATavVDzwSbysd2QN9BR29rJesjU91c7857d6LvK6A43bT1sxIS922h6o6NNv0x_480/s1600/MONSTROUS_MONDAY2.png" /></a>

Code:

<a href="http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/"><img alt="MONSTROUS MONDAY!" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFyG-eCcLUGsXvmrMaJHocfmk_KUXdNRC3iOPh0DG5vsFqxSDlKFX4yebplOZ-JrMDqw-MQQa1j-kZmhcC8oHLE27E1gHNJ2o7PILqasUba2Kw2YvVpn5Dxi9RbN-4gW5xim1Wi1X9C1c/s1600/MONSTROUS_MONDAY3.png" /></a>

OR Right-click on the picture you want and re-size as needed.

You can sign up here now.

Read more »

Blogfest/Bloghop anyone?

So I was looking at my calendar last night and I noticed that October has 5 Mondays and 5 Wednesdays this year.  Yeah it has 5 Tuesdays too.

I was thinking that it might be cool to post a new monster here every Monday in October.  Then I thought, why should I have all this fun by myself?

So here is an idea and I'd like to see who would all like to join in. On the Monday before Halloween (10/29) everyone post a new Monster.  It doesn't have to be horror related and it can be in any system.  I then thought I could expand it to let anyone post something about any sort of monster.

I would do this as a Blogfest, like the A to Z challenge, and everyone could see what everyone else has done.

Any takers?  This would be a great way to spread the word about gaming into areas beyond our "Blog borders" and it could give you all sorts of ideas.

Let me know what you think.  I am still going to post a new monster every Monday in October and mine will be horror themed.

Read more »

The OSR is Dead, Long Live the OSR!

Fresh from Gen Con I posted that the OSR is Dead, or rather more to the point I asked if it was and then followed up with a comment that the movement was dead.

Many took umbrage with this.

Here is the deal.

The OSR as a movement has satisfied it's goals.
There is unprecedented access to "old school" and "old school-like" material.  Yes, several thousand copies of Swords & Wizardry are going out, WotC has AD&D out in stores now and D&D5 looks like a streamline, even old-school, version of 3e, these though are only the largest examples of why the "fight" is over.  If the R is Revolution then the revolution is over. If the R is Renascence then we are in a post enlightenment period. What was learned is not lost, but it does change.

The OSR as a community will continue to thrive.
Anecdotally we have had many posts from the the first rush of bloggers (present company included) talk about how hits and views are down.  How posting is down.  We might not ever see the growth we did of 2008-2010 again.  But that doesn't mean there is not a constant flow of ideas, text and things we can all do.

What does this all mean though really?
Will people stop playing Basic Fantasy, S&W or LL?  No.  Those games will rise and fall by desires of their fans and market forces.
Will people stop making material? No way. They didn't stop when 1st Ed replaced OD&D or 2nd ed replaced that and so on.  In fact it is now easier than ever before.

It will be interesting to see what D&D5 does to the OSR community.  Will people jump ship for this new game? Will the backlash against WotC continue?  Will the Pathfinder continue to grow?  2013 will be interesting to say the least, but one thing is sure, don't expect it to be the same as now.

Read more »

The OSR is Dead, Part 1.5

I want to add some more substance to this, but until then here are some links of where my thoughts are at.

http://swordsandwizardry.blogspot.com/2012/08/d-and-retro-clones-big-reboot-arrives.html
http://www.tenkarstavern.com/2012/08/where-d-goes-so-goes-hobby-so-whats-next.html

Some discussion on my Google+ site
https://plus.google.com/u/0/101143993996952001933/posts

And some commentary on the Keynote
http://www.twitch.tv/wotc_dnd/b/328881758
http://www.advanceddungeonsandparenting.com/2012/08/d-keynote-focus-on-vision-rather-than.html
http://www.heropress.net/2012/08/wizards-keynote-address-at-gen-con.html
http://towerofzenopus.blogspot.com/2012/08/overreaction-saturday.html

More this weekend.

Read more »

Witches of Oz

F. Douglas Wall over at "There's more to Oz than the Yellow Brick Road" has a post up on Witches in Oz.

He mentions me in it and it is, obviously, something right up my alley.

I have mentioned before in a few places that the Wicked Witch of the West was one of my first witches.  She was the one that started this whole mess to be exact.

http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2011/11/having-wicked-time-in-oz.html
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2012/07/adventures-in-oz.html
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2012/08/what-was-your-childhood-monster.html

Pop by his blog and have a discussion with us on witches.

Read more »

Is the OSR Dead?

So I made some interesting, though not entirely new or unique, observations.

The OSR, as a Movement, is Dead.

This is the point of view of Tavis Allison who gave a talk about the OSR at Gen Con this past week.  Tavis has the street cred to back up his claims too, author of The Mule Abides blog and the Adventurer Conqueror King game system.

Though he has his reasons, I think I am looking at something slightly different.

I am not talking about the lack ENnies or even representation at Gen Con.
There was the the OSR Publications booth, which was great.

I am talking about the OSR as a movement.  If the stated goal* of the OSR was to get old-school style gaming back into the hands of gamers, then one only needed to go to the Wizards of the Coast booth and buy a copy of the 1st Ed AD&D books, or listen to their keynote address about the availability of older products, or go play D&D5.

(* lets be honest here, no one ever stated any goal of any sort)

If the goal was get products to go mainstream, well the OSR Publications booth was a good step in that direction.  George Strayton of the Secret Fire RPG was an industry guest of honor at this past Gen Con as well. Castles and Crusades (one of the earliest Retro Clones in my opinion) never seemed more popular.

So if the OSR as a mission was get "old school" products in the main-stream, then that goal has been met.

The movement then is dead. Why?  Well if the "R" mean Revolution, Revival or Renascence, then the goals have been achieved.   Old School is back.

The OSR as a community or even as a loosely affiliated publishing movement will live on.  Much like the Indie Press Revolution (who, to be perfectly honest, does everything the OSR could do and does it well).
There will still be sites and blogs that support old-school play.  They existed before the OSR movement and will (in some form) afterwards. 

I fear though that for many that the "R" stood for "Resistance" as in the alternative not because they liked old school play so much, but because they hated the "new school" of 4e or even 3.x.  Well for them I fear the battle wages on and it will never be won.  TSR is never coming back to life, WotC owns D&D and there are  many that enjoy the newer games.

In any case the OSR will change.  Not because it wants to, but because it will need to to stay relevant.

I will have to post on this topic more in a bit.

Read more »

OSR Monster project

Re-blogging this from Rended Press.
http://rendedpress.blogspot.com/2012/07/status-update-osr-ogl-blogosphere.html

As of today, the OSR OGL BLOGOSPHERE MONSTERS PROJECT has 26 entries.

I'll close the file sometime during the afternoon of August 1.

Remember: This is open to any creature you've posted on your blog at any point in 2012!

So come on, people. Do the cut & paste!

Note: Please only share material that you feel comfortable appearing in a half-assed, crazy, DIY fan compilation.

I have sent a couple of monsters in.   It would be nice to see some more!

Read more »

AD&D Reprints

The AD&D reprints are now in.

They are really nice too.

Newer paper that feels thicker, if glossier.  "Gilded" edges.  Nice covers.  These are nice enough to be collectors' items and still sturdy enough to be able to play with them.

The covers are a nice homage.

Gilded pages are always a nice touch.

It might be hard to see here, but the text is not an "exact" copy, there are some minor formatting issues.  The books though have the same page count as before and my quick glance tells me that things that show up on page X in the old books still appear on page X of the new ones.

I also like the ribbon book mark.

This copyright statement and the new ISBNs are the only clue you will get inside that this was not a TSR publication.  Many companies wold have altered the text inside to a degree I am sure.  These pages, even considering they were completely re-done, are the same.

I think we are going to be playing some First Edition here soon!

There is your history of D&D right there.  Original Edition, Basic, Advanced 1 & 2 (and OSRIC), RC, 3.0, 3.5, Pathfinder and 4e.  And my new books have a new home.  That is till my kids see them in a couple of hours and they end up upstairs in their rooms.

I am not sure how much of my purchase went to the Gygax Memorial fund, but as long as it was some then I am fine.

Major kudos to WotC for getting these produced.

Read more »

Various reminders

Spent all day in 104+ weather outside.  My brain is cooked.

Here are some things I want you all to remind me about later cause they were in my clipboard so they must be important.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons_simulacrums
Need some more information on Swords & Wizardry.  Anyone have some details I can use?

http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/325572-chicago-gameday-32-july-14th-sign-up-play.html
I'd love to have some more people sign up for this.  It's the last time I am running Blight.

http://elflairgames.blogspot.com/2012/07/contemplating-kickstarter.html
Jason has a poll up.  Give it a look-see.

Next weekend I run Ghosts of Albion: Blight om Saturday and Part two of Keep on the Shadowfell on Sunday.

Read more »

Tales of Woe

It is a sad day here at The Other Side.

My hard drive died a couple weeks ago.  Normally this is a cause for panic, but I didn't because having been doing this for a while I thought I had everything backed up.  Well.  I didn't.

I didn't lose any of my PDFs save for maybe the most recent ones I bought since May, but I can always go back to DriveThruRPG and re-download those.  My current OSR/Old-School books were in the hands of editors, so they were saved.

I did though loose all my documents for my Ghosts of Albion adventures Blight, Obsession, Wilderness and Synchronicity.  I have printout of Blight and Obsession, so that isn't too bad.  And I lost all my personal emails from 2011-2012.

Figuring it was the circuit board (given the errors I was getting) I worked with a company that specialized in this brand of hard drive (Seagate Barracuda) called PCB Solution.

I worked with Kevin to find a new board for this drive and in truth my hopes were high, even if he felt (and he did tell all this upfront) that my drive might be further gone that I thought it was.  Undaunted I picked up their repair kit and got it in a couple of days.  It easy easy to do as long as you have no fear of cranking open your computer or drives.  I got it in installed and slapped it into a new external drive enclosure and ... nothing.

I worked on a few other tricks I have picked over the years.  Back in the day I ran the official usenet alt.sys.pc-clone.gatewat2000 FAQ, so I consider myself a bit smarter than the average bear in this respect.  But if there is one thing I have learned, there is always someone smarter.  And it will take someone smarter than me to fix this one.

Here is what I have learned (and should known already):

1. It doesn't matter how much you back up.  Back up more.
2. Stop buying Seagate drives.  Every single one has died on me and took much valued data with it.

So that is what I know.

I do want to publicly thank Kevin at PCB Solution.  He really went above and beyond the call of duty to help me.

Read more »

OSR Links and Call for Editors

Here are some links and news for all OSR fans out there.

First, I want to repeat that Jason Vey of Elf Lair Games has a poll up.
http://elflairgames.blogspot.com/2012/07/contemplating-kickstarter.html

Howling Tower, the blog of long time vet Steve Winter has both an article up at Kobold Quarterly, http://www.koboldquarterly.com/k/front-page13022.php and listing of some of the best free OSR products, http://www.howlingtower.com/p/old-school-renaissance-resources.html.

Also we need some editors to expand this Wikipedia article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons_simulacrums

This article is about all the D&D clones, near clones and other such games we love in the OSR.
Please be sure to include any external and third-party refs.

Read more »