Repost: “More Present Than the Living Man”

"He who has gone, so we but cherish his memory, abides with us, more potent, nay, more present than the living man." - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

As many of you are no doubt aware, today is the second anniversary of the passing of Gary Gygax. I’m certain that there will be a number of tributes to Gary and remembrances of the Dungeon Master occurring throughout the day, many written by scribes more gifted than myself. I would be remiss, however, to not mention it here. I have no stories of Gary to share. I met the man on only one occasion, very briefly and many years ago, and my memory of that meeting is not as pristine as it once was. So I will let others speak eloquently and at length about Gary, offering only what I can:

Thank you, Gary. We miss you.

Dungeon Alphabet PDF On Sale

As part of DrivethruRPG's GM's Day Sale, the PDF of The Dungeon Alphabet is on sale for $5.99. That's $2.00 off the regular price and nothing to scoff at in these troubled times. If you've been meaning to pick up an electronic version of the book, you might not see a better offer than this.

Click here to go and buy.

Paper Mayhem

On a lark, I picked up one of the 3D paper terrain packs put out by Fat Dragon Games. I now find myself folding cardstock when I'm looking to downshift my brain after a long day. Even though I lack the deft skills that the origami geniuses over at Fat Dragon have, the results I produce aren't half bad.

I'm very pleased with the set, much more so than I expected myself to be. The detail on the pieces is very good, the results are lightweight but sturdy, and, should they ever be destroyed in play, are easy to reproduce at little cost. While I'm doubtful that I'll use them in the upcoming game only because it takes place away from my home and would require transport, I find myself toying with the idea of making a set piece or two that is filled with various traps and other challenges and making the players navigate the chamber with miniatures.

Here's a small diorama using some of the pieces I've made so far. Our two adventurers have just met a lurking trapper down in the depths of the dungeon.

An Illustrated Example of the "Make It Your Own" Philosophy of the OSR

I found this in an old, old issue of White Dwarf and it sums up for me what the "Make It Your Own" attitude of the Old School Renaissance is all about. Pictured below are two mind flayers, but they don't look a single thing like the mind flayers that we've all come to know.


The OSR: where having a squid-headed mind flayer running about plagiarizing the cover of Eldritch Wizardry is expected, not frowned upon.

New Beginnings

This is a week for new beginnings, a time of both excitement and terror. Today is the first of March, which means that my pleasant post-Stonehell rest period has officially ended and it’s time to get back on task. Work officially begins on the sequel as of now. You will hopefully be seeing the finished product around November, which is the same time the first book was released last year. I know what goes into writing a book of that size now and that knowledge will help cut back on the production time—I hope.

My return to Stonehell actually began earlier this week. In preparation for the Eldritch Frontier campaign, I’ve done a little remodeling and rewriting of the surface and first level of the megadungeon. Two of my future players own copies of the commercial release of the dungeon, so I’ve put the kobolds to work rearranging the place and ordering new monsters. I’m obviously not redoing the entire dungeon, but the tweaks will create something the substantially different from the book. For those of you keeping tract, this means I’m now on the third iteration of the dungeon.

Speaking of Stonehell, rmckee78 of the Circle of Dar Janix is running his players through the dungeon using OSRIC. He’s been posting session reports on the blog and this week his players finally started poking around the Gates of Hell. As much as I enjoy it when people take the dungeon and run with it, as the designer I also get a kick out of when things happen as you imagined they might—which is exactly what happen to this crew.

Still, the biggest beginning of the week is that it looks like the Eldritch Frontier campaign is a go. Yesterday’s meet up resulted in the group reaching a total of three players—the minimum I was requiring before starting. On top of that, I’ve got another player joining up in just a couple of weeks. Four is a nice number but I’m still keeping the “vacancy” sign lit for now. Next Sunday will be game session #1, meaning that I’ve got some work that needs to be done on top of the Stonehell sequel launch.

Ever since we confirmed the start of the campaign, I’ve been thinking a lot about the tone of the campaign and my referee voice. Perhaps it’s my literary background but finding one’s referee voice is as important as an author finding his or her writer’s voice. Every referee needs to do their damnedest to cultivate a unique style, atmosphere, setting, and method. To create both a way and a world that is easily recognizable amongst the many. Humorous, unsettling, or gonzo—it doesn’t matter so long as you find it. Since it’s been awhile since I’ve spent more than a few brief moments behind the screen, it’s going to be interesting to try and find mine again. I’ve done a lot of thinking about this hobby of ours over the last year-and-a-half and I’ve personally undergone a lot of changes since I last did a steady ref’s gig. My new voice is likely to be very, very different from my previous one. The quest to find it anew will undoubtedly be exhilarating and downright terrifying.

I can’t wait.

The Eldritch Frontier Wiki

I've gone ahead and made my Obsidian Portal site for the forthcoming Eldritch Frontier campaign open for viewing. There are still a lot of little details that need to be added and the whole thing needs to be gone over with an eye for typos, but my goal was to have it up today.

Looking it over, I get the impression that it doesn't quite convey all that I have in mind for the world and seems a little too vanilla in places. The spice will have to wait because I'm certainly not going to tip my hand before the campaign even begins. A lot more will be revealed in time and the campaign's atmosphere will certainly be much more palpable around the table when dice start clattering.

Wiki is here.

Treasure Type to Hoard Class Cheat Sheet

Although it’s pretty obvious what Moldvay Basic treasure types translate into Labyrinth Lord's hoard classes when you have both books open in front of you, it’s a bit harder to do in your head in the middle of a game. To compensate, I whipped up a handy cheat sheet to include in my notes. Being the swell guy that I am, I’ll share it with you here.

D&D Treasure Type (Moldvay)	Labyrinth Lord Hoard Class
A	XXII
B	XXI
C	XX
D	XIX
E	XVIII
F	XVII
G	XVI
H	XV
I	XIV
J	XIII
K	XII
L	XI
M	X
N	IX
O	VIII
P	I
Q	II
R	III
S	IV
T	V
U	VI
V	VII

Here it is in a convenient 3x5 sized PDF.