The Worst Part of Teaching

It is not the kids, who are wonderful young people finding their way and much more savvy than I was their age.

It is not the colleagues, who are brilliant and dedicated and who fall into the normal workplace split of 10% who love me, 80% who don't care, and 10% who resent me for being a freewheeling fun teacher.

It is not the office, who are just people doing a job I'd never want to do and who increasingly have to butt heads with teachers as the govt and parents put more pressure on them and we push back aided by our union.

It

Is

Spending

All

Day

Marking

Seeing you on the other side, when the push towards the NUNA QuickStart launch and regular posting begins!

NUNA Bestiary # 1 - GIANTS, Giants, and giants

 Atelihai!

If you've ever read any Inuit folklore, you'll realize that Giants play a big role in their stories. There are basically 3 sizes or kinds:

Arctic Titans

These giants are so huge that they can cause tsunami when they go fishing, and their heads are literally in the clouds or among the birds. They are seldom hostile to the Inuit, but instead try to interact or befriend them, with equally comic or tragic consequences. Ever hear the story of the Titan who decided to wife swap with an Inuit man? It went just about as well as you'd think...

Arctic Giants

This next group, often called Tuniits (spelled with many variations from Alaska to Greenland) tower above humans, and are often helpful or wise. They may gift magical weapons of enlist Inuit to aid them in their duels, which they are said to have engaged in often, leading to their extinction. They are solitary and strange, but may take a village under their wing if lonely.

Arctic Ogres

The word Tuniit is often used for these as well, but the stories present a different picture. These Tuniit are larger than Inuit, but not by much. They have immense physical strength, but are also supposed to have disgusted the Inuit by their poor manners and hygiene. The menfolk steal Inuit umiak (rowboats) for their own fishing, and may be cannibal, although stories of kind or helpful Ogres exist. The women for their part cook meat by keeping it in their clothes (Tartar steak?), but may kidnap men they like. In fact, there is a whole subsection of she-ogres that kidnap babies, either to raise as ogres or to eat. Tuniit ogres are said to have lived in large stone houses which they built by hand, and to have slept upside down inside them.

Archaeologists have indeed found stone structures built across the Arctic, and the prevailing theory among Anthropologists is that these were made by the Dorset Inuit, the precursor of modern Inuit. The ancestors of the Inuit we know are called Thule, who spread out from Siberia across the Arctic 1000 years ago and dominated the region with their superior technology, which included barbed harpoons with animalskin floats so that prey would not sink. It is believed that the Thule drove the larger but less sophisticated Dorset Inuit into extinction, based on the many stories of tricking, trapping, or killing Tuniit ogres that have survived.

And Historians believed that there was ANOTHER group of Inuit long before the Dorset...

So NUNA will include both many kinds of Arctic giants, as well as disappeared races.

NUNA vs BRP #1 - Hello Shield Armor!

Welcome to this series of designer notes where I explain differences between NUNA and BRP (Chaosium's tried and true D100 system). Please note that NUNA is built on the chassis of older versions of BRP (Stormbringer, early Runequest), and not the more modern iterations (Elric! or Call of Cthulhu), nor the latest (CoC 7E). I do look at my Big Gold Book for inspiration and to make sure I don't needlessly reinvent the wheel.

First up, I have always felt Shields were underutilized in Stormbringer. They have a damage dice rating when used to Attack, they can Parry arrows, but other than that there is no difference in coverage between the 4 types presented (Buckler, Round, Kite, and Tower).

Let's fix that.

As a former SCA member, I have seen how useful shields are in combat. Back in my PUBG days as well, I have been saved innumerable times by bullets ricocheting off my frypan.

Note that although NUNA is classic lethal combat, I think the edge that Shields provide could use a buff to make characters more robust.

Here is an overview of the 3 things shields can do in NUNA. Details are in the Quickstart and Corebook.

1. Parry

This builds on the original Stormbringer rules, but clarifies and extends the effects on the Shield depending on the material it is made from (wood or iron). Using a Shield also allows more Parries by delaying the penalty for multiple Parries by alternating between weapon and Shield.

2. Attack

Once again, this is from the original rules, but damage dice are a more logical progression. I do love the Shield throwing implied by the old rules and have addressed that more directly.  I also clarify Knockback and possible Stun effects.

3. Soak Damage & Portable Cover

This is a new use, a version of which appeared in Stormbringer Redux. Basically, carrying a Shield can give a chance to stop projectile attacks, soak up damage, and act as Cover to make one harder to hit. I am still wrestling with the simple mechanics of this, but take as my inspiration that old OSR houserule gem by Trollsmyth,  Shields Shall Be Splintered, which I consider a Platonic ideal for houserules design and implementation.

4. Limitations

Increasing the utility of shields does not mean that everyone will carry one. First, only Vikings know how to make good ones and have ready access to materials, although Riggers may have access to old riot shields. Also, Inuit general eschew carrying about Shields except if going to battle to defend their community. Shields can also can make a character easier to Grapple by any of the giant creatures that abound in Nuna.

NUNA Summer Update!

The First Peoples English classes I teach have ended at the day job, and I have 2 weeks to finish evaluations before summer vacation.

Time to kick NUNA into launch mode!

Launch date for Nuna Quickstart is July 15 on DriveThru RPG.

It will be Pay What You Want with $1 minimum, and I hope you'll help me get it to Gold or Platinum sales. Every sale is appreciated as support towards the Nuna full edition.

Thanks to all the readers, playtesters, and supporters who have helped move this game from dream to reality.

Quickstart will include basic D100 rules, introduction to special NUNA rules, and the adventure The Silver Machine.

In the middle of summer, escape to an Arctic wonderland teeming with life, community, & weird adventure! See you in NUNA!

Nekmek!

Elric at the End of Time

 So I’m rereading this banger that I haven’t looked at in about 20 years

There’s so much good stuff in here for a Moorcock afficianado.

First, Elric reveals that Chaos means a place where the laws of nature do not apply. Snow doesn’t melt, but merely sits in deserts. A land can extend to the horizon then loop up overhead and back to itself. This again is what I have talked about regarding Moorcocken gaming, and validates my use of weird or psychedelic elements in my roleplaying adventures, as opposed to the endless series of combat encounters that seems to dominate modern gaming. I find that the weird encounters I create are always well received, and the Nuna playtest responses do mention positively the delicious creepiness of such touches in my own game.

In terms of the old Stormbringer game, Elric is sent to the End of Time after a huge wizard battle on Sorcerer's Isle. There’s mention of a tribe of Subhumans, the Kretti, who seem to be the inspiration for the monsters the Kay in the old scenario Crystal of Daerdaerdarth.

I still have a response to The Skraeling Tree to write (TLDR not as bad as the general reaction would have it, and lots of useful Moorcock stuff in there), and will also review Elric at the End of Time when I kill off the beast of Eval Ooayshuns and begin the timeless Limbo known as Summer Vacation.

The business of role-playing games

 Yet another reason To stay small and make zines.

Big RPG bankruptcy bomb here

About That Shelfie…

Pristine Elric! At a good price. Couldn’t resist.

Real Life Avalanche & NUNA Timeline

I'm currently in crunch time at the end of the schoolyear.

I'll probably stop posting here a week or two.

I hope to get NUNA quickstart done by month's end.

Do a few weeks of publicity then let it out into the world & RELAX before starting my next project.

Shelfie Life & Death

I've been meaning to make this post for a while, ever since I joined a new Facebook RPG group and got inundated with 'shelfies' of hundreds to over a thousand RPG books.

Here's my hot take - collecting RPGs without playing or reading them, especially if you're past the half century mark like me, is a sickness for the individual, a bane to the next generation of roleplayers, and probably a hassle for your family as well.

I will admit to having had hundreds of RPG books in Japan, and doing what Japanese call 'tsundoku' or buying 'unread books that pile up.' I had tons of Stormbringer, Cthulhu, and random vintage games. But when my Japan life fell apart, I gave 90% away to friends. I think 'tsundoku' is good for novels, which are solitary affairs, but a waste of potential for the social space of gaming.

In Newfoundland, I bought a few more games and settled in. However, I found that my hometown had no place for me, so left Newfoundland for Vancouver. Again, I sold or gave away 90% of my game books.

In early 2025 I had a financial crisis, and sold off two boxes of vintage Stormbringer, Ars Magica, and Runequest books. Although I miss them in a way, the experience taught me a few things about collecting RPG books.

How Many Books Do You Need?

Here is what my current shelfie looks like:

My Facebook marketplace finds. Very happy to have Mummy, Monster of the Week, and Serenity. Cowboy Bebop was from the Kickstarter.

Pristine affordable Japanese Stormbringer (I miss Mercari), filthy and overpriced Canadian edition.

Alien 1E from Marketplace, and Green Knight for FREE.

By the standards of most men my age, my collection is pathetic. On the other hand, it is also limited to games I love (Alien, Stormbringer, Serenity & Monster of the Week, Bebop), actual treasures (my Amano Japanese Stormbringer boxed set), and other things I am either dying to read or run.

All killer, no filler.

In a sense, I have all the books I need to make myself happy. I would love my Stormbringer collection back, but prices have doubled the past year, I have no space for new books, and I have some PDFs for reference.

So, if you are old and have a dragon's hoard of dusty roleplaying tomes, here are a few things I'd like you to consider.

Are You Getting These Books To Table?

I have made the supreme effort to get books to the table since moving to Vancouver. And this makes me MUCH happier than having a larger collection that I never used. All the books I have now will definitely get read, and a majority will get played.

So look at your collection, see what you'll never play, and find someone who will run them.

One of my high school students is playing in the school gaming club, which is dominated by 5E. I happened to have 2 copies of Savage Worlds, so I gifted him one.

He was ecstatic to read it! So I have helped break up a corporate gaming monopoly and spread the word about a fun game system to people who will be playing long after I am gone. Win win.

Would You Spread The Joy?

Although on the surface selling my big BRP collection was a tragedy, one amazing thing did happen. A young man who bought my books was overjoyed to have them, and paid a fair price. Now out there in Vancouver somewhere is a twentysomething with a crate of pristine Stormbringer, Ars Magica, and Call of Cthulhu books, with the energy and free time to read and run them. Considering the glut of 5E products and the concentration of these older games in older hands, and their increasingly unreachable prices, I am glad to have passed them on to the younger generation.

You could volunteer to run games for youth in your community, and gift or sell cheaply books your players like. This is how gaming is passed on to the next generation.

Do You Need The Money That Badly?

I think a lot of people are looking at their collection and seeing it as an investment. But if you have the money to acquire and house a large collection, you probably don't need the money or hassle of haggling over Ebay or Marketplace. Find a local gaming club and pass them on, donate to a library, or run a few games and gift them to a younger gamer who appreciates them.

What Happens After You Are Gone?

Coming back to North America, I can see that people are literally drowning in things and trying to downsize. I have furnished our apartment with furniture from sharing sites, and clothed sonny the same way. Recently, I have been looking at an auction site, and it is a cornucopia of amazing things being sold for pennies because the owners have died or moved into a smaller home or facility.

I haven't seen any gamebooks yet, but I have seen collections of dice and minis. The minis are unpainted, the dice unopened. If they go unsold, they go in the trash. And that is sad for something someone once loved and shared with others at the table.

The Kids Are Alright

One last thing to consider is how grateful young people are when you share older games. My student at school was moved and gave me a hug, the young fellow who purchased my books paid extra and thanked me profusely, and the young man who gifted me The Green Knight refused he few dollars I offered out of gratitude/guilt. Young people are turning to board games and video games because RPGs, especially classics, have become too pricey for them. If you love your games, you should consider passing that love on.

Food For Thought

I hope this post gives some people food for thought. I am not trying to make anyone feel guilty, just realize that our treasures could easily sparkle for younger gamers, So between sharing older games and creating new ones, I am much happier than I would be with a dragon's hoard of unused gamebooks.

AI & RPGs

So...

 Is it just me, or does it seem that AI is attempting to find its way into the world of RPGs? The past few years have seen numerous AI controversies, the latest shitstorm being an article by 4 Pillar Games (who?)  about the late great Greg Stafford. Chaosium issued a rebuke, citing the lack of 'human care and creativity' in the piece, while acknowledging the growing use of AI tools in content creation.

And Chaosium is totally right to point this out, and have put their money where their mouth is by issuing a strict no AI policy for RPG art and content.

But the tide of AI slop will keep trying to seep into the once welcoming alehouse of roleplaying games. How can we fight this trend?

We have to know what to look out for.

Danger #1 The Corporate Boardroom

Of course, the ones pushing AI are corporations and the billionaires behind them. The CEO of D&D took flak in 2022 for complaining that the game was 'undermonetized'. Since then, D&D editions have split into more costly books, with proposed subscription plans designed to make players into the golden goose. But 'monetization' in the age of AI means getting machines to do for free what humans do for pay, and AI is being positioned to replace the unpaid labour of the DM. Just look at the proliferation of AI SaaS to run a game for you, which is still in the slop stage, but getting better by learning from those brave enough to try it.

We've seen this pattern before with tech, of people wielding the tools that are later used to destroy their livelihood. I myself paid off my MA student loans translating communications for Japanese car makers, but the Trados database I was forced to compile was later sold to corporations to train LLMs. When the 'translate' button appeared on my workplace email in Japan in 2020, I was happy to save hours reading Japanese and letting AI do all the work for me, but knew I could never make a dime translating as I once did.

These corporate types don't realize that one of the joys of D&D or any roleplaying game is making your own content and not being limited to game company products. I would say that the often mentioned shortage of DMs is due to the thankless work of mastering the games rules and a scenario of varying quality, while also paying for costly books. With AI, instead of a group sitting around a table, they offer to cut you off and let you play anywhere, anytime, which like many AI developments, seems to both shoot itself in the foot by eliminating paying customers, while totally misunderstanding the human or social aspect of what they are replacing.

Speaking of tools...

Danger #2 Technical Tools

Besides the corporate pressure to use AI to play games, AI in tools used for art and composition are almost impossible to avoid these days. Readers may recall that I had an AI scare where a designer's Photoshop that incorporated AI tools had added an extra finger to a character in a cover. The designer apologized, refunded payment, and explained that with image manipulation, AI is impossible to avoid unless you turn off lots of functions, which defeats the purpose of the software.

Note that the designer was a friend who I knew for decades and trust implicitly. He is also a graphic designer who has worked in magazines that are in a downward spiral of cutting costs and personnel, and my friend has stayed employed by staying atop of his design craft and tools.

Which leads us to my next point...

Danger # 3 The Pressure To Be Professional

Looking at RPGs on Kickstarter or from game studios, I can say that RPG art has never been more polished. I myself have felt the pressure and doubted that my self-taught illustration skills, coming from a family of professional self-taught indigenous artists, would complement my game.

Now, I am staunchly confident in my 'outsider art' as perfect for NUNA. I am a fan of UK game designer Tanya Floaker, whose great indie zine style games are a treat to read, and something I hope to get to a gaming table soonish. The OSR has already proven that individual creators can make a go of it with compelling works, and Old School Essentials seems to have found its niche doing so. And since I've turned into a game designer, I have met so many indie designers working on their own game and pushing the envelope in ways that an AI never could.

Onward!

Danger # 4 Slop RPGS

At some point, an AI generated RPG will hit the market. If it hasn't happened already and gone unnoticed, I am sure it will happen soon, whether its producer (I won't call them creator) announces the fact or not.

I get a lot of RPG ads, and I have to say, lots of them LOOK like they are made or influenced by AI. There are generic fantasy RPGs that sound like every other fantasy heartbreaker out there, without any of the verve or passion of the OSR when it first started spitting out retroclones over a decade ago. Then there is the art, largely figures or portraits of faces without much expression, and devoid of the kinetic or frenzied action of early RPG amateur art.

Just as AI children's books have appeared and distributed soulless, derivative works into the hands (and minds) of babes, the danger of AI is not only profiting off gamers, but also poisoning the well of imagination and community by switching over from human creations & social games to pale AI imitations that isolate gamers even more.

Danger # 5 Commoditizing A Social Space

Between the corporate pressure to use AI to play games, its invisible seep into tools, the pressure to use AI to look professional while keeping costs low, and the inevitable appearance of Slop the RPG, all this leads to the danger of losing roleplaying as a valuable social space. I have so many conversations with fellow Stormbringer enthusiasts about how online gaming is a pale substitute for sitting around a table, weaving tales and rolling dice together. What will be even worse is if people are playing RPGs run by AI whose only programming is to flatter the ego and pastiche all that has come before, and that was scraped from human works without permission or payment. I am happy that Free League AND Goodman Games will be making their own Stormbringer games, as both companies excel in getting people back to the gaming tables with their high quality, human-designed products that epitomize love for the game and gamers.

Conclusion - Folk Resistance

When I started this blog back 13 years ago as the first wave of the OSR abated, I was doing it mostly out of nostalgia and an unfulfilled creative urge. Now, I see it as both a creative outlet for me, as well as a source of deeply sociological games that represent people who have been portrayed stereotypically in media, such as indigenous people and the Japanese.

Now I am happy to consider my efforts in making a game as an additional part of the folk resistance against an unnecessary and exploitative technology that is being rammed down our throats in ways that destroy both our social bonds, natural environment, and economic viability.

Viva la resistance!

Sources

"Statement from Suzanne Stafford and Chaosium regarding a recent AI-generated article about Chaosium founder Greg Stafford." chaosium.com

https://www.chaosium.com/blogstatement-from-suzanne-stafford-and-chaosium-regarding-a-recent-aigenerated-article-about-chaosium-founder-greg-stafford/?srsltid=AfmBOoqJjAlPemRnG4GhbaPND0mk6nlFs2nS9BOC9H48F9GG1luDoxku

Wizards of the Coast Believes D&D Is "Under-Monetized" 80lv.

https://80.lv/articles/wizards-of-the-coast-believes-d-d-is-under-monetized

"I Tried AI D&D So You Don't Have To."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhGn0SagCkQ

Chaosium no AI policyhttps://www.chaosium.com/blogfrom-the-qa-our-creator-contracts-require-work-submitted-to-be-creators-original-work-and-not-contain-any-ai-generated-art-or-text/?srsltid=AfmBOorjFhgE1Kn72HyfXV1CHMwCWPBdaBPip7mY3091PZwKMJEVWVxo

Want to understand Moorcock? Understand the New Wave

 Great analysis of a movement that still influences us today

HERE