Go get The Prince of Masks RPG!

BIG NEWS! Steve Devaney, who also was a winner in the Chaosium design contest, just put his game Prince of Masks out on RPG.Now. If vampiric fey overlords and adult only content is your bag, please consider purchasing and supporting an indie creator. Like me Steve is a single dad working and gaming on the side, so let's show him some love!

Game is available HERE.

Where Do You Go When You Dream? Dimm City

 My friend T.W. from St. Louis is a helluva guy. Karateka, great father, free thinker. One of those guys with a story for any occasion, empathy for miles, and a short tolerance for BS.

While I've been slogging away criticizing and houseruling old games, T.W. has been busy working on his indie game, Dimm City. Part TRPG, part art project, part interactive mind-bending story nexus. He describes it as "Cyber / Solarpunk."

For months now T.W has impressed me with sample art, interactive mechanics talk (which I am a bit too much of a grognard to grok 100%), and his enthusiasm for working with his team to make something new and innovative.

What does DimmCity sound like? Here is a sample T.W. sent me:

“Where do you go when you dream?"

"When I dream, I always go to the same place. I’m also always the same pink rabbit named Hugo… Hugo lives in Dimm City. It’s a collection of totally different districts that exist, connected but separate, floating in the ether. Hugo lives in the Archives. It’s an enclave of academia and learning that’s on the mend after a scourge wiped out most of the records that were stored there and the memories of everyone that mattered. Hugo (and my) mission is to recover as much of what was lost as possible. Our adventures have taken us into “The Dark”, a literal technological hell hole situated in a gravity well that gets darker the further down into it you travel. We’ve walked the back alleys of the tech district, Dimm City’s center of innovation and production. My favorite place in DimmC so far is the market district a.k.a Rabbittown. Hanging there, I felt the most at home not only because of the majority of rabbits like Hugo walking the streets, but because of the rough and tumble vibe of the place. The last part of Dimm City worth mention is the entertainment district. Here, any pleasure you desire can be bought and any experience you wish can be bartered for. This sprawl really does have it all, but underneath the hum of its throng is a coming war between those that wish to keep it free and the AI known as Daemon and its followers that wish to surveil and control it all. Hugo and I know what side we’re on, but for the fight to go our way other dreamers are a must."

You can take a look HERE.

Farewell OSR, Welcome NSR!

I don't think this blog is OSR any more. That's because I don't think the OSR is OSR anymore.

Let me explain...

To me, the OSR was three things:

1) An anti corporate movement

First, it was a response to what many saw as a step away from the games we love, through both the churning out of over-priced and increasingly complex new editions, as well as the unavailability of many out of print games people still loved, but were no longer supported.

WotC ironically ushered in the era of retroclones and tinkering with old systems with its Open Gaming License. I suppose they didn't see the harm in losing a few old neckbeards to older editions, and thought like a D&D fanatic friend of mine, who said about anything pre-3e "Who'd wanna play that old garbage?"

It was ironic that OSR consulting would lead to 5e, which has now become a corporation juggernaut whose marketing and production puts the splatbook excess of 2e and small press explosion of diminishing returns that was the d20 glut to shame.

The result of this corporate media 5e saturation is the rise of anti-5e Facebook groups and gradual disenchantment with 5e and profiling of other, new indie games by D&D Youtubers and RPG podcasters.

2) It was a DIY creative movement

In the Halcyon days of the movement, OSR meant high quality passion projects. Look at the Society of Torch, Pole, and Rope, Telecanter's Receding Rules, and Chogwiz just to name a few. They churned out content of amazing quality, and showed what motivated bloggers could do. Few of those old craftsmen OSR blogs are still around, with exceptions like Tao of D&D, and modern blogs offer mostly 5e reviews and mods (How to build X character from a movie / anime in 5e).

Even EN World has started musing about the drop in quality of 'D&D articles.' This is what happens when corporate media takes over coverage of a hobby and begins churning out soulless listicles to lure in young customers who don't know other games.

3) It was a diverse and inclusive movement

The early OSR was very diverse in its tastes, and if half of OSR blogs focused on older editions of D&D, the remainder looked at other TSR games (Top Secret, Star Frontiers), IP like 007, or cult hits like Unknown Armies. One of my favorites was the sadly gone Mesmerized by Sirens, which made a point of ferreting out old and obscure games.

The early OSR was also diverse, and featured women bloggers like Akrasia, and bonafide porn starlets throwing off stigmas and chucking dice. There was very little politics and polemics, but gradually these increased to be the deafening rumble of misogyny and attacks on leftist strawmen that we sadly see too much of today. When a blogger writes pages and pages insulting and belittling others instead of writing about games, it is time to head for the door.

I'm not the only one who is thinking this. Although I've had this post in mind for a while, the venerable Alex Schroeder has beaten me to the punch and also gave up the OSR moniker.

So does this mean I am shuttering this blog? Far from it. I'll keep chuggin away at my tinkering with old games, weird musings, and introdcutions of the newer games that now beckon to me from my shelf. I suppose changing the O to N won't make much of difference...

... but it'll feel right. And that is all that matters.

WELCOME

NEW

SCHOOL

REVOLUTION

MORK BORG!

 So, I played in my second session of Mork Borg last night. What a blast!

For those of you out of the loop, Mork Borg is a Swedish OSR style rules lite art house RPG.

It is more art book and inspiration than rules compendium, but has  a flavour in both the art and random tables that is very Nordic death metal. Think Death Frost Doom but better illustrated and less slavish to OD&D.

My esoteric hermit, Jotna, and his small but vicious dog Tiddles (created from a random generator HERE) awoke to find themselves in some dark hell dimension, with they and their traveling companions under attack by bloody skeletons. Battles ensued, paths were walked, traps were sprung, and goblins and fishmen were slain. In addition, undying prisoners breathed cryptic clues before jumping into lava, and grotesque or cursed magic items both helped and hindered the party in their quest to recover the lost monarch, his crown, or the way to call the spring.

All in all, it had the most OSR feel of wonder and terror I have ever experienced. At the end of the session, when we determined only two of us could return to the land of the living, Jotna nonchalantly offered to stay and meditate, as it was no worse than his mountain cave.

Anyway, give it a gander if you haven't already.

Non-D&D RPG ‘March Madness’ Blog Challenge – Day 14 & 15, Playing with Culture

Other blogs can be found HERE.

The questions can be found HERE.

14 What historical or cultural RPG have you enjoyed most? Give details.

15 What pseudo or alternate history RPG have you enjoyed most? Why?

When I first created this blog challenge, I wanted to give as wide array of possibilities as possible to the participants. I didn’t always succeed, and these two questions are close enough that most bloggers who responded skipped or folded them together. Between the ambiguity or the questions and the narrow focus most of us have in our gaming histories, it was inevitable that this sort of issue would arise.

Oh well, live and learn.

At a con the other year I got to play in a game of Dogs in the Vineyard. Pornstar Zak S has stated the game as on he just doesn’t get, which is bound to happen between one’s personal preferences, gaming group dynamics and the skill of the game master (I feel the same way about Maid the RPG).

Regardless, starved for roleplaying as I was, I was open to try new games, especially story or indie ones, and we were lucky to have an ace gamemaster and a group willing to give the game an honest shot.

It was a hoot. In case you don’t know the premise, you play Mormon lawmakers in 1800s Utah. The game is rules lite but made interesting by poker style bidding to achieve actions, but has enough substance that it won the 2004 Indie Game Award.

I can’t say our session was heavy on action – we moseyed up to an isolated farmhouse where a pious old man and his two daughters lived. Our Dogs tried best to make a good impression by chopping wood, reading scripture, and mediating a dispute between the old man and his ornery brother.

Reading what I just wrote, it sounds as dull as dirt. But between the bidding mechanics and the GM’s expert explanations of the cultural context and expectations, our mixed table of Canucks and Brits unconsciously took on southwestern drawls and did our best to live up to the ideals of the Mormon church. Even though I am a devout atheist, it was no more galling than playing a cleric of Odin.

The session ended with a suspicious fire in the house in which the player who had hoarded his dice up to then splashed out for a final roll and ended up saving (and getting betrothed to!) one of the daughters.

Playing DitV taught me that a good GM who makes the cultural context come alive without going into excessive detail can really make a niche game work.

And gambling mechanics are wicked as well, providing some PvP without the bloodshed and bad feelings, instead supplying camaraderie and appreciation of a good bet made.

If you haven’t played the game and see it at a con, give it a chance, and don’t be scared off by the niche setting!