To All New Bloggers Doing A Blog Challenge

Good on you! Even though I've been there and done that, I appreciate your enthusiasm and your posts. You're finding who you are and why you care enough to blog - don't let the naysayers like those who pished and toshed the blog challenge I ran last year get you down.

The truth is, being an OSR blogger is a bit like the movie mythology of the jedi. We follow "the old religion" whose "light is gone from the universe" - we love musty old games in an era of smartphone apps and FPS shooters. Like Padwans we each have to make our own lightsaber to cut through the darkness of everyday life, of the gaming industry and the gaming egos. It doesn't matter that people have done it before - it matters that YOU do it NOW.

Jeff Rients once quipped that a grognard making a retroclone is like a jedi making his own weapon. I think for bloggers these challenges serve much the same function.

As for me, my blogging X-wing is buried deep, deep down in the swamp of RL for the next little while. When free I get, see you in the blogosphere I will!

Defending ‘March Madness’ Non-D&D Bloghop and Day 20 Answers

Since I started this blog challenge, some sad sacks have taken it upon themselves to comment on how worthless it is. It is sad that people feel the need to complain when they should be happy others share their hobby and are blogging at all. There have been a few points of constructive criticism, for which I am grateful, but most of it has been bitching and whining, in my estimation.

Here is a review of the main thrusts and my responses:

Point 1 - It is ‘dull.’

Riposte - Then how vapid and venal must a person who goes to the trouble of commenting on such a dull activity seem? There are almost a dozen blogs who did find it interesting enough to participate, so why waste your time commenting on it unless you’re trolling or dull yourself?

Point 2 - It is ‘attention grabbing’

Riposte - And your responses, your entire blog isn’t? This is why we blog, to connect, to share ideas and shoot the shit, to get likes and replies and all the psychological strokes a healthy ego needs. I’m not afraid to admit that or have such an inflated sense of self that I look down on community exercises.

Point 3 - It is so ‘been there, done that.’

Riposte - Well, good for you, but some of us aren’t the cool kids who’ve been around the block. With the attrition of OSR blogs you’d think this type of motivational exercise would be welcome. I have half a mind to start a repository of requisite blog hops for newcomers, or put them in Links of Wisdom.

Point 4 - It is ‘useless’ and does nothing ‘for the hobby.’

Riposte – EVERY blog does something for the hobby, even the loathsome YDIS. We even have The Other Side’s Timothy and Dennis from What A Terrible Night to Have a Curse participating, both of whom are active publishers and actually done things for the OSR, and I trust their judgment of what is ‘useful’ more than a pundit who stands on their blog alone.

As I said in response to a ‘Blog Dodge’ proposal HERE, by all means declare yourself and your blog ‘Advanced OSR’ and eschew these topics if you feel you want to. But don’t piss on the parade and then wonder why people think you’re a troll.

Anyway, end rantmission. Back to transmission.

20 Which setting have you enjoyed most? Why?

Once again I’ll split this into games for reading and games for playing.

Reading – Jorune was a fantastic read, akin to good fiction, but the buy in was too high to get a game started. Similarly, games like Palladium’s FRPG have great gameworlds, but turn vanilla when you sit down to play in them. Ditto D&D’s iconic gameworlds – apart from really flavourful realms like Dark Sun or Planescape, I never knew back in the day if my character was trudging through the Forgotten Realms, Mystara, or Blackmarsh.

Playing – I suppose this is why established IPs have always stuck with me more. I’ve touched on Stormbringer’s Young Kingdoms many times before, but games I played in the Star Wars and Marvel universes stand out. I guess the only pure RPG gameworld that impressed me was Paranoia, strangely enough. The Kafkaesque dystopia of Alpha Complex really resonates with everyone I’ve talked to who has adventured there. Although Rifts was great for a gonzo shitlaugh, Paranoia’s setting felt real enough to encourage immersion around the table, with previously wooden players becoming animated as they lied and backstabbed others.

Actually, with this question I look forward to reading other people’s responses and discovering the attractions of other worlds. I am looking for a make believe place to vacation after my next thesis deadline is done in May.

T Minus Two and More Blog Love

The OSR love keeps pouring in for the March Madness Non-D&D Challenge. The ever sunny Alexis from Tao of D&D has showered the endeavour and yours truly with encouragement:

(From his comment on Talyman’s blog) “These things are for people who can't think of anything to blog. Moreover, I'm not interested in helping "noobs" get their blogs started. If they have something to say, then they'll be fine. If they need a crutch, or anyone's help, they should stop blogging immediately and attend to their hygeine instead.

We need less 'training wheels' and more 'toss them into the pond and watch them drown.'

But then, that wouldn't let Tedankhamen and many others feel good about themselves for pointing and then gleaning off the self-important righteousness of 'finding new talent.' ”

Beautiful! I do hope he is right and we get lots of new voices and hear about new games, and I am pretty satisfied with the response to date.

In case anyone is wondering about my feelings, these types of comments don’t bother me at all. In fact, they remind me of my uni gamer days when dissenting opinions and barbed comments darkened the skies. I never took talk about a game seriously back then, and I don’t now. People who want to play with me will, and people who poo poo us won’t.

But there is some real good feedback - someone has already completed the whole thing! The blog Timinits and Trolls gave some great responses, passed on questions he didn’t care for, and gave us a peek into some obscure French RPGs. Go give it a read and be inspired!

T Minus 4 Days & Rechristening the Editions

Four days left till the March Madness Obscure RPG Blog Challenge! I feel like a kid counting down to Christmas a bit. I am sure some of you feel the same.

Today I’d like to suggest a way to put the Edition Wars behind us and appreciate each edition for its own merits. Words are not innocent, and the simple step of re-naming the editions would do much to clear away the cobwebs of edition snobbery that still cling to the OSR.

Another issue is that numbering editions is soulless, doesn’t capture the charm of the game, and is offputting gibberish to newcomers to the hobby. I still remember being confused by the acronyms BX, BECMI, LBB etc when I started reading OSR blogs back in the day. With this in mind, I’d like to propose a re-naming of the various editions to reflect their natures and merits.

OD&D = D&D Origins

The original edition of the Little Brown (or white) Books were all about beginnings: beginning of the hobby, beginning of a game, beginnings for the character and the saga they are in. What better name, then, than Origins to represent the ancestor of all RPGs?

BX, BECMI = D&D Heroes

Holmes, Basic Redbox and its additions all fleshed out the characters so that the Fighting Man became the Fighter, Clerics of basic pantheons were detailed, Magic Users gained a wider selection of spells, and the Thief crept into the mix. With these additions, all the heroes of fantasy fiction were truly represented – you could have Conan, Friar Tuck, Gandalf, and finally the Grey Mouser in your party. The increase in advancement details for all classes also put the hero’s journey front and center, and so ‘Heroes’ is a fitting name for this edition.

AD&D = D&D Journeys

Although this edition further extended the flexibility and range of character choices, it focused more on journeys to exotic locales than the characters themselves. Adventure titles began to reflect this tendency - Descent into the Depths of the Earth, In Search of Adventure, the Hidden Shrine of Tomoachan and other AD&D era titles focus on the journey and not merely the heroes who undertake it, and thus provide the perfect moniker for this edition.

AD&D 2e = D&D Worlds

Here character abilities and rules had stabilized and, with the plethora of splatbooks, been fully fleshed out. This completion of character lead to the creation of entire worlds for exploration – make no wonder that this edition saw the greatest increase in gameworlds, both the good (Ravenloft, Al Qadim), the Badass (Dark Sun, Spelljammer), and the Ugly (Mazatlan, anyone?).

3e = D&D Heroics

The third edition of D&D went back to characters and upped the ante, adding a plethora of Feats and Powers that codified heroics, giving the perfect title for this game (besides Pathfinder). The only anomaly here was the Midnight setting, whose grimdark nature was a poor fit for a game of heroic feats and was better suited to the always lethal BRP (Age of Shadows RPG anyone?). Granted, I never played a full session of this edition, so if anyone with experience can suggest a better moniker I am all ears.

4e = D&D Battle Masters

I did, however, play some 4e, and although the length and intricacy of chargen made me cry a little, setting out the battlemat and moving figures across the board seemed a great strategic addition to the game. As many have noted, it plays like a video game, which is a feature not a bug when it comes to combat. If the ‘theatre of the mind’ of earlier editions and the lack of power choices left you cold, and if you liked playing in front of a PC screen as much as a DM screen, then this was the edition for you.

D&D Next = ?

If WoC is smart at all, they will add some sort of moniker to their new game instead of just a number. Although fans may be excited by the 5 behind the name, the average person is hesitant to start watching a movie or reading a book starting from the 5^th in the series, and so it is with games.

As Zak S and others have noted, you can have fun with any edition if you get into it. My intention with these re-namings is to promote that sense of enjoyment with all editions, and I hope I have succeeded a little bit.