randomwizard

gsllc, 28 days ago to DnD

I've been contacted by a law student in Seattle. She's writing a law review note on the #OGL and following in my footsteps by discussing the rarely-discussed concept of #copyright misuse. She's citing my work and, I hope, adding more to the argument. I hope this is a trend. More information is better, but I'm tired of arguing about it. #DnD #RPG #TTRPG #WotC

randomwizard, 1 month ago to DnD

Been thinking about rivers on maps in fantasy games. (hat tip to @kensanata ) Most fantasy maps show just a couple of rivers. But water is everywhere in the real world. This colorful map of England's rivers gives a hint. So making rivers on a fantasy map becomes a question of how much fidelity you want to portray.

#dnd #rpg #osr #maps #worldbuilding

image/jpeg
image/jpeg

randomwizard, 1 month ago to DnD

If anyone is interested in playing d&d tonight, I have a spot open.
0:15am UTC (Universal Time)
1:15am BST (London)
8:15pm EDT (New York)
5:15pm (Seattle)

There use to be this thing called the FLAILSNAILS convention. Basically just some verbiage to say, bring any D&D character from any vaguely D&D system to the table and you can play.

So, any level 1 to level 3 character you want to bring. Holmes Basic, AD&D, 4th edition, 5th edition, whatever you want to bring. DM me if interested.

Game is on roll20.

#dnd #rpg #osr #flailsnail

randomwizard, 1 month ago to RPG

Maybe now would be a good time to promote PHASE four, a FASERIP inspired super hero game that is in the public domain, I put together many years ago.

https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/187251/phase-four

#rpg #faserip #osr

randomwizard, 1 month ago to internet

Been looking around the internet for reddit like sites since reddit now blocks vpn users (unless you log in).

https://saidit.net
Seems to have a lot of conspiracy type posts as well as spam. Maybe it lacks moderators?

https://tildes.net/
Seems more focused. Not too bad really.

https://news.ycombinator.com/
Very tech nerd news oriented. Not too bad.

What are some other good sources for news, maybe rpg discussions?

One thought I had while browsing is how it would be nice if all those sites allowed you to login with your own made up identity that already exists. Like if I could log in as my mastadon randomwizard to go leave a comment.

#socialmedia #reddit #bbs

randomwizard, 2 months ago to DnD

Interesting question posed on reddit osr. BECMI or B/X?

https://old.reddit.com/r/osr/comments/1az60a8/becmi_or_bx/

They are very nearly the same game up to level 15. But BECMI had 6 to 9 years where TSR was still publishing material for the game. There are a lot of rule variations published for BECMI in the Gazetteer supplements.

My answer is still probably neither though. There are some things in AD&D, 3E, 4E that I like to incorporate into the game.

#dnd #osr #rpg #becmi #tsr #mystara

randomwizard, 3 months ago to DnD

Here is something I do not see discussed very much. How many level 6 magic users will you see, if you walk into a default town of 5,000 people in an OSR setting? I think it has a big implication on what the default world is like. Even if it is just 1, the local population is going to be very wary of a stranger wandering into town that can cast a fireball spell.

#dnd #rpg #osr #worldbuilding

randomwizard, 4 months ago to DnD

Had an interesting conversation in the campaign game tonight. The players were complaining that you never find a bastard sword in a dungeon as treasure. One of the characters specialized in a bastard sword. The player said he would not have picked it if he knew it would be rare. I am no expert, but I believe short sword, bastard sword, and two-handed sword a little bit of just a generalization. It was more like regional technique. Claymore, Zweihander, Katana, Scimitar. D&D just threw everything in a list. I doubt medieval people went down to the store and looked at a display of bastard versus longswords to buy. I imagine most people just used knifes and daggers. So, in a pseudo medieval D&D inspired world, I think there would be more variety in treasure. I proposed that every time a classic D&D module has a longsword listed, there should be a 1 in 10 chance it is a bastard sword. Seems reasonable, but who is to say.

#dnd #osr #rpg #sword #history

randomwizard, 4 months ago to history

Oldest "intact" medieval gauntlet was found near Kyburg Castle in Pfäffikon, Switzerland. Dates to somewhere in the 1300s.

https://www.heritagedaily.com/2024/01/archaeologists-find-intact-medieval-gauntlet/150272

#history #dnd #medieval #rpg

randomwizard, 4 months ago to random

Some people are so talented it does not seem possible. Jennell Jaquays was one of those people. I do not think a lot of people know all the things she worked on; a designer for id's Quake video game, for example.

I wish our world rewarded creators more for their efforts.

I got to interview Jennell once, through email. Just a delightful individual. It saddens me to hear of her passing.

randomwizard, 4 months ago to DnD

Added mirager spells.

https://github.com/random-wizard/adventure-combat-engine/blob/main/markdown/adventure-combat-engine.md

Mirager is Tom Moldvay's version of the 1st edition AD&D Illusionist. In all my years of playing, I have never had a player want to be an illusionist.

Got me to thinking that 2nd edition did improve on 1st in some ways. It took the idea of Illusionist and expanded it to Wizards could pick a school of magic to specialize in; Abjuration, Alteration, Conjuration, Echantment, Divination, Illusion, Invocation, Necromancy. Seemed like a logical next step.

#dnd #osr #diy #rpg

randomwizard, 4 months ago to DnD

The city of Derinkuyu, Turkey has an ancient dungeon complex underneath it. They theorize it was to store grain, hide refugees, get away from the extreme hot and cold weather, among other things.

The underground rooms could hold 20,000 people. There are multiple wells. There is even a giant stone door that you have to roll to close the passageway.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derinkuyu

#dnd #rpg #osr #mystery #history

image/jpeg
image/jpeg
image/jpeg

randomwizard, 4 months ago to RPG

Last year, I formatted the creative commons 5e srd monster and spell lists into csv files then lost steam to work on more.

Last night I was bored, so I got around to formatting the 5e magic items into a csv file so I can import it into a database.

https://github.com/random-wizard/1d20-5e-srd

If you are familiar with sqlite3 and command line, this is what I use to query

sqlite3 magic_items.db
.mode csv
.import magic_items.csv magic_items
.mode list
SELECT name, rarity FROM magic_items WHERE type='potion' LIMIT 3;

Oil of Etherealness|rare
Oil of Sharpness|very rare
Oil of Slipperiness|uncommon

#rpg #dnd #osr #CreativeCommons #data #database

randomwizard, 5 months ago to RPG

If you are looking for something to read while traveling over the holidays. Here is a free pdf of interviews with 18 designers of the RPG industry of the 70s, 80s, 90s. Most of the interviews are with TSR employees, but a few big names from other endeavours as well.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/227268/Random-Wizard-Interviews

#rpg #tsr #dnd #osr #lotr

newbiedm, 5 months ago to random

"Tactical" and "Cinematic" in a sentence together referring to an rpg is an interesting pitch. I'm curious.

randomwizard, 6 months ago to DnD

Long before Planescape, Jeff Grubb wrote the Manual of the Planes for AD&D in the mid 80s. In the appendix, it describes a way of defining alternate prime material planes by using a Physical, Magical, and Temporal Factor.

#dnd #osr #rpg

image/jpeg
image/jpeg
image/jpeg

randomwizard, 8 months ago to DnD

Cory Doctorow writes about Bill Willingham releasing his Fables comic to the public domain. https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/15/fairy-use-tales/

For those who do not know about early D&D, Bill was one of the artists at TSR in the early days. He went on to make comics among other things.

#dnd #rpg #osr #publicdomain

randomwizard, 8 months ago to DnD

I think Baldur's Gate 3 makes my case of "People think in percentages" for me. Whenever you make an attack, you can hover over potential targets and it will tell you your percentage chance to hit. Easy for a computer but that is much more difficult at the table, so why not just use percentages built into the system instead of you have +4 to hit and you need to hit a target of 12 nonsense.

#dnd #rpg #osr

randomwizard, 8 months ago to DnD

Rule preference question. If you play in a game with a first aid skill that heals 1d4 hitpoint if a character passes a skill check. Now, if two characters have first aid, and the first character fails their roll to treat a patient... can the second character go and make a skill check against the same wound on the same patient, to try and heal the patient 1d4 hitpoints? Or would you rule that the first character's roll means the wound can not be fixed up by the second character?

#dnd #osr #rpg

randomwizard, 1 year ago to random

Reworked the Keep on the Borderlands with the Caves of Chaos underneath. Added labels of what is in most of the rooms. Not sure it all works out, but it does generate ideas.

#dnd #rpg #osr

image/jpeg

randomwizard, 1 year ago to random

A long time ago, I looked into TSR publications that might have used the 1 page dungeon format before the 1 page dungeon contest, or something close. One such adventure is UK4 When a Star Falls from 1984. Notice the small map and the encounter key written out below it.

The UK series of modules are really my sort of adventure, not too sandbox, not too railroady, somewhere inbetween with a lot of interesting little details.

#dnd #rpg

image/jpeg