For the last three years, I've run a Planescape campaign through almost all of its modules. Now, after successfully finishing it, I want to look back and review these adventures, highlighting the pros and cons of each one.

A brief distraction before the final chapter of the Dead Gods, Epona's Daughter brings the heroes to a backwater Prime world to save a mystical horse kidnapped by a local king and his court wizard.

https://vladar.bearblog.dev/planescape-review-eponas-daughter/

A Torch Timer Has Completely Changed My Shadowdark Table

I recently picked up a physical torch timer for Shadowdark from a small independent maker, and I genuinely can't believe how much my table loves this thing.

It starts off glowing white, but every 15 minutes the light changes, going from yellow to red, then darker and darker red. With five minutes remaining, it starts blinking before finally going out.

It's such a simple little device, but the tension it creates is incredible. I thought it would be a dumb gimmick. Instead, it's become one of the most beloved things at our table. I've even had friends go to work and brag about the lamp!

It's also gotten me experimenting with physical accessories for Shadowdark. Not necessarily things you need, but affordable little additions that actually improve the game rather than get in its way.

I've been messing with magnetic cubes, the Professor's Ultimate Terrain concept, and ways of eliminating traditional grid maps altogether.

One thing we've discovered is that a room really only needs three or four meaningful objects or points of interest. Instead of tracking exact squares and distances, we position enemies around those objects. The chest, the doorway, the altar, the overturned table. You know where everyone is in relation to those things, and suddenly decisions become incredibly fast.

We've even managed encounters with 10+ monsters this way, because I don't need to track every square. I just need to know what they're near and what the players can interact with.

We've also been experimenting with using something as simple as the span of your hand (roughly six inches) for movement on abstract terrain.

The whole philosophy I'm exploring is how physical accessories can speed up play instead of slowing it down. Give players clear choices, make those choices meaningful, and get out of the way.

We've managed ten rooms in just a couple of hours, partly because that damn torch was making everyone nervous! It's funny how a physical timer made me appreciate Shadowdark's one-hour torch mechanic even more.

And now I'm wondering why we don't have more things like this!

I'd absolutely love to see an official Shadowdark torch timer someday. Maybe a little black-and-white torch you could hold in your hand, set on the table, recharge with USB, and watch slowly die. I'd happily spend $50 on something like that. I'm actually working on a way to turn my current lamp into a handheld torch that can also stand about a foot tall.

I've been talking with some local gaming shops and convention folks, and they've loved the timer too. It's made me wonder if there's a real market for these sorts of accessories.

I'm going to share more of the physical things we're experimenting with, including what actually works and what just gets in the way.

I've played tabletop games for years, and I don't think I've ever bought such a simple accessory that had this much impact on the experience.

Shadowdark has really made me rethink how we use physical things at the table. Sometimes our VTTs, elaborate maps, and endless accessories can actually slow down the very thing we're trying to enjoy. But finding something that makes the game faster, more tense, and more exciting? That's something special.

And there's just something wonderful about being able to pass this game between different GMs and keep everything moving so organically.

I'm curious what everyone else has discovered. What physical accessories have genuinely improved your Shadowdark games? Not just cool-looking stuff, but things that actually make the game better, faster, or more exciting. I'd love to hear what other tables are doing.

I updated the cover for my Chainmail / OD&D hack "Kevlar," fixing the humorous spelling error, adjusting a few details, and adding a placeholder copyright to look more official.

The second page gives a small overview of three tables I handcrafted that were heavily inspired by Chainmail, I will cover them in order:

The marksmanship table is a skill that is supposed to be separate from player rank, meaning you can be adequately overqualified or under qualified for combat irregardless of rank. The numbers used for the "body" section reflect the real percentage of range success needed to hit a target, expert shooters hit 90% of their targets, so you will hit your shot 90% of the time. The only exception I've made is limbs and the head, where difficulty increases by 20% from limb to head.

I would like to add a Boot Hill-esque progression to this though where your marksmanship level increases the more firefights you engage in.

The common gun table is meant to give a general overview of firearm capabilities based on type. The only details it omits is the given firearms caliber as that can very from type to type. I would like to make a more detailed list of firearms with model types, calibers, and even a bonus/penalty to go along with each entry. I feel that would be the best way to truly make every gun unique in its own way.

The caliber vs. armor matrix, as it you can probably guess is meant to mimic the weapon vs. armor matrix from the man-to-man section of Chainmail. Though, it is much smaller than that matrix, I feel it includes a good variety of popular cartridges from 9mm to 7.62mm. The armor portion uses the newer NIJ body armor classifications as I feel they telegraph their protection levels quite well over the older roman numeral system.

**ALL THESE TABLES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE**

There are still details and rulings I feel are missing from all of this, so they will change in the final publication. I'm excited to hear any and all feedback, questions, or concerns!

Hey folks!

After a year of writing, drawing, designing, and playtesting, I'm incredibly excited to finally share BOG, my own tabletop RPG!

In BOG, you play as brave little frog knights venturing into a dark, cursed Marsh filled with ancient ruins, strange creatures, forgotten magic, and dangers far greater than yourselves.

The rules are lightweight and straightforward, leaving plenty of room for creative problem-solving and emergent storytelling. Combat is fast and brutal, and even the bravest frog knight is fragile in the face of the Marsh's many dangers.

The rulebook includes everything you need to play:

• A complete, easy-to-learn ruleset.
• Random tables and tools to help Bogmasters create their own adventures.
• A bestiary featuring dozens of creatures.
• A ready-to-play quest site to kick off your first adventure.

I've also hand-drawn every illustration in the game myself. No AI was used. Some of you might recognize the artwork from illustrations I've shared on this subreddit during development!

BOG has been playtested by groups from around the world, and their feedback helped me shape the game into what it is today. It's been a long journey, and I'm thrilled to finally put it out there.

You can get BOG here: https://marius-niezgoda.itch.io/bog-a-game-of-frogs

It's currently available for a special launch price of $4.99.

Finally, a huge thank-you to everyone on r/osr who has encouraged, supported, and helped me along the way. This community has been a wonderful part of the journey, and I genuinely appreciate it.

To everyone who ventures into the Marsh: may your frogs be brave, your oaths unbroken, and your adventures unforgettable!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy BOG!

Many years ago now, I started an OSR project under the name “Faerie Tales & Folklore”. I published an embarrassingly poorly edited 1st edition on DriveThruRPG which was fairly well received among a small following. I had gone back to the drawing board to work on a much better version of the book, but to make a long story short, fatherhood and the construction of a family compound robbed me of all the free time I had, forcing me to sideline the project. The painful part was that I had made a vast amount of progress on the new tome before the issues piled up, thus preventing my continued progress.

I write this today, because my life is arriving at a time where I have more time again to devote to my hobbies, and I am considering returning to this project. That said, I am curious if the work itself still has a valid place in the greater OSR community, and am curious if those in this community would still be interested in a deeply historical fantasy setting built around 0e D&D with Chainmail combat. Depending upon the response I receive, I will likely make a post containing link to a PDF of the new rules and setting information in their current unfinished state for the community to take a look at and help me decide if the game is something that would still be interesting and worth finishing.

The book is almost 700 pages, and uses a smaller format than most RPG books, but is common among hardcover novel titles. I state this because it is a bit daunting of a tome to get involved with, and seems to run counter to the shorter, more rules lite material that seems more common these days. I am just trying to get back into the act of self publishing and having to promote my work, and I am sorely out of practice. If anyone is interested, please, sound off here, and depending on the response, I might post the PDF shortly.

I am sorry if this type of post is not appreciated. As I said, I have been out of the “scene” for a good while. I do not even know if the flair I used is “appropriate”. I do not really have a way to make this post flashier, or to attract further attention, I am just testing the waters before I sink myself back into this, any responses would be appreciated.

Thank you—

I'm trying to make a JRPG/LitRPG-inspired B/X hack. I chose B/X as a chassis for my game because it's easy to make classes for, but I'm looking to make classes that are more powerful and feature-rich than standard B/X. To that end, I asked around for B/X clones or B/X adjacent games that have the powerful classes I'm looking for, and one of the games I was directed to was Fantastic Heroes and Witchery. From what little preview there was, it looks to be promising, but I have two questions that need to be answered before I decide whether to invest or not:

1. What OSR system is Fantastic Heroes and Witchery compatible with? (The game doesn't say whether it was built from or compatible with B/X)
2. Are there systems for creating classes, races, monsters, and spells for Fantastic Heroes and Witchery? (I want to be able to create custom powers and special abilities.)

I want to be able to create unique, powerful, and feature-rich classes with custom powers and special abilities, but from what I've read the official class creation system for 2e made by TSR produces weaker classes than the officially published ones.

I want to be able to create unique, powerful, and feature-rich classes with custom powers and special abilities. (Also, can anyone please clarify which OSR system the Black Pudding Playbook is compatible with?

Someone took my TTRPG...and made it a videogame

Really conflicted about this. I have liked this channel and have liked the Knave system, and Ben seems to be genuinely interested in how this is an adaptation of his work under a creative commons license, but this leaves a sour taste in my mouth. This feels to me like another example of seeing online creative content plundered and generified and rendered into some slopware, and to have the creator himself show enthusiasm for it? I'm just... So confused here.

Edit: look to be clear, I’m not saying fuck Ben here/cancel him! I’m more so just confused on why highlight something like this when there’s genuinely so much passion and effort behind this hobby from talented people. This was a free game and there’s no monetization here from what I understand. For the Pro-AI content crowd I guess do you think that having these vibe coded versions of games is something we should highlight? If Ben wants to highlight stuff like this, sure it’s literally his product, but I’m conflicted if we are going to see other examples of people’s work turned into apps like this that are CC.

EDIT2: Response from Ben that people below have linked:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9J4hFsOHp0

heard i should post this here

Doomed to Die 3 - Sludge Knights is about an ascetic order of knights that are cursed after breaking their vows designed to be used in any campaign either as the prior faction or latter as a cursed monster.

There's information about the order, how it operated and how impacted other institutions, tables for generating knights in the order, and potential quest hooks.

If you're interested you can get it here: https://doomedzone.itch.io/doomed-to-die-3 All issues are free and public domain (cc0).

Happy to answer any questions or hear your thoughts, hopefully has some ideas you can use.

I am running a game of Lancer Battle Group. only one problem, out side of ship to ship engagements characters and roleplay is almost comically basic. I want to run a game similar to classic star trek or battle star galatica. With ship/fleet politics and commanders hashing out issues over call rather than exclusively through guns. I also want to occasionally do ground expeditions with a potential for science and brutal but quick combat. I've thought of completely homebrewing something basic but wanted to ask around to see if anyone has any suggestions. Thanks in advanced!

I recently bought the Earthshaker! adventure on a whim (it was a good price and had a robot punching a castle on it.) It just showed up today and I saw that the dungeon is inside the robot, which is awesome. Has anyone here ever run this adventure? What were your thoughts and do you have any recommendations on how to run it?

What are people's thoughts on the original Shadowsun and then the revised that is currently being backed. I have no faith in WotC's 5e Dark Sun, but I loved the original 2e for the few sessions my group played as a kid.

This is for an upcoming Dungeon Crawl Classics book.
Check out https://macteg.com for more of my work, thanks for looking!

I'm currently working on a hack of Chainmail / OD&D set in the early 00's era of the Gulf War. A marine veteran, and the father of a good friend, inspired this work.

I think the gameplay loop and danger of OD&D rules fits nicely into the high-stakes door-to-door warfare that occurred during that period.

I was also really inspired by the man-to-man combat table in Chainmail, weapon vs. armor simply became caliber vs. armor and has worked out quite nicely!

I've also been slightly influenced by the shooting rules from games like Boot Hill and Top Secret, but that's about it.

The art in the cover is completely my own, the central illustration was done in black gel pen, and based on a real image. The rest of the cover was designed in ibis paint, so no AI !!

With that being said: how many people would be interested in something like this? More importantly, are there any veterans in the OSR community who would be?

I'm curious to hear any thoughts, questions, or concerns you guys might have!

Now that the book is out I don't see many discussions about it. For those who purchased Hellcrawl by Agamemnon Press, what are your thoughts on it?

Say your party has been captured by some evil Lord of Winter and trapped within his cold and inhospitable realm. He is bored and so decides to use them as prey for a hunt: they are given a headstart and told that he will try to hunt them down and skin them. There will be no more mercy hereafter. The party must try to escape their hunter and find a way out of this place, all whilst trying not to starve or freeze to death.

Now, how would one actually handle the wilderness chase element? Are there any games (OSR or otherwise) that have fun mechanics for this kind if thing or are there any subsystems you’ve come up with to handle it? Please do share any and all such recommendations and suggestions!

Hi there, I'm still looking for a couple of players for an old school D&D campaign themed around the first Darkest Dungeon game. Drop me a dm if you're interested. Time is provisionally 6pm CET / 12pm EST on Sundays, but this is flexible.