Blackmoor Week 2016 - part six or Dave Arneson Gameday 2016

Today is October 1st - Dave Arneson's birthday. (Sorry, but I won't be gaming today, I am going to a family wedding) I did game an OD&D game last weekend, and as always I am inspired by Blackmoor and Dave Arneson and I always try to do something new in every game. 

Last time around my players were trying to get home from a trip through a portal into another world and that is more complicated than simply going through the portal again. You see, not only are there an infinite number of universes and an infinite number of worlds in each universe, there are also an infinite of timelines since every decision by everyone splits the timeline into as many different tracks as there are many different decisions that could have been made at each decision point by each creature in each world. So when you travel through a portal you must take precautions and use certain rare magic to increase your chances of returning to the timeline you really belong to - not one where you will run into yourself or one where you do not even exist. Even having done everything that can be done, there is always a risk that you will not end up where you want to be and of course there is no way to know until something happens that should not be, such as, running into yourself.

A few new links to help you along the path of celebrating Dave Arneson Game Day.

Dave Arneson Documentary Trailer Revealed! The blog post is fairly long and here is a snippet:

Today, October 1st, is Dave Arneson's birthday. As always we celebrate  Dave Arneson Day by sharing Blackmoor related material. This year I have something very special to share. The trailer for an upcoming documentary about Dave Arneson has just dropped! The producers became aware that their trailer may have gotten leaked by accident, so they contacted me about doing an official release on my blog to counteract the leak. I suggested that they should release the trailer for Dave's birthday, and they liked that idea. I still have no information about when the movie will be released, but it looks like this is not going to be a Kickstarter project.

Dave Arneson Game Day 2016 

[Dave Arneson Day] Dave Arneson Documentary Trailer Revealed

Blackmoor Week 2016 - part five

Here are a number of interesting links for Blackmoor Week 2016 and some of them build on the foundation laid by previous links.

Blackmoor Week Day 5: Bow Before Zugzul

Blackmoor: The Wild Cards

Magitech of Blackmoor: Nacelle Weapons of the First Crusade  

Magitech of Blackmoor

 Blackmoor Week Retrospective: d20 Blackmoor

Blackmoor Week Retrospective: 4E Blackmoor

If you run across something I have not seen, please let me know.

Blackmoor Week 2016 - part four

As part of Blackmoor Week 2016 I decided to link to some posts over at the Hidden in Shadows blog that relate directly to Dave Arneson and Blackmoor. First up is a post titled Sergeants, Officers, and The Temple of the Frog  where DHBoggs says:

This is a post about garrisons and troop organization in OD&D and for this discussion I'm going to look once again at Supplement II Temple of the Frog, and the exact nature and composition of the forces defending the temple. ...

In the second post titled Troops Arms & Armor tables. DHBoggs expands into the Dave Arneson game Adventures in Fantasy (Richard Snider co-author) where he says:

In the last post I considered the organization of the garrison of the temple of the frog as a model for small garrisons and troops in OD&D, and I listed the arms and equipment given in the text.  It's fine to simply use that, but if you (like me) would prefer a little variety in arms and equipment, there is a really terrific series of tables in Arneson's rulebook 1 of Adventures in Fantasy, page 31, that will give you just that. ...

In the third post titled Blackmoor Taxes, Living Expenses and the Support and Upkeep of Hirelings in OD&D  DHBoggs says:

A good while back, I had a productive and interesting series of discussions with Alex of Autarch regarding economics and game design. You can see these here
ground-up literally starting-ground-part-ii
and
The Blackmoor base ...

So here is some links to some very interesting (IMO) reading and I hope you enjoy it and find it useful.

Blackmoor Week 2016 - part three

I have been a bit crunched this week, more so than expected. However, I wanted to sneak in this update for Blackmoor Week 2016. Over at Havard's Blackmoor Blog, he writes: 

Blackmoor Week Day 4: Gonzo Gaming! 

 Okay, so now things are really starting to take off here. I am struggling to keep up with Blackmoor Week activities, forum discussions and everything else going on.
First of all I asked my friend Brian over at the Gnomish Embassy if he would write something for Blackmoor Week. Brian was one of the first people to do Blackmoor Week that I know about. Brian didn't give me one article, but three! One article is a more personal article about how Blackmoor can be an inspiration, then there is an article about a race that developed with the fall of the Temple of the Frog and the final article is a wild alternate history Blackmoor/Mystara mash up. Read all of them here.

There is much more besides the bit that I just quoted, please go check it out. I am posting those links here for you to access directly.

The Gnomish Embassy  The Personal Blog of B.W. Mathers

What Does Blackmoor Mean to Me?  
Blackmoor Week: Grippli of Blackmoor  
Blackmoor: Two Takes Ten  

 

Blackmoor Week 2016 - part two

I thought I would share with all of you the links I have found concerning Blackmoor Week 2016. From Havard's Blackmoor Blog:

Introducing Blackmoor Week 2016
Blackmoor Week: Day One - Announcements, Articles and more!
Blackmoor Week: Day Two!

Over at the The Piazza forum you will find these:

Blackmoorspace Week
Blackmoor Week 2016
Blackmoor Week Retrospective: 1970s Blackmoor Products(OD&D)
Blackmoor Week Retrospective: 1980s Products (BECMI)

From the Cross Planes  blog we have:

DnD: Blackmoor Cyborg #MonsterMonday #BlackmoorWeek2016

Over at the Comeback Inn forum there is this thread and some linksDave Arneson Day at The Source - Oct. 1st., 2016:

Blackmoor Week 2016
Facebook Blackmoor Fans
Dave Arneson Game Day 2016 on Facebook

Blackmoor Week 2016

I have learned that this is Blackmoor Week 2016, I was already aware of Saturday, October 1st being Dave Arneson Game Day (his birthday) and was planning for it and I am happy to find out about this too. So the question is how are you going to celebrate Blackmoor Week 2016 (or perhaps Dave Arneson Week)?


Many fans of Dave Arneson and of Blackmoor, spend a lot of time learning about Blackmoor and running their own Blackmoor campaigns built on the Blackmoor Canon as they best see it. Nothing wrong with that at all, I am not critising that, so let's be clear about that.


I enjoy hearing about other campaigns and stories from bitd, but I have no desire to try to imitate them.  I have no Blackmoor or Greyhawk or Kalibruhn or _____________ in my world, nor will I ever. I happen to really love these campaigns, but I have no desire to spend my time trying to recreate them. Those worlds belong to those who created them and although there is nothng wrong with playing in those existing worlds, IMO the way to honor those early campaigns and the pioneers/creators of the hobby especially Dave Arneson the prime mover and primary creator of the game we love is to make something of my own that is truly unique and different and can not be found anywhere else.

That is what I have always striven to do. Bitd (1975) I never worried about what someone else was doing nor did I ever worry about how it was played by Dave or Gary - it  never crossed my mind. They were authors of something I enjoyed and that is about all I knew at the time. The admonitions in the text about making the game your own I took to heart.Those things were written to me. So as I read and learn about Dave Arneson and about Blackmoor - The First Fantasy Campaign, I am inspired and given a vision of where imagination can take you and I - and that is anywhere our minds can conceive.

So no matter how you celebrate Blackmoor and the life and work of Dave Arneson, take a moment to tip your hat to his genius - the fruit of which brings you so much pure joy and game like Dave Arneson - without limits - always searching and exploring and as they said in Star Trek "To boldly go where no man has gone before."

Here Is a GoFundMe IMO That Deserves a Look!

Over at Tenkar's Tavern Eric Tenkar highlighted a gofundme in this post and IMO it is a very worthy gofundme to take a look at and give what you can to help this couple out.

The link is Help Dana and Pat by Lisa Thompson. Below is the post at that link!

Sometimes life places road blocks in Our way. We can choose to go around them or climb them but no one knows whats on the other side. I have watched Dana and Pat navigate these challenges time and time again. For every rise to the top there comes a soft fall. But this time they have reached a hard spot. Dana is a stay at home mom who has struggled with lupus for many years and even when she is sick and tired she makes you feel like she would do anything for you. Pat recently lost his job and they have not given him an extension on his unemployment . He also is suffering from myasthenia gravis flare up. If I could give them every dime I have I would because they would do the same. Not just because we are friends but because they lead a life of kindness and compassion that you rarely see today.

 Please think about joining me in helping me this need!

Three Line Studio News

Here are two pieces of Three Line Studio News that I missed while I was off sick.  First Sunken City Adventure Front Cover, Rob Kuntz says:

Here's my adventure, Sunken City, first run by me three times at GENCON 8, 1975 as the first tournament in D&D history! This adventure, 41 years later, is being made available with the release of El Raja Key Archive DVD!  With a cover by Jim Roslof (R. I. P.) no less!

You can follow the link to see the really cool cover!

The second piece of news is Three Line Studio News. In the post Rob says:

As many may be aware my wife, Nathalie, and myself have formed Three Line Studio.  The premiere product for this is due out in a week, The El Raja Key Archive and the accompanying release, the SUNKEN CITY adventure.

and then goes on to say:

 Both products are finished, edited, and laid out.  I was informed by Paul and Kevin (Kevin Maurice is the programmer for the DVD interface) that they are testing the two versions of the DVD and making minor corrections to the index.

You can read Paul's full comments at the link above! Looking forward to holding it in my hands and starting the exploration!

 

Happy Birthday to Robert "Rob" J Kuntz

Happy Birthday to Robert "Rob" J Kuntz. He was there when Chainmail and the Original Dungeons & Dragons were created. He was a play-tester of both and more. Game Designer, Author and much more, you can read his bio here. The creator of Kalibruhn and much more. 

At  the beginning of Volume 1 - Men and Magic of the Original 1974 Dungeons & Dragons it says (with emphasis added):

Dedicated to all the fantasy wargamers who have enthusiastically played and expanded upon the CHAINMAIL Fantasy Rules, with thanks and gratitude. Here is something better! Special thanks to the Midwest Military Simulation Association, the Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association, Rob Kuntz and Tom Keogh (in memorium).

Yes, his influence is throughout the original game.

Best of all, he is my friend. Join me in celebrating his birthday today!!

9/11 National Day of Remembrance

Today is the day that we all remember - 9/11 and the cowardly attacks on the everyday people who worked in the Twin Towers, our Military Personel at the Pentagon, the innocents on the planes that were hijacked for the attacks, the heroism of our first responders who did everything they could to rescue the people and many of whom gave their own lives in that attempt and for the members of Flight 93 who stormed their hijacked plane’s cockpit preventing the deaths of potentially hundreds or thousands of people at the immediate cost of their own instead of just waiting to die. 

 I will just mention two events that are happening today. One is in Zarephath, New Jersey where

 "Todd Beamer, who famously yelled, “Let’s roll” as the members of Flight 93 stormed their hijacked plane’s cockpit",

attended the Zarephath Christian Church. Radio station’s tribute to 9/11: Shoe memorial

Star 99.1-FM, a Christian radio station based in the town, began collecting shoes on July 4. It has amassed 2,996 pairs, to symbolize the 2,996 victims who died in the terrorist attacks.
Saturday those shoes will be on display at the Zarephath Christian Church, with a small American flag placed with every pair.
The empty shoes, symbolizing those who no longer walk among us, will be on display through Sept. 16.

When the memorial has finished on Sept. 18, the station will donate all the shoes to the charity Soles 4 Souls, which collects shoes for those in need across the world.

The other one I want to mention is in the town of Gander, Newfoundland in Canada. The Town of Gander and Wounded Warriors Canada to Host 9/11 15th Anniversary Commemoration  I post about this to remind us that we are not alone and without friends in the world. 

Thirty-nine planes landed at Gander International Airport that fateful day carrying over 6,600 passengers unaware of the ongoing terrorist attacks. As passengers remained stranded on the tarmac, the Town of Gander and surrounding communities worked tirelessly to provide accommodation and nourishment. The population of Gander effectively doubled as all community halls, churches and school gymnasiums were transformed into temporary lodging. It was an extraordinary response highlighting Canada's resolve in the face of terror. 

Let us remember what has happened and what can happen and do something each day for you loved ones, for your friends and neighbors, for your community and to make the world a better place.

ENWorld - Unfortunately this not a surprise!

I am going to present these posts without much comment simply because I think they speak for themselves and as bad as it is, it is unfortunately not a surprise.

On September 1st +ErikTenkar posted the following: 

Adamant Entertainment 2.0 - Someone Does Not Know the Definition of Stalwart

Then a little later he posted:

 Does ENWorld Publish ANY Sean Fannon "News Articles" That AREN'T Stroke Jobs? (Follow Up Post - Rant)

And then on September 2nd he posted:

 Down the Rabbit Hole - ENWorld's Sean Fannon Thinks "it's a fine, fuzzy line between news, promotion, and outright advertising" (Rant)

Also on September 2nd +Kasimir Urbanski posted this:

ENWorld Reviews are Payola, Probably Broke The Law!

Then on September the 6th +Venger Satanis posted this:

Should ENworld keep stroking itself? 

 Does anyone know of an ENWorld response to all of this, other than:

IMO the above posts are not abusive and are not mean-spirited. IMO they are pointing out something that needs to be pointed out. If you are making money from something that you are promoting, then you should say so. I am not making money from anything at this time or previously, if that changes I will post that info when it does. Being paid does not invalidate what you say, but it does identify that you might be biased. On the other hand hiding that you are being paid, that does invalidate what you say IMO.

And finally on September 6th Eric Tenkar also posted this:

How Much Actual "RPG News" is There to Report? 

I do not like to dwell on the negative side of things, I would much rather post about things that are inspiring. This is not one of those things, other than it is inspiring that people starting with Eric Tenkar had the guts to say something.

New Product in the Works from Three Line Studio!

Over at the blog of Robert J Kuntz he just posted about this new product called Into the City of Brass.  He says  the following:

This will be another offering in our Three Little Books™ line from Three Line Studio.  The two color maps were finished over a month ago. Now comes the fun part...

 This is another long awaited product. It, and I am sure many other surprises, are now in the pipeline to be done.

UnSung Heroes of the OSR World! - Part IV

I have two new nominations for UnSung Heroes of the OSR World! One of them comes from this thread where the subject of UnSung Heroes of the OSR World! - Part III credits Jimm Johnson as being the guy that got him back into D&D. And the other one I nominated.

The Contemptible Cube of Quazar ...In the 66th æon of Eris by Jimm Johnson aka austinjimm who also hangs out at Knights & Knaves Alehouse. Jimm Johnson is one of the really great guys in Old School Roleplaying. The blog has been around since 2010 with 32 posts and you may say that is not much activity, which appears true, but there is more to it than that. For instance in his only post this year he says

 NTRPG Con 2016 kicks off this Wednesday evening. ....I will be running 3 games at the con this year. Thursday morning is my semi-annual OUTDOOR SURVIVAL hex crawl using the original 1974 wilderness rules. Saturday morning I'll be running Kids' D&D using my popular Knights & Wizards kids' rules, and Saturday night I'll be running the Odboxx itself.

You can see additional details at his blog. In his first post to the blog he says:

I'm titling this blog after my recent submission (and winning entry) to the 2010 One-Page-Dungeon contest: The Contemptible Cube of Quazar. Here's the backstory/teaser to the adventure:

Quazar, a powerful evil magic-user from planet Eris has accidentally transported himself and his cube-like stronghold to Earth. He is trapped in his Inner Sanctum until he can be freed by The Four Sacred Keys. In the meantime, the uncontrolled denizens of his fortress venture forth at night to feed and plunder the local villages.

His campaign resulted in his publication of this supplement for the Original Dungeons & Dragons:

Planet Eris Booklet 1 House Rules Rules Additions and Modifications for the Skull Mountain Megadungeon, the Sparn Empire and the Wild Lands of Oros.

Or aka the Planet Eris campaign, published by The Scribes of Sparn. Here is a link to his Books and Publications Spotlight on Lulu. Yes I think he well deserves to be recognized.

Now we also have my nomination for this designation as an UnSung Heroes of the OSR World! and this is this blog:

3 Toadstools My little blog about the OSR & RPG's by Shane Ward. This blog has been around since 2013 with 601 posts. He covers a wide range of subjects and here is his list of popular posts:

Popular Posts

• Demon Symbiote

  I posted briefly about this on G+.  I was doing some google searching that somehow managed to lead to "VENOM" from Spiderman.  I t...
• 

  The Whistling Towers.

  I acquired a copy of the world map of Basq, and its super friggin cool!  The nice thing about this adventure/module is that there are secti...
• 

  Old School Session 9 - Flip the script

  A few weeks ago we gathered everyone together for another Old School session.  Unbeknownst to the other players in the game, Kurt and I deci...
• 

  D&D 6th Edition Announced!!!!!

  Even though 5th edition was a welcome fresh set of rules, The wizards have decided to put out 6th! Not 5.5, NO...... 6th Edition! And from t...
• #rpgaday2016 days 9 thru 14

  Here we go again, I'm sitting in front of my trusty slow as heck laptop.  Rather than doing a whole post on everyday, or a daily version...
• 

  A brief look at the "form" - Pyramid Of The Lost King

  A little more information regard "the Pyramid of the lost king".  This time a introduction of a new race.  "The Form".  ...
• 

  random puzzle room

  I've been working on an adventure, in which the PC's basically fall thru a wormhole into a Demon's dungeon.  It's a rescue s...
• 

  Some news of note.

  A bunch of cool stuff has cropped up lately!  I'm sure you are aware of it, but if your not here it is!  First and foremost, Brave The...
• 

  #rpgaday2016 the first eight days

  I had originally posted day 1, and had thought to do this as a daily blog post, but alas I'm on vacation and for the most part away fr...
• 

  #rpgaday206 Days 23-29

  Once again, to not have a blog a day, I'm doing these in batches.  Side note, I also have to do a old school session report, which I sho...

He also has these additional pages and other things as well:

• Old School Session Reports
• OSR News
• Adventures
• Maps
• Random Tables
• Who is this guy?
• Labyrinth Lord
• D-oom Products
• Crimhuck

 Do you have any nominations for UnSung Heroes of the OSR World!? If you do then please send them to me and I will endeavor to let the world know about them.

UnSung Heroes of the OSR World! - Part III

I have a nomination of my own for an UnSung Hero of the OSR World! Now at first you may say why is this guy an UnSung Hero Of Old School Roleplaying, I will point out a few facts and then cover why in total I think he qualifies. Consider these things when you make your nominations.

First a little bit of background which ties in with my first post in this series and with some other previous posts. As I built my forum, he was a great source of advice and suggestions and contributed in large measure to making the forum what it currently is, he made my job a lot easier because of his assistance. Over at my forum The Ruins of Murkhill (OD&D) (yeah the blog and the forum have the same name) I recently created a new area called Rules/Campaigns Projects (Both Joint & Singular) about a third of the way down the page and the first project is called Space: 1977 (the Traveler/OD&D mashup) which I have already shared about.

My friend tetramorph (aka Nathan) (you can read his About page) posted this thread in General Discussion titled idea: a shared "mini-module" project  in which he outlined a project and he is looking to see who might be interested in participating in it. I asked him if I could quote him and he granted permission. When I indicated that I was going to highlight him as an UnSung Hero of the OSR World! he said:

Well, that is really nice.

I'm psyched about the exposure and geting the word out about the project idea.

I'm not sure if I'm an OSR hero - so I am not unsung! I'm exactly proportionately sung to my actual output!

The point being that he does not think he has done that much. I beg to differ. So let me talk about him a bit and then about his idea: First of all his blog is called Campaigns Playable . . . with paper and pencil and traditional legendaria . . . and it has been around since November of 2013 and over that time he has contributed 26 posts - yeah that does not sound like a lot - until you look into it and the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. His third post is about the house ruled OD&D campaign that he is developing and he writes:

 Dun Kells names a wargames campaign set in a fantastical medieval Christendom. 

It is the dawn of the sixth age of the world and “Middle Earth” (Mitgaard) has now fallen down to mere “earth” in almost all its regions. The free and rational races continue their losing battle against the forces of chaos while the church spreads its gospel of a universal Law not derived from earth but heaven. The “Eldar” have long since departed to the uttermost west and now only dark elves lurk in wooded glens in dispersion and shadow, barely and listlessly maintaining a mere handful of far-flung woodland realms. The dwarves too now feel the urge to seek their promised slumber at the roots of the ancient mountains but some still wander, trade and maintain their hidden vaults. “Hobbits” now live by wits and in hiding. 

The Forests of Dun Kells form a wilderness that separate various scattered kingdoms and grand duchies of Christendom from unknown lands beyond. Dun Kells is situated somewhere in an imaginary and vast temperate continental European region. To the west the shattered and scattered lines that claim descent from Charles the Great maintain their Lawful estates of Christendom and the lonely isles of Britannia maintain their Lawful Christendom in memory of the long departed Once and Future King. Far to the south and east the various Slavic tribes have only recently adopted the new religion and its Law. Further east lie unknown mystical and barbarian lands. To the direct south lies much of the remains of the various empires that once ruled the great Middle Sea. Finally, to the north lies the mighty icy sea. Beyond that sea are lands of barbarian pirate-people known as the “Norse,” or Vikings with their powerful neutral and chaotic gods. 

So imagine King Arthur and Beowulf meet in a low-magical post- “Middle Earth” Christendom. Turn the dial a bit up on the Tolkien and a bit down on the Howard, then mix in a bit more of the “Three Matters” (that is to say, Arthurian Legend, the Roland Saga and the medieval reception of classical myth and legend) and add just a bit of the ballads of Robin Hood and some of the Brothers Grimm and you will get the “feel.” Magic is waning, the church is waxing, but they are not necessarily at war. The Archbishop and Merlin both consult with King Arthur, etc. 

Will your characters bring law and order out of this chaos and loss, or at least die trying? Fight on!

  Through the next few posts he says this following in the introduction:

These campaign specific rules seek to do three things: to engage a legendarium of a fantastical medieval Christendom, to build into the mechanic reward for more heroic, “high fantasy” play-style and to build more obviously into the core rules the conquering, building, ruling and keeping, not only of strongholds, but their concomitant realms as home-bases for more large-scale wargaming.

and in the "forward" (I trust you know the reference) he says:

Dun Kells names a wargames campaign set in a fantastical medieval Christendom. The published rules, additions and modifications are designed not so much as a “retro-clone,” but as a “retro-supplement” to the original edition of the first published rules for fantastical medieval wargames campaigns. So, just as that game had several supplements that still relied upon the core three digests, so too the rules for Dun Kells do not stand alone but require the same three, or their “retro-clones” and simulacra. In this document I provide a description of the “campaign world” for which I designed those rule additions and modifications.

Eventually as the project developed, he renamed the project from Dun Kells to A Supplement for Perilous Realms. Since I am The Perilous Dreamer, I am rather fond of that name. He posted this when it was completed:

A Supplement for Perilous Realms

After many conversations over many fora my first old school project is finally available!

A Supplement for Perilous Realms: Suggestions for Pick-up Sessions and Otherwise Rollicking Fantastic Medieval Wargames Campaigns Playable with Original Edition Rules and their Various Simulacra
The Lulu version is currently $4.15
If you buy it you will help contribute to my becoming a hundredaire through old school self-publication!
Otherwise, a free PDF is also available
Share, enjoy, let me know what you think!
Thanks!

And that brings us to his current project idea: a shared "mini-module" project that I mentioned above and here are a few tidbits:

A shared subforum where we build "mini-modules" together.

I love how TSR called them "modules," not "adventures." Use of the term "Adventures" seems like what I am getting is going to be self-contained and goal, if not narrative oriented. "Module," sounds, to my ears, well, modular. And here I mean not only something that could be dropped into a sandbox setting (their original implication, I think) but droppable in relationship to each other in terms of a multi-layered dungeon.

But here is my other idea. What if each map was keyed three times: once for normal leveled characters, then for heroic and finally for super heroic and beyond. So, for example, a kobold lair for normals, a hobgoblin for heroic and a troll for super-heroic. Thus many birds are killed with one stone. Or, again, a wight borrow for normals, a mummy's tomb for heroes, a vampire's undercroft for super-heroes.

Not too much standardization. But just enough that the modules would be "modular," that is to say, mutually compatible.

New monsters and new magic items for sure. But especially unique tricks and traps.

So I am imagining something like the Travel sub-forum in the group work on many different "locations," but unlike that sub-forum we would not need a shared setting "map," but mutual compatibility across "levels"? Does that make sense?

Okay, so this is just a list of possible "mini-module" titles based upon the monster list and some magic items. Namely, those monsters that clearly constitute the mythic underworld (vs. wilderness) in my loose estimation and the misc. magic items (some, not all of them).

I just went through the lists and tried to give a fun, youthful, pulpy adventurous title based upon each.

The Bandit’s Lair
The Brigand’s Redoubt
Berserker’s Mountain
Revenge of the Mad Dervishes
Nomads of Wasteland
Pirate’s Cove
Buccaneer’s Bounty
Cavern’s of the Lost Cavemen
Mermen’s Hidden Mere
Tucker’s Kobolds
Night at Goblin Mound
The Minions of Orcus
The Gnoll Knoll
The Ogre’s Horrid Banquet

This is just a few titles, he lists many more as examples. And just a bit more:

Okay, so one of the directions I am traveling now (and assumed in my proposal for "mini-modules") is something like the following for a setting:

I want to combine Wayne Rossi's account of the "Original D&D Setting" of The Outdoor Survival Board (or some equivalent wilderness) as a "Demon Haunted Land" with Philotomy's Musings about the "Dungeon as Mythic Underworld." I imagine doing so by filling up the wilderness with lairs and "dungeons."

 There is quite a bit more, but this should be enough to whet your appetite. But I believe you can now see why I think he is an UnSung Hero.

Updated Information on the El Raja Key Archive, RJK Collected Works on DVD

Over at Lake Geneva Original RPG Campaign there is a new update titled El Raja Key Archive, RJK Collected Works, DVD Cover Wrap, Near Final that gives an inspiring update on the project. I will leave most of it for you to go read yourself and view the images; however, I thought a couple of things were worth quoting:

But this is the layout, with Three Line Studio logo, TLB (Three Little Books) wizard logo (purchased from the Roslof estate) that is an original Jim Roslof did for TSR's logo hunt BitD but was rejected in the final pick for the TSR wizard logo holding a wand.  Pretty excited about this!

The adventure module being released with the DVD is "The Sunken City" which was the first tournament convention module in the history of D&D by yours truly(Rob Kuntz). 

 There is other exciting information in the post (including a comment about pricing), I encourage you to check it out. We have already set aside the funds as this will be an early Christmas present from my wife.

Edit: Update on the pricing Rob posted this in  comment:
  

 The pricing is set at four levels, 2 beneath 100.00 and two above 100.00. This launches a new line of products "Little Books Line" associated with the DVD contents and includes in 3 versions the entire 1,100 files scanned from auctions 2005-present and as supplemented by my own un-auctioned files. 2 years of work and several thousand hours of endeavor on five people's parts have been expended to organize, describe, resize, amend and categorize the contents. These are htlm-hot-linked and we have a built in cascading view as well for easy file access and viewing.

UnSung Heroes of the OSR World! - Part II

Hello to all Lawful, Neutral and Chaotic Refs, DMs, GMs and players of D&D and other RPGs, the series of highlighting some UnSung Heroes of the OSR World! continues because I did receive nominations of blogs that belong on that list and with your help I will receive more and go on to highlight additional blogs and resources.

Again in no particular order, this is not about who is best, but about letting you know who some of the creative people are that others have found useful to their games, their campaigns and to spurring on their creativity.

Quickly, Quietly, Carefully . . . wherein Paul Gorman plays with ideas for old-school fantasy roleplaying games. This blog has been around since 2010 and yet I did not see it until very recently (following links to links to links as I sometimes do and I am happy that it was nominated).  This blog has 385 posts over that time but has been relatively quiet the last couple of years which is why it is a bit under the radar. Just one example of what he has done is this Retro-Clone Comparison Chart v0.6 that he first created back in July of 2010. He also has "A Bunch of Crap for Old-School Fantasy Roleplaying Games. The Devil Ghost blog is temporarilty down, but our software and publications are still available. The link on the blog does not work, but these links do work. I have spent some time digging through the posts on the main blog and was really pleased with what I found.

Dungeon of Signs  (Gus L.) and has been around since 2012 with 474 posts and has also been relatively quiet the past two years. He covers a wide range of topics and I have enjoyed immensely the 20 or so that I have read so far. In addition, he has the follow pages that you can visit:

• PDFs to download
• Obelisk of Forgotten Memory
• ASE G+ Game THURS night 6:30 PST
• ASE home Campaign Play Reports
• Classic Module Reviews - The B Series
• Tomb of the Rocket Men

 I have already found this site to be useful and I expect that many of you will also! In addition, there is the project that he calls a retro-clone of sorts. HMS APPOLYON PLAYERS GUIDE PART 1 - Combat and Exploration and here is the Link to the Guide.

Halfling's Luck by James Spahn: This blog has been around since 2014 and has 123 posts and appears on tracks to double the number of posts this year to have more posts that the first two years combined. This six winners of the 12 Days of OSR Christmas and gave out some really nifty prizes. A lot of good things on this blog and I have just barely started to scratch the surface. This blog has a number of products reviews and to top that off he wrote The Hero's Journey Fantasy Roleplaying which is based off of Swords & Wizardry and is over at RPGNOW.

Please keep those nominations coming in for the UnSung Heroes of the OSR.

Now for a link to a Sung Hero of the OSR and one obvious choice is the well-known and the long running Jeff's Gameblog  by Jeff Rients. This blog has been around since 2004 and has 2040 posts even though he has been pretty quiet comparatively the last 4 years. He covers a wide range of topic and is not shy at all. Here are his own choices for the Best of the Gameblog:

• 20 quick questions for your campaign
• a campaign concept inspired by a dream
• Another Tale from the Dorkside
• David Deitrick Mini-Shrine
• don't mourn the death, celebrate the life
• Five Overlooked RPGs
• How to Awesome Up your Players
• I got your threefold model right here,buddy!
• Let me tell you about my favorite band
• Let's talk about Encounter Critical
• Listen Up You Primitive Screwheads! (a rant)
• More Apocryphal Gaming
• My Tale from the Dorkside
• On System
• The Incomplete Pictorial History of the Bulette
• The Wraeththu Report

 Again please keep your nominations coming for both UnSung and Sung Heroes of the OSR World!