How about a sample from the Bonus DVD?A little video to watch on this day of Thanksgiving.
Ross Maker talks about the early days:
Thanks everyone for Following us. We can't do it without you.
A short excerpt from the 2 hour Bonus DVD for KickStarter supporters of Secrets of Blackmoor.
Ross Maker was the first person to play a Dwarf Character in an RPG. He played that same character for roughly 40 years.
As part of the Blackmoor Bunch, Ross witnessed the invention and evolution of Arneson's fantasy campaign
In his real life career he has been a game designer and computer programmer. As a founder of the 4D Interactive team he helped port many games produced by Coleco such as Zaxxon.
This is raw footage without color or sound enhancement.
Ross appears in the completed documentary which can be seen here:
vimeo.com/ondemand/sobfinal
The Bonus DVD Sources - Ross Maker
(Very early 1973, 1st level of my Castle El Raja Key) -- In November of 1972 four stalwarts of the LGTSA (Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association; of which I was then its current president)--namely Gary Gygax, myself, Ernie Gygax and my brother Terry Kuntz--experienced our first, and also comprehensive, RPG adventure via Dave Arneson’s Blackmoor setting. During it we also experienced the various levels of DM interactive strategies that Arneson could and did wield.Rob mentions Alfred Hitchcock:
Both Gary and I were big Alfred Hitchcock fans and Hitchcock was the master of suspense and, due to that, of anxiety.I watched a ton of Hitchcock movies growing up and they have always influenced how I ran my games from day one. I also am a big Edgar Allan Poe fan. I discovered Poe about 5th grade and a few of my favorites are:
This afternoon today, Paul Stormberg of The Collector's Trove held a Q&A session over on reddit about the contents of Gary Gygax's unpublished manuscripts:This is an AMA, wherein I allow adventurers to ask me anything about the trove of treasures left behind by Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, and what traps and guardians await them.
Gail Gygax's agent, Gina Ramirez, also participated in the AMA, covering questions around licensing as well as future publishing plans for computer games, RPGs, etc.
Adventurers wanted for hazardous journey, small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful, honor and recognition in case of success!grodog provide a lengthy summary of the contents of the reddit thread. Good reading, excellent resource and pertinent to the Public Notice Filed by Robert J Kuntz of Three Line Studio.
The original way to play was a game of exploration and combat was to be avoided when possible. Murderhobo's should be treated to the angry villager rule. Especially those who specialize in killing innocents.
Enough with the cannot handle more than 3-5 players. With OD&D you can run 12-15 players and on occasion even more, this is no sweat with experienced adult players. I have run 15 players where at least 7 of them were 10-12 years old.
Massive amounts of preparation are not necessary or IMO desirable. At any moment of the day you could tap me on the shoulder and I could sit down and run an 8 hour game with no prep. That is one of the beauties of a homebrew OD&D campaign that you have fully created.
There is no off the map, there are no worries about the players breaking your world and no NPC is untouchable. If the players want to topple a kingdom, go for it. There is no pre-written railroaded script of a story IMC. Story is what is told after the game play has occurred.
What follows are some dear and treasured memories—snippets, funny lines, and outbursts recalled from play.
Per austinjimm
Planet Eris GazetteerI have permission to post this mini-review of the above:
64-page booklet now available on lulu.com & drivethru.com.
- PRINT -
A5 Booklet from lulu.com:
www.lulu.com/shop/jimm-johnson/planet-eris-gazetteer/paperback/product-24285403.html
Digest Size Booklet from drivethrurpg.com:
www.drivethrurpg.com/product/290566/Planet-Eris-Gazetteer
- PDF -
lulu.com:
www.lulu.com/shop/jimm-johnson/planet-eris-gazetteer/ebook/product-24301036.html
============
Planet Eris World Map
Large, 24 x 36 inch glossy poster map on 100 weight poster paper now available from The Scribes of Sparn.
- POSTER MAP -
Poster Print (available only for shipping in the U.S.A.):
cubeofquazar.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_28.html
- JPEG MAP FILE -
Instructions for downloading the electronic map, a 150 dpi JPEG file, are provided in the print and PDF versions of the Planet Eris Gazetteer booklet.
1 hex = 15 miles.
Thaddeus MooreUpdate: Poster Print now available for shipping worldwide.
I just picked up The Planet Eris Gazzeteer by Jim Johnson this morning. It is a 64 page campaign setting for OD&D but the material essentially system agnostic. Eris is a planet which absorbed successive waves of involuntary human and alien migration (forced to flee dying planets). An unknown span of time has passed, presumably tens of thousands of years later, the humans have become the dominate civilizations on the planet. The once space faring cultures have reverted to medieval technology levels as have the alien races which are essentially proxies for demihumans. Humans, as we are want to do have adopted old names and old gods. The setting has an ancient feeling with a deep history. A 24”x 36” world poster map on glossy paper can be purchase separately for $9 here: https://cubeofquazar.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_28.html
Large, 24 x 36 inch glossy poster map on 100 weight poster paper now available from The Scribes of Sparn.Oh and BTW here is a link to Jim Johnson's house rules.
- POSTER MAP -
Poster Print (now available for shipping worldwide):cubeofquazar.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_28.html
- JPEG MAP FILE -
Instructions for downloading the electronic map, a 150 dpi JPEG file, are provided in the print and PDF versions of the Planet Eris Gazetteer booklet.
