Posts

I’m running two games of OD&D/Delving Deeper on my Discord server. In the play-by-post game our first Charm Person was successfully cast, and required a ruling on what exactly the effect is. → more...

It’s been noted in various discussion threads on the Open Table that the party is low on funds. A quick review of the Campaign Log shows the last haul was in Session 34 (7 sessions ago), and was actually relatively minor considering the party’s current level: 1453sp in gems. That haul itself is a while back, but going back even further through the log, while there have been some small finds, it has actually been a very long time since there was any haul commensurate with the party’s skill & power. → more...

Of the many cool tools Alex has put together on campaignwiki.org, Hex Describe was one I’d long admired but hadn’t found a use for. Hex Describe is an amazing tool. It can create a random regional hex map loaded with cool stuff. Moreover, while by default the hexes are populated from a set of detailed tables Alex created (just click the Submit button on Hex Describe to see an example of an Alex map), Hex Describe makes it very easy to create your own set of tables from which to populate the hex map. → more...

Alex has posed questions! I answer regarding the Open Table campaign I’ve been running via Discord. How many sessions have you been playing, more or less? We’ve done 25 sessions. Session 26 is this Sunday! How long have you been running this campaign? First session was 2019-02-10, so just under a year. → more...

There’ve been a couple blog posts about alternatives to the “attack roll vs AC” combat system. E.g. you could have an opposed roll for each attack, as Norbert suggested: You attack me? Roll dice, but I roll mine – and if I roll higher than you, I counter-attack successfully. → more...

I received my copy of the Suldokar’s Wake pre-release (along with a fancy Whitehack Pocket). → more...

Last night’s session at the open table involved a single quick & overwhelming combat, followed by retreat, leading into an entire session’s worth of sneaking about, making maps, and eventually: talking with underworld denizens! → more...

Two more expeditions have been made beneath the Raven Hill watchtower. → more...

Since I’m using a static-site generator I don’t have an easy way to add comments to these posts. I’m going to experiment with running a simple forum where discussion may happen. So without further ado: acodispo.net message board! I’ll hope to post there whenever I do a new blog post here. → more...

I’ve prepared an equipment list for my open table, which: is meant for earliest rules traditions (all weapons deal 1d6 damage in normal combat) is priced to a silver piece (SP) standard has city & rural prices is Open Game Content Given the above perks, I thought it might be useful for others. → more...

The first session of the Werdna World Open Table was yesterday. Five treasure-seekers ventured up the ridge of Raven Hill looking for a cave. They found a broken watchtower with a new door on the exterior, and a trapdoor within. Beneath the trapdoor: a spiral staircase that led them deep into the earth over ancient stone steps. → more...

I’m starting an open table game February 10th (this Sunday), and I’m writing a series of articles about how I’m going about preparing for the game. After the game starts I’ll continue the series with articles about how play progresses. Last time I wrote about the character creation process I’m using for this campaign. Today’s topic is the bare-bones “setting” I’ll have in place for the first session, and a bit about how I intend it to grow during play. → more...

I’m starting an open table next Sunday, and this is the first of a series of companion articles here on my blog. I plan to cover mainly how I’m going about planning for this campaign setting, especially as it regards my practice of “just-in-time planning”. Today’s topic, however, is how I’m handling character generation for this campaign. → more...

Brad wrote about locating the creative burden in RPGs: is it primarily on the ref, or the players, a mixture of both? The following are my free-writ thoughts in response. → more...

Starting on February 10th I’m going to GM a weekly game via Discord text chat. You’re welcome to join as a player, or as an observer if you wish! → more...

I started out playing AD&D 2nd Edition in the late 90s. I played a lot of 3rd edition, too, and then got out of the hobby for a while. A few years ago I started playing again, inspired by reading blogs in the “Old School Renaissance”. Actually, my real intro to old school DnD was somehow stumbling across Philotomy’s OD&D Musings, so my touchstones are more in the Original D&D lineage than in the AD&D or B/X lines. Here are some games I’ve played more than once over the past few years: → more...

There are no Elves nor Clerics. Instead, there are the Malkhim, the Messengers with No Message, the Unthanked Guardians. → more...

In a way, J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit is the archetypal DnD adventure. A small (but not as small as you might think) group of homeless dwarves (plus one wizard and one reluctant burglar) travels through caves, forests, wildernesses, ruined cities, and pretty literal dungeons in search of treasure (yes, there’s a bit about reclaiming a lost kingdom, but it’s mostly about huge piles of treasure). → more...

For me, when I write or talk about “DnD” the term stands in for a particular play experience. That play experience is a “classic” or “old-school” mode of adventure gaming, with a fairly high “game-y-ness”. What the game is about, its main themes, are right there in the title of the original game: this game is about dungeons and it’s about dragons. Put another way: it’s about exploration, and it’s about problem solving. → more...