Notes on a Desolate Mythic Underworld

In my preparations for a megadungeon game I have among my list of Play-by-Post (or, hopefully, in real time whenever possible) campaigns I need to get out of the ground (heavily influenced by Lost Carcosa from my friend Tristyn), I gave consideration to what I want out of that, aesthetically and creatively. A game that doesn’t speak to my worldview and artistic interests is not one that I should be running.

So I set a few goals that would keep me busy and entertained both during preparation and the actual game. I gave consideration to megadungeon theory and referred back to Philotomy’s Musings, which still lays the ground of my approach to D&D as a game.

Blog Scraps 5

In this issue: horror and investigation as roleplaying introduction, and my actually effective rules making.

d12 Loadouts for Into the Odd

When I’m playing What an Odd World, I use something that I called a Loadout. It’s somewhere between the Electric Bastionland Failed Career and the background in some other adventure games. It’s got the flavor of a FC, but no need to roll in two tables or with associated stats. Equipment is already defined. If the character is eligible for an Oddity, they have it, otherwise they don’t. Before there was a more complicated rule about weapon weight in the equipment, but I got rid of it, so they became even more simple.

You can use them with my house rules, of course, or as NPCs. Or derived a proper Failed Career from them, or do an equipment pack for regular Into the Odd. Anyway, I hope it’s useful.

Rules Light, Work Heavy

I read and play many so-called rules-light games, but they aren’t rules-light at all. No game is.

Demons & Daylight (D&D)

What is Ramsey Campbell’s Demons By Daylight doing in the Recommended Reading section of Moldvay?

Thoughts on Horror Roleplaying: OSR and Demesne Play

Searchers after horror haunt strange, far places. For them are the catacombs of Ptolemais, and the carven mausolea of the nightmare countries. They climb to the moonlit towers of ruined Rhine castles, and falter down black cobwebbed steps beneath the scattered stones of forgotten cities in Asia. The haunted wood and the desolate mountain are their shrines, and they linger around the sinister monoliths on uninhabited islands.
H. P. Lovecraft, The Picture in the House

OSR And Horror: An Introduction

“OSR is D&D Survival Horror”.

What an Odd World – My House Rules

There’s something I’ve been using in my solo games and that I’ve been dedicating a lot of attention too. So much attention that it briefly flirted with being a PWYW zine (with the above cover made by the wonderful CosmicOrrery), but I discovered I didn’t really care to release it in that format. I still thank Sean Smith for the generous offer of proofreading and the support from Tristyn, Caleb and Ven. I did create a bunch of tools for it that I will release here in the blog, so everyone can use it.

This is what I’ve been using for solo OSR, built on top of both Into the Odd and World of Dungeons, with inspiration from Justin Hamilton’s Primeval 2d6. Consider it my house rules for all of them.

Thoughts on Horror Roleplaying: Clues Behind Rolls

The clue is the heart of traditional horror roleplaying, which is mostly thought of as investigative gameplay. Whether you are trying to solve a mystery or collect information to know how to eradicate a threat, the clue is the basic unit of play as much as treasure is the unit of adventure gaming. That’s true regardless if the agreed playstyle is a streamlined thing matching the rhythms and beats of dramatic horror fiction, or if it is a sandbox with many mysteries to be uncovered and survived in a pace not unlike adventure games.

So how do I prefer to handle clues? It depends on what game I’m running. It also depends whether I’m giving clues regardless of a roll or if I aren’t.

Design Preferences Rooted in Anxiety and Depression

This is a really specific thought.

Wondering what else interests me in a roleplaying text besides the aesthetic it evokes on me for playing, I stumbled on the issue of rules and usability on the table. Usability will strike in different flavors for different people. Took me a while to realize that my experiences with mental illness have defined my approach both in selecting rules to play and creating my own. Likely will continue to.

Thoughts on Horror Roleplaying: Player Agendas

There’s more theory and advice for GMs of horror campaigns than for players for the same reason there’s more advice for GMs in general: it’s the bigger share of the market. But while trad and adventure gaming have a few advice manuals for players, and storygames make a living of stating player principles and stances, traditional horror games feel a bit wanting, I fear. Storygame horror has material, but that’s because the players in those are often operating in a level very different from the investigator in trad horror.