📚Knave 2e (my GM toolkit for sandbox campaigns) is live on Kickstarter!: bit.ly/Knave2e - Links to everything in the video: questingbeast.substack.com/p/the-glatisant-issue-39
That Red box Japanese Dnd thing is really interesting. I've always wondered about how some of the Japanese fantasy tropes from stuff like Dragon Quest and The Legend of Zelda originally came about and looking at stuff like early imports of Dungeons and Dragons and other fantasy tabletop RPGs from the 80's explains a lot.
Love how the Japanese D&D book illustrates the different class information; bag of wizard spells like Ben points out, the elf on a turtle showing they level slooow, and the halfling with situational AC bonus/harder to hit? The Underclocking article is interesting, and there is a lot of good discussion in that reddit post overall. Congrats on the KS!
The Angry GM has a similar notion of building tension. When the party does something time consuming, add a d6 to the pool where everyone can see it. When they do something reckless, roll the pool. When they do something reckless and time consuming add and roll. When a 1 gets rolled in the tension pool, it’s a complication. That could be a random encounter, the big bad does a thing that makes life harder for the PCs, or whatever. Angry has a very old school ‘do it because it makes sense and keeps it fun’ sensibility.
The OSR has so many cool little crevices and corners. I really appreciate the newsletter and having somewhere that it's all compiled and easy to go through. Great stuff as usual!
I'm loving these osr 'news' videos! i don't often find time to read the blog, so this is really nice for me to keep an ear to what's happening and an eye on all the cool stuff being put out
Wolves is amazing. The setting is based mostly in Beowulf with weird fiction. Every single play report I've read sold me on it and after trying it, I can see why. It's evocative and very well crafted hexcrawl, with several connections across the world. The travel mechanics are a source of a lot of story too. Is like The Isle across 200 hexes.
This is a really cool idea. Like an update on all cool things OSR - which can be hard to keep up with it without a compilation like this. I definitely check some of these out, specially the blogposts.
on the Underclock by Arnold K. tried in my last session Roll at least 2d6 for most things ( it's noted in the blog post but Ben didn't mention it in the video) and 3d6 if the players make noise! It's an amazing tool and for creating a sense of urgency! It always had my players discuss if they should hunker down or push whenever the clock would reach it's end!
Really love the subtract from 20 encounter idea. Maybe something crazy happens if you get into deep negatives on your last role. Also, backed Knave 2e. Can't wait.
The Rimspace planet generator is just so neat! I'm also excited to have backed Knave 2e. I'm someone who probably won't run the system, but want all of it for it's toolkit it offers.
the wotc pinkerton mess was the absolute last straw i packed up all of y 5e compatible books anndthis weekend i am taking them to a bookstore for dtore credit i backed knave 2e and tripled down on the osr
Brilliant stuff as always! Congrats on how well the kickstarter is going... I haven't played Knave or Maze Rats yet but I'm looking forward to the books.
really find it grimly surprising that pinkteron is still a thing, or at least never changed the name like Blackwater. i imagine some of them find it funny
A lot of WotC's decisions as of late make me think someone there or at Hasbro is just an overbearing and impulsive executive. A bad boss who resents a lack of control, and responds to anything they don't like through trying to force compliance or demand capitulation. Only for the consequences of their actions to be far worse for the company than if they'd just been reasonable. The Dragonlance novel kerfuffle. The OGL. Now this. It seems so consistently bull-headed, it's hard to believe there isn't just one out-of-touch rich guy who treats WotC like a low rent mob boss.
You don't suppose WotC is playing 4D chess and want the old fan base to leave them alone so they don't have to honor the agreement of putting the older editions under Creative Commons, do you? This Pinkerton stunt just might work.
Copy pasted from one of the reddit post responses. For the illustrations from 5:03 Fighter The fighter is the superstar of D&D!! ...but he's not very smart. "Hey! Do your damn job!" Magic User Your choice of spells form a dramatic crossroads. Without magic, you're just some guy. (The golf clubs say Fireball, Levitate, Lightning, Barrier, Illusion, and "Raria" (possibly lasso? not sure)) [my comment here; from the forgotten realms wiki lassos were called Lariats] Cleric The cleric can't use edged weapons... "I'm pretty sure shaving is fine." (The sigh says "No Edged Weapons") ...but they do have the power to protect the party from wounds and the undead. Thief The nimble thief is like a magnet for treasure... ...and they're the quickest to level up. "One day I'm going to run my own guild." Elf Elves: Can fight. Can cast spells. Are smart. Are long-lived. ...but good god do they level up slowly. Dwarf Dwarves are short...but tough! "How...?" "You see...it's because we eat rocks." (That was a lie.) Halfling Halflings are hard to hit. But as far as I'm concerned, without strength, dexterity, or constitution, they're worthless. "Hi-ho!"
