Tabletop Gaming Feeds

Packing up and heading to the Philadelphia Area Gaming Expo.

I’ll be running Scourge of the Demon Wolf and The Deceits of the Russet Lord on Friday and Saturday, and I’ll be sharing my thoughts on the State of the OSR during a panel on Thursday morning.

Hope to see some of you there!

 Yes, Wretched Darkness and The Invisible College can work together quite effectively for a campaign. They share a common "DNA" in terms of mechanics and atmosphere, making them one of the easier crossovers to manage.However, it’s important to clarify which version of The Invisible College you are using, as there are two very different games with that name.1. Compatibility with The InvisibleNeedleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

The worst part of fandoms is loyalty to a fault.

Not passion. Not enthusiasm. Loyalty. The kind that treats criticism as betrayal and assumes that admitting a bad product is the same as admitting personal failure. When something you like becomes part of your identity, any flaw stops being a design problem and starts feeling like an attack.

That reflex poisons honest discussion.

NuD&D benefited from this for a while. Every criticism was met with deflection. “It’s not for you anymore.” “You’re just resistant to change.” “You’re overreacting.” The goal was never to defend the quality of the product. It was to protect the emotional investment people had already made.

But loyalty cannot generate enthusiasm. It can only suppress dissent.

Looking back now, NuD&D did not spark excitement. It did not create defining arguments or memorable moments. It did not inspire players to care enough to keep fighting over it. Instead, it relied on goodwill accumulated from decades of better work and expected that goodwill to do the heavy lifting.

That only works once.

Engagement drained away quietly. Not in protest. Not in outrage. Just absence.

And absence is fatal to a hobby.

My prediction for 2026 is not a collapse or a dramatic failure. It is something more mundane and more damning. NuD&D quietly exits the conversation. It remains on shelves. It remains technically alive. But it stops being discussed, argued over, or cared about in any meaningful way.

No backlash.
No redemption arc.
Just silence.

And silence is what happens when loyalty finally runs out of excuses.

 The Invisible College is a modern-day occult conspiracy tabletop RPG created by the RPGPundit (Kasimir Urbanski) and published in 2021 by Well of Urd Press. I've started rereading this rpg after watching The Red Room's older video. It is designed as an "authentic" magick simulator, meaning it draws heavily from real-world Western occult traditions, Hermeticism, and historical Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

 In the world of Castles & Crusades, a Barbarian encounter shouldn't just be a stat block—it should be a moment of high adventure, clashing steel, and primitive mystery.This table is designed for C&C’s "Attribute Check" system (the SIEGE Engine). Many of these encounters require Strength or Charisma saves (CL 1-10 depending on level) to navigate the physical or social dangers.D100 Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

In the process of creating GOZR, I left a bunch of stuff on the cutting room floor and changed a lot of it as I went along. Just the process of editing and what-not. Here's the original GOZR map vs. the final version.

Really happy I went this direction. The original map is fine, and I think if I had finished it up it would still look pretty good. But the final version feels more intuitive to me. The north-south direction of the river is a line that grounds the whole thing and helps place all the elements where they are supposed to be. To the east you have endless dunes and to the west you have endless badlands. Down south you got endless bogs and forests and up north... endless mountains. And there's the city right in the middle.

 

By Matt Kline
Creations' Edge Games
S&W
Levels 9-11

Merchant caravans passing through the valley known as The Walled Path have reported being attacked by roaming earth elementals and brigands with rock-hard skin. Signs point to the return of an evil cult…. [Shitty low-effort marketing blurb]

This fifteen page adventure uses about seven pages to describe ten rooms in a simple cultist cave. Garbage, as the french would say, [hey, foreign-folk, I was gonna be all cosmopolitan and shit and put an accent grave over the e, but I forgot how in WordPress. Oops. Sorry] with an uninspired and lame setup, mediocre writing, and nothing interesting on. [Shitty low-effort marketing summary]

For as much as I loathe my own continued existence, I do get to tell the same stories over and over again. Like, when a young little Bryce discovered this “OSR” thing, full of wonder and joy! And the forums! Full of people just as excited! And, look, a list of adventures to get, and the people say they are good! Except they were not good. They sucked ass. Boring adventures with mediocre, at best, writing. And, thusly, a tenfootpole. This adventure is a throwback to, what fifteen years ago? That same kind of nonsense I encountered back then, returned anew. [Shitty low-effort self aggrandizement]

Ohs nos! Some caravans have gone missing! The merchants guild hires your LEVEL ELEVENS!!! Jesus Christ man .. are you all winos? What he fuck, tired of killing the heads of all of the pantheons so yu’ve hiring out to the local merchants guild? For … 1000gp? Man, I’m not even pissing my pants, my own or someone else, for 1000gp if I’m level eleven. Fuck me, a level six in OD&D, is essentially unkillable, if the player isn’t dumb, as long as there isn’t a confusion spell or some shit. And these are level elevens. Sure thing. Oh, and if hiring out to the merchants guild, WHO GIVES YOU A PLANER SEAL, isn’t your kind of thing then the designer suggests that “Perhaps the group has agreed to serve as escorts for a caravan passing through The Walled Path when they come under attack by members of the cult.” You know what low effort means, right? Of course you do, you read this shit for some reason. And All of the bandits inside, like, I don’t know, eight bandits in total? are 9hd. That’s like lords in their own right, but, whatever.  [Shitty low-effort focus on non-adventure component.]

Shitty low-effort screen-grab

An entire page for the storage room. An entire backstory for the storage room. A shitty little uninspired read-aloud for a storage room. A group of bandits that appear a million words after the read-aloud with no other indication they are in the room. Oh, oh, and, for it being an entire page, the text in a DIFFERENT rooms reads: “The bandits here are used to breaking, cracking, and splintering noises coming from the north. There’s only a 20% chance each round of combat in Area 2 that they will wake and head north to investigate.” It’s a page long and you can’t even tell us IN THIS ROOM who reacts to noise from inside of it. There’s no fucking reason for ANY of this. You’re fucking level eleven man, have some self respect. What’s next, rats in the widows basement? What’s the use of any of this?! What’s the purpose?! [Shitty low-effort commentary without ending punctuation]

There isn’t one, is there? It’s just a shitty low-effort production. This is not a level eleven adventure. Or a level nine adventure. At BEST it’s a level one adventure. And, if I was playing in a new game and this was the level one adventure I’m not coming the fuck back for session two. There’s nothing here. Just stabbing some level nine bandits. Ohhh, they have STONE SKIN, so they have an AC three better than normal. Great. I am thrilled. Awe and wonder. Magical moments. Just turn the handle and crank out the shit man. Make it level eleven so, I don’t know, you can put in some earth elementals? I mean, they don’t really serve any purpose. All you do it’s stab everything in all of the rooms. And get your bags of 1,500 silver pieces. [Shitty low-effort attempt at a rant.]

This kind of shit robs the joy from the game of Dungeons & Dragons. [Shitty low-effort disguised ad hominin attack]

This is $1.50 at DriveThru. The preview is four pages. You get to see the setup, but nothing of the adventure. [Shitty low-effort preview.]

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/547794/children-of-the-stone-a-swords-wizardry-mini-dungeon?1892600 [Shitty Low-effort cash grab]

 

Lately, I've been thinking about my Scavengers of the Latter Ages idea, which is sort of a "hard" science fantasy setting, and reconsidering some aspects. Here's a new take on clerics in the setting:

"We of the Institute receive an intensive historical inculcation; we know the men of the past, and we have projected dozens of possible future variations, which, without exception, are repulsive. Man, as he exists now, with all his faults and vices, a thousand gloriously irrational compromises between two thousand sterile absolutes – is optimal. Or so it seems to us who are men."

- Jack Vance, The Killing Machine

Clerics are ordained individuals in the service of the Instrumentality of Humankind. The purpose of their order is the preservation of Humanity and its restoration as stewards of the Earth. To this end, they seek to discourage the worship of false gods such as digital minds and alien entities, and to limit and manage technologies that might alter humanity or thwart its destiny.

While the Instrumentality is technically a nonreligious entity, its organization and trappings mimic religious forms, and its exoteric teachings (officially allegorical) regarding the Earth Mother and the Primeval or Cosmic Man form the basis of a folk belief system, and this system, along with Instrumentality's ceremonies and rituals have developed into a civic religion in many places.

The Instrumentality is not a group of luddites, despite their goals. They hold technology must be understood and mastered, so that what is valuable maybe used for the benefit of humanity, but not it's transformation. They maintain, for instance, almost total control of advance healing techniques, and can wield terrible weapons if the need arises.

The Institute of Vance's Demon Princes series and the Church of Foster's Humanx Commonwealth are a big influence here but pushed in a more Dune direction by the Terran Chantry Ruocchio's Sun Eater series.

 Once an outpost for the Serpent Men of Valsuria this kingdom evolved into the Serpent Men Empire of Thutothmes after thousands of years. This kingdom has become a major center of trade for the Inner Earth. Thutothmes sits on the outer levels of the Atlantian City State of Vaar. This picks right up from here on the blog. NPC Profile: High Priest Thutothmes the Venom-Tongued is Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

NPC Profile: High Priest Thutothmes the Venom-TonguedThutothmes is a Lord of the Black Ring and a direct conduit to the will of Father Set. Unlike the brutish warriors of the cult, Thutothmes is a master of biological warfare, chemical manipulation, and the slow, psychological erosion of his enemies. He does not just kill; he unmasks the "inner serpent" within his victims. This blog post picks Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

 To help you populate the deserts, tombs, and shadowed alleys of your campaign, here is a d100 table of random encounters involving the Servants of Set and their reptilian allies.I have broken these down by "tier" or "flavor" so you can roll 1d100 or choose a category that fits the current vibe of your session. D100 Servants of Set & Serpentsd100Encounter TypeDescription01-10The LowNeedleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

In this post I pose the question "how do we get gooz babies?". Spoiler... I don't answer that question. I present possibilities. But the mystery stands. And even if I answer this question at some point in an RPG book or a comic, that doesn't mean it's true for your GOZR game. You know the drill... the game book isn't the game you play, the game you play is the game you play*.

So here's another question. If one of the possible answers is that gooz are created by some super-science machine, then why do gooz have genders at all and why do they display sexual traits? There are images of gooz in the book who clearly have mammalian breasts of the kind suitable for feeding little goozlings. Sure, you can say that they come out as wee babies, as the text implies, but then you need milkers to milk feed them.

But hell's bells... it's super-science. Surely the Pretty Ones are capable of engineering a method of feeding baby gooz that doesn't involve gooz boobs, right? Maybe. Maybe with them gone, that system is defunct. How you gonna feed these goozlings? It's complicated, right?

Look here... the gooz are clearly imperfect creatures. Some have three arms, for pete's sake. They have varying numbers of fingers. They come in all shapes and colors. The Pretty Ones, as advanced and magical as they were, weren't gods. They were fumbling around with arcane science and they created these dinky degenerate servants.

Gooz are DNA hot messes with Pretty Ones and many other creatures' genetic material in their bodies. We all know that nature is not neat and clean. Gooz are natural, right? They are messy. They have sex traits. Hell, even if they are born from machines, they probably also have sex now and then.

I think what seems clear, to me anyway, is that they don't have sex baggage. They aren't highly sexualized. They lean pretty hard in the "meh" direction with regards to sex and gender. "Whatever, pal." would be their response to these questions.

For myself, as an observer and chronicler of the ugly ones, this question is fascinating and I hope to explore it more in the future.

Also, maybe next time I can talk about actual gooz "love". Not just this sex stuff. Do gooz fall in love? Do they have life mates? I think you know that the answer is going to be "some do, some don't".

*A good friend ran a robust playtest adventure of GOZR before it was published and he completely ignored the entire setting. His adventure was in "Gooz York"... a kind of far future post-apoc New York. It was a hoot. 

Recently, Ben Milton of The Questing Beast made a video with this spicy thumbnail right here. There's usually a tagline like "we need to talk about Goodman Games" or something.

Ben looks like he tried to read a stereo manual from 1984.

I had to watch it. I love DCC! I ran several excellent campaigns years ago and have always found that game to be supremely entertaining, massively charming, and just a heller good time.

TL:DR: Ben feels DCC is too wordy, not useful at the table, and is stuck in the past. There's more to it, and Ben isn't entirely negative. Watch it yourself. Here's Ben responding to some of the criticisms.

EDIT: Ben frames his video in terms of the OSR. My diatribe below seems to ignore this fact. I don't think Ben is talking about all TTRPGs. But even within the OSR sphere only, I stand by these words.

 

Plenty of folks have responded to this video. Many have said things similar to what I'm about to say. But I wanted lay down my own take because Ben touches on some points that are pet peeves of mine, and I feel like there are some blind spots in his treatment.

1. THE TABLE ISN'T NECESSARILY THE ONLY PLAY SPACE

Ben's laser-focus has always been on an emergent, on-the-fly gaming style. I like this a lot. Many of my own game ideas are in this vein because I'm also an adult with other responsibilities and if I get a chance to run a game it's very nice to have something easy to just pull off the shelf and run with zero prep.

But zero prep is not the only way to play. And the prep phase of a game is still part of the game. Call it a pre-game if you want. It's not only a valid approach to game design, but one that many players strongly prefer.

If you have ever been a GM, then you remember what it felt like reading your first adventure module or scenario, understanding what the story was about, and then making plans for how to run it. For some, this is a chore they no longer savor. They want the bullet-point style. "Just give me the room contents in a list and shut up". I get it.

But for others... no. They want to read the adventure, then they want to sit with it, make notes, change some things, add new things... do the prep work. This, for them, is a fun part of playing the game.

2. THE LATEST WAY ISN'T THE BEST FOR EVERYONE

Ben assumes his gaming preference is - by default - the latest and greatest advancement in RPGs and older approaches are somehow outdated. I think it is because he is an educator and he absolutely loves emergent game play, not game prep. I really do understand this, and I enjoy that style too. But man I hate the attitude and the concept.

This isn't aimed at Ben... I enjoy his videos. They are super helpful and fun. He was very positive about my Black Pudding Heavy Helping and GOZR books, which was a big confidence boost for me.

No, this is aimed at the idea that old is badder and new is gooder that many in the RPG spaces seem to assume. I'm here to put into the public record that newer does not equal better. Innovation is super important, and new modes of play keep the fires burning. But unlike computer software, games from 1979 are still very playable, just as they always were. You might not enjoy them, but someone else damn sure does and they probably don't want you to bullet-point them.

Some GMs love to savor a meaty game text. Read it, understand it, then prepare to run it... that is fun for them.

If you don't enjoy prep work or reading wordier adventures... don't. It's fine. But if you do... then the advice that games should always embrace the bullet-point style is bad advice, isn't it?

3. THE SUGGESTED CHANGE COULD DESTROY DCC

Finally, I wanted to say that DCC RPG has a robust and rabid community of fans. If Goodman Games switched their approach to bullet-point adventures, I suspect no new players would give a shit and all the old fans would be turned off by it. Because that's not what DCC adventures are.

We have this baseline assumption that everything must evolve or die. I don't entirely agree. Change can be good, and necessary. But we're talking about hobby games here. This is comfort food for the soul for many, many people, myself included. I'm not into RPGs because I want to be on the cutting edge. I'm into them because they are part of my soul. And sometimes my soul wants to read flavor text and chunky adventures. DCC's style feeds that need. Sometimes I want something fast and emergent to run. OSE's style feeds that need, for example. We want both and all things in between.

 Adventurer Conqueror King System II (ACKS II) is the revised and expanded edition of the 2011 OSR (Old School Renaissance) role-playing game. It is designed to take characters from their first dungeon crawl all the way to ruling empires and leading massive armies.The game is famously "crunchy" but internally consistent, known for its robust economic engine that ensures the price of a sword,Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

Follow up to this post...

An idea I have for the inevitable GOZR revision or supplement is to change the Action Classes to Action Class Targets. ACTs rings better than ACs and is more direct. The definition is in the term.

For these kinds of revisions, I'm trying to avoid changing the game rules. I like the rules as they are. My main priority for any kind of revision or supplement is clarification with as few changes or revisions as possible.

For example, I have an idea to expand page 2 of the book to two pages (it's the first page of character creation). I have a fondness for that page but I recognize it is a bit scrunched and not quite as clear to new eyes as it is to mine. I'll rearrange it, expand the starting weapons table and symbols table. And so forth. Much of that work is already done, just needs cleaned up.

 This adventure is designed for a party of 3rd–5th level characters in Castles & Crusades. It leans heavily into the "Decadence and Decay" tropes of the genre.Adventure Hook: The Gilded WithdrawalThe decadent Satrap of Zul-Bazzar is dying. His addiction to the Black Lotus has withered his soul, and the city’s supply has run dry. Rumors speak of the Tomb of Queen Xylanthia, a Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

 In a Sword and Sorcery setting like those found in Castles & Crusades, the atmosphere should feel ancient, decadent, and dangerous. These items and descriptions are designed to add flavor to your dungeon crawls without necessarily providing mechanical "game-breaking" power.To use this table, roll 1d100 when the players search a room or a fallen foe.D100 Dungeon Dressing & MinorNeedleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

Just a quick follow up to this post... I completed a 13 page Hymla comic called "Eye Am". Right now I'm not sure where this will end up. I can just post it online, and that's fine. But I want it in print. I'm kicking around ideas such as Black Pudding Comics (various fantasy stuff) or a straight up Hymla comic book. If I manage to do a second story as long as this one, I'll probably just do a Hymla comic book. Time will tell, I guess.

Here's a page from it.

 

In GOZR, there is no mention of sex, romance, marriage, or any of that stuff. There's a pronouns table on page 2 and only 50% of the results are male/female. Clearly, gooz don't have the same sex and gender ideas or hang-ups that humans have. It doesn't seem to be much of an issue for them.

The book mentions "delicious gooz babies" in the creature section. The nasty Harawg-Zuul like to eat gooz babies, according to the lore. And in the Recent Events of Some Gravity table on page 26, one entry is "Baby Boom". It says: "Thousand goozlings born one night. In the distance creaking wings, ancient hungry devil!".

So the gooz aren't super hung up about sex and gender, but they do have little goozlings. Where do they come from?

Is it simply that gooz do hook up, bang, and pump out little gooz babies? But they're just not obsessed about it all? Or maybe gooz babies appear spontaneously where someone spilled some milk or honey? Or maybe there's a super-science device deep in Goozer City, built by the long-dead Pretty Ones, and it randomly creates new gooz?

In a little comic, seen below, I have a gooz mention his auntie. This would suggest some kind of familial hierarchy. But then again, one doesn't have to be related by blood to be an auntie. Maybe gooz aunties and uncles are honorary, not obligatory.

I'm just asking questions here. The mystery remains, for now.

File under: A bit of a ramble, isn't it?

Now and then I dust off GOZR and get fired up about it. I love the gooz! I adore them. I love this game. It's a game I created with as few constraints and expectations as possible. It was a liberating experience, and a ton of work.

I saw the ugly bastards in my mind, inspired by so many things I've seen over the years, and they took my hand in their calloused, bumpy hands and lead me into their world of simultaneous ugliness and exquisite beauty.

I wish I could maintain this level of enthusiasm for one thing all the time. I'd have already created a follow up tome and some adventures, at the least. And a comic. But that isn't how my brain works. I do what I can, when I can. I try to strike while the iron is hot. Often I fail.

But I didn't fail with GOZR. I made a good thing and put it into the world.

GOOZ ARE THE OTHER GUYS

Gooz are scum, riff-raff, sub-optimal. According to the lore they inherited, gooz were created by the Pretty Ones to serve them. But the Pretties are all dead (right?). Now gooz are on their own. They are the lowly ones, the ones that didn't have anything.

This is not the same kind of framing as a game about playing hired henchmen or torchbearers. Gooz would be in that category, but the heroes those folks aid are no longer around. This is a game of "what if the main characters all died?".

The gooz become the main characters. What does that even mean? I guess it's up to you.

GOOZ ARE UGLY

Hey, that's a nasty word, isn't it? Yeah, kinda is. But that's how the gooz were seen and that's the idea they inherited. Is it true? Are they really ugly? What does "ugly" even mean?

THE WORLD BELONGS TO THEM

For better or worse, these dinky degenerates run the show. What will they make of their world now? They're not perfect. They're degenerate, right? They have greed, violence, and pettiness just like anyone else. And they were thrust out on their own in a ruined world, quite suddenly it seems. This is a rough period for gooz. A transition. A bumpy ride. Where is it going? That is also up to you, the gamer who chooses to step into their world.

I am not sure what lies ahead for GOZR, for me. I have ideas. I have some new pages for the follow up book, tentatively titled GOZR RISING. Some of those pages have been sitting idle, finished for a couple of years. I'm slow, I tell you.

At this moment in time I am seriously thinking about a GOZR comic book... an obvious direction, and one that I had in mind all along. Hell, the game book itself is in comic book format (American comic book size). A GOZR comic book is not only obvious, it is perhaps inevitable. Unless I die before doing it.