tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16191071225704577122024-03-05T01:57:20.734-08:00Axes and OrcsA blog about elfgames.
Nazis & Terfs can fuck off.
Ian Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05585316796421964527noreply@blogger.comBlogger191125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1619107122570457712.post-77021546794857736122024-01-05T08:55:00.001-08:002024-01-05T08:55:26.692-08:00Of Urbanity in Troika! This was sparked by someone asking about Orbital Intelligence's crapland. which is about crappy suburbian.I jokingly call it a crappy suburb of Troika! (the city) or of whatever sphere/city Prismot implies (or both are suburbs of Troika! (the city)).Ian Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05585316796421964527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1619107122570457712.post-52641481904143431342022-09-19T10:03:00.000-07:002022-09-19T10:03:22.495-07:00Metaphor From a Boruch, a poet, about her pottery teacher—form is finally about what's not in a piece...If the rules are metaphors for the game, same poet this time talking about Dickins, "telling the truth but tell it slant," then—stretching the metaphor... about metaphor, rules are an imperfect reflection of the game. Ian Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05585316796421964527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1619107122570457712.post-12489455510393314462022-07-25T00:00:00.000-07:002022-07-25T09:05:28.938-07:00Dot Dungeon
Dot Dungeon
".dungeon is a
tabletop roleplaying game with mechanics inspired by social games
like Werewolf and Munchkin where the real world (and you as a person)
affect the game. The world of .dungeon is inspired by MMO's, both
fictional (like .hack//sign) and real (Guild Wars 2) and is set in a
mysterious game engine that is growing and feeding on itself,
ever-changing."
—.dungeon Ian Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05585316796421964527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1619107122570457712.post-61977281634978968762022-07-22T20:27:00.000-07:002022-07-22T20:27:08.459-07:00Robotech
>...the Robotech RPG took an anime series about love and music and
humanity with an interstellar war as a backdrop, and made a sci-fi
military game with giant robots.
—Ewen Cluney,
Yaruki Zero, pg 54
the foundational
idea of the "rules elide" thing is that one way a text can
communicate that a topic is Boring is by making a rule. its boring to
describe the specific techniques of Ian Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05585316796421964527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1619107122570457712.post-16329591855354153922022-07-19T14:38:00.002-07:002022-07-19T14:38:28.796-07:00Does System Matter? Does System Matter?This is one of those overdone and contentious topics. Prone to heavy discourse and bad faiths reads. One in which words get put into opposing mouths for the purpose of shutting them out and factional signaling. Honestly, I don't know anyone who's ever in actual seriousness said "system doesn't matter," but this is just setting the stage for the rest of this post.So does Ian Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05585316796421964527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1619107122570457712.post-45434282178075610532022-07-07T08:34:00.002-07:002022-07-07T08:34:43.315-07:00Rogues ruined DnD In this essay I will make the declaration that things went down hill when TSR made Thieves and Bards Rogue subclasses.Although we could point to beginning of the decline with allowing any and all classes to have Dexterity improve Armor Class.These show the change from loveable ammoral assholes stealing to halfling in a pvc suit stabbing people for one million damage, and still stealing Ian Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05585316796421964527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1619107122570457712.post-1489081012580674142022-06-28T10:23:00.006-07:002022-06-28T10:23:51.918-07:00Old School Wargame Combat Resolution This is an old thing I wrote last year I found looking for another thing I wrote.
Fun thing I noticed a month ago around February of 2021 is that the old D&D turn undead
tables are attack matrices from wargames. This is probably not news
to really old people.
So I propose this
matrix, which no one asked for. You must roll equal to or less than
the listed number on 2d6 to deal a blow Ian Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05585316796421964527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1619107122570457712.post-31190472898297140722022-06-22T13:17:00.003-07:002022-06-22T13:17:00.149-07:00So what is the OSR (again again) Hackmaster
4th edition is not OSR. Ignoring that it predates the OSR slightly,
maybe. It wasn't written to be OSR. It's a retroclone, but it was
written as a parody that is also a functional, if ridiculously
overwrought, game. Can it run Keep on the Borderlands with minimal
conversion? I want to say yes since Keep is for Basic, which includes
Holmes basic a simplification of sorts of Ian Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05585316796421964527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1619107122570457712.post-17889488842334446032022-06-22T13:17:00.001-07:002022-06-22T13:17:00.149-07:00Can the OSR Die? Simply put, yes.But the bigger question is, is it dying, or even should it die.Is it dying? On the whole the scenes that are the OSR is in total, 20 years. If you break it down into waves, phases or schools, each could be considered to last between 5 and 10 years with overlap since different schools diverge while still being "OSR." But it's still here, and since this is not even third time Ian Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05585316796421964527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1619107122570457712.post-32721494683144085772022-06-15T10:03:00.001-07:002022-06-15T10:03:03.328-07:00Artificial Difficulty Is any difficulty a reviewer or player doesn't like. All difficulty in games is artificial since games aren't reality.Ian Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05585316796421964527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1619107122570457712.post-12940002444738979282022-01-28T11:29:00.006-08:002022-06-15T10:03:27.840-07:00How to Demonitize Your HobbyStep One Don't put a price tag on anything you make publicly available Addendum Steps The stance that the hobby is a monolith, especially a monolith centered on the production of wares, is a myopic one. Therefore:Avoid ttrpg twitter as people are mostly talking design and selling things. Lament goggle plus going away. Ian Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05585316796421964527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1619107122570457712.post-17953403250346146582021-11-23T12:13:00.000-08:002021-11-23T12:13:02.597-08:00The Holiday Sales Season Instead of some cutesy pithy play on "Black Friday" I bundled up all the products that we have printed on cards with a hefty 69% (nice) off calling it the "Holiday Cards" bundle. Most of these products are only available through Drivethru. It's not like I have fat stacks of cards taking up space because they are all POD but still, I did put a fair bit of effort into setting them up months Ian Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05585316796421964527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1619107122570457712.post-82423290802027839962021-11-18T16:15:00.002-08:002021-11-18T16:15:28.112-08:00Updates WellI have 3.5 projects in drafts.One is a book for Aetherjack (so technically Troika).One is a book for Troika, but it's teetering on the edge for being dumpstered totally.One point Five is a collaboration and a build-on of a prior project of mine.Annd I have one book for Aetherjack that's laid-out for printing but even if I decide to print it will be next year. Shrug might even do Ian Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05585316796421964527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1619107122570457712.post-71389884442495170252021-08-19T08:49:00.000-07:002021-08-19T08:49:16.449-07:00Upon Sir Gawain And The Green Knight Last night I watched the A24 movie, The Green Knight. It was moody. Talking with my spouse the closest to other films I seen with a similar feel would be Pan's Labyrinth.It's slow. Moody. I dunno if arty is a good word but it feels correct. In any case I enjoyed. It's on my buy list for later.No onto how it deviates from the source material the alliterative poem Sir Gawain and the Ian Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05585316796421964527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1619107122570457712.post-42256920287691289282021-08-17T22:21:00.001-07:002022-07-19T09:16:20.509-07:00Murderhome Note: I am not going to edit this for smoothness or coherency. There may be some redundant statements.On Wanderhome, a Belonging Outside of Belonging storygame. A game that the author, Jay Dragsky has repeatedly said is not a wholesome game. A game that is repeatedly touted as "ghibli-esque" or "ghibli-inspired." I've been reading Wanderhome. Slowly. Piece by piece. The Veteran Ian Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05585316796421964527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1619107122570457712.post-46414513242515801382021-08-16T18:14:00.002-07:002021-08-16T18:14:43.550-07:00System does not MatterSetting matters.System is part of the setting.If Gygax and Arneson had been bigger space nerds, Dungeons and Dragons would be like Space Dildos or something, and the system you know as Dungeons and Dragons would be considered a scifi system and not a fantasy system.If the dudes at Game Designers' Workshop had instead of writing a 2d6 vs 8 with dice modifiers etc etc for space fiction wrote it Ian Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05585316796421964527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1619107122570457712.post-53687546026398795822021-08-02T10:15:00.000-07:002021-08-02T10:15:02.947-07:00Troika List UpdateHappy Monday Yall I've done some updates to the Troika List.Adding new things.Cleaning up links.A few titles had name and link changes, so I fixed those.Added a bunch of drivethru only products.At some point in the future I may split all the sections into separate pages and use the main page as TOC, or maybe get into this carrd thing that all the kids are into.Ian Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05585316796421964527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1619107122570457712.post-33700811469680023292021-03-23T21:30:00.007-07:002021-03-24T19:59:39.390-07:00A Review of Sorts of Brian Yaksha's "The Catlands Jazzband Gazeteer" Brian Yaksha's "The Catlands Jazzband Gazeteer" is a setting book, intended specifically for Troika! but hey, its mostly tables about things and people and happenings. So you can use it for basically anything.So you see the cover and it's got some cute cat pictures, most of the art is cute. This is gonna be cute and light hearted right? HAHA.No. Catland not someplace you want to be; it's Ian Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05585316796421964527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1619107122570457712.post-65296211745214887662020-12-19T11:30:00.001-08:002022-06-15T10:05:36.546-07:00joesky taxIs just gatekeepery lazy grog wankery
Having read this, you must pay the Toll. Ian Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05585316796421964527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1619107122570457712.post-7724069236274384072020-12-09T16:34:00.000-08:002022-06-15T10:05:33.194-07:00What do you do with Ultraviolet Grasslands? This isn't going to be particularly in depth or ordered because idc. This is my blog not a scholarly forum.I backed the kickstarter. I own the standard physical book. I like Luka a fair amount. And this isn't going to be a rate and review.This is going to probably be continually added to because that's just how my brain works. the longer I have UVG the less I think I like it?too much Ian Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05585316796421964527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1619107122570457712.post-89273357016728976342020-08-22T13:08:00.005-07:002022-06-15T10:06:48.743-07:00What is the OSR? Who is OSR?This is a broad response to the replies that crop up every time someone wants to get into the OSR scene that I've seen over 7 years. And that is to point to specific bloggers and their opinions or the OSR Principia doc and the like.
A few months ago I saw a response along the lines of: this is totally different from how we did it 30 years. And this is the scraped twitter thread I did with no Ian Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05585316796421964527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1619107122570457712.post-62917276042270885012020-08-20T15:39:00.010-07:002021-08-17T22:24:24.417-07:00Scarlet Heroes w/ PathfinderThere are two possible assumptions I see in one aspect of Scarlet Heroes. Damage and monster hit points are scaled down coarsely by 1/4. And a lone PC is roughly 1/4 of an assumed party size. In the context of grognard d&d, a party isn't always assumed to be only 4 or so PCs. B1 3-8 PCs and/or hirelines total. At the risk of coming off poorly, I won't be pulling through my modules for Ian Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05585316796421964527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1619107122570457712.post-73927672552180430812020-08-14T12:07:00.000-07:002021-03-24T20:03:21.888-07:00[Review] Prismot: A Troikawave ZinePrismot is written by Jared Sinclair with art & layout by Micha Anderson.
This is as the title suggests, another Troika! zine. It has art of a digital collage type, with some nudity, the compositing done to '80-'90ificate the stock images. Across 12 pages it has 6 backgrounds, assembly instructions for the magical three-dee glasses, a table of random 90's trash, 6 spells, 2 monsters, and Ian Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05585316796421964527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1619107122570457712.post-75119285255973910352020-07-18T08:12:00.007-07:002022-06-15T10:06:03.682-07:00Grog Gamers & "Selling Out" in "Hustle Culture"When we, and by we I mean small creators who are were or still are very poor, as in folk starving at the worst, to at best discount bread store and thrift shop clothes; when see folk with better jobs who speak from places of ignorance, such as bald face saying they don't know shit and to flip burgers instead, that reads to us that they don't give a fuck as the best reading to actively want us to Ian Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05585316796421964527noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1619107122570457712.post-72898521370544320072020-07-13T09:53:00.000-07:002021-06-06T07:58:36.887-07:00What's So Cool About Jam?Hey nerds,
Have you heard about this cool little game that I consider to be a hybrid of the very good Tunnel Goons, and the very classic old school game Traveller, What's So Cool About Outer Space?
One, check it out.
Two, check out the game jam on itch.io that I am hosting.
Three, feel deep within your soul the desire to write a hack, splat, adventure, idk a fucking essay, of What's So Cool Ian Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05585316796421964527noreply@blogger.com