Review: For Gold & Glory

tl:dr; a great retro-clone of AD&D, nicely laid out with well-chosen art framing all the rules and a bestiary in one book. As someone who started with that edition, it gets the feel right.

I picked up For Gold & Glory after it appeared on a couple of lists of faithful retroclones as the best 2e AD&D retroclone. This was my system back in the day though my books have long gone on to charity shops or others who wanted them. I thought it might be nice to have at least one set of those rules on my shelf in case I ever wanted to spin up Planescape in the original system again or run any of Huso's stuff like the Fabled City of Brass...

The additional kicker was that it was discounted on DriveThruRPG when I looked so obviously it was fate.

Print-on-demand copy, cover art by Walter Crane

First impression - the hit of the full nostalgia. This was a treat for me, like picking up a memory. Starting from the shape of the book being generally the same as the old Monstrous Manual to the formatting of the logo. Of all the OSR retro-clone stuff I have put my hands on this was the one that really hit the 'oh yeah, this brings me back' spot.

Shiny TTRPG links #60

Back at base and noting more shiny links from across the blogosphere. More can be found on the previous list found here. The original inspiration for all of this - weaver.skepti.ch End of Week links. You can find even more links on the weekly blogroll on r/OSR or a roundup of non-blog news on Third Kingdom Games roundup.

Eldritch Fields makes a Quick humanoid lair generator for wilderness stocking

Foreign Planets gives us a Universal Battle and War Framework

Republish of lost "PHILOTOMY’S Dungeons and Dragons Musings" on Save vs TPK

The Ways of Folk - A Template for Cultures, and an Example on Shadow & Fae

Abandoned Hireling thinks about "The Hit Dice Pool"

Also on shared resources, Prismatic Wasteland writes on Level Up Everyone and Everything

d20 Odd events at a nobles ball

1. 'Our people' - you are recognised by someone from your home location and invited to dance when a traditional song is played. Check to see how well you dance, gain a contact
2. Two guest are conversing loudly in an obscure foreign tongue. One of you knows that language and realises they are speaking gibberish, just words strung together without sense. Both of the strangers appear to be pretending to understand the other.
3. While snaffling a bottle of fine spirits, you notice a pair of other guests scurrying out to the gardens. You recall neither of them arriving with each other and turning you see their original partners searching the dance floor.
4. "What does this fellow have to say about it?" A group you pass opens and you find a half dozen of local political power-players in heated discussion. They demand your opinion on a relavent local issue. Bonus to the diplomacy roll if you have a real opinion. Low, they should have expected no better from commoners, mid, you get some grudging agreement from 2, dismissal from 2 and polite nods from the last 2. On a high success, the speakers think you a skilled partisan of the position you took - half now think you a solid fellow, half a dangerous element.
5. One of the hosts grabs you and presents their latest pride - homemade schnapps - a very limited batch. They insist you drink with them, it is terrible.
6. You come upon a game of chance being played where a young lady or man is playing with someone elses money. A fortune is on the table.
7. Introduced to a minor noble by one of the hosts you recognise the person from behind the counter at a stall you shopped at earlier. Who are they really and what are they up to?
8. Someone gives a stirring speech about an issue and it becomes the new cause celebre - unfortunately it is also the focus of the parties current plans and now all these people are going to be treading on their toes.
9. A marriage proposal is made on the balcony. Roll on a reaction table to see how the hosts take it.
10. The guest of honour is missing - they have gotten lost in the venue and someone needs to go find them

d12 Cyberpunk Corporate Arcology Snatch Complications

I see cyberpunk pieces written where the talent has to be extracted and its just a case of getting in, finding the guy or gal sitting quietly in their room and bundling them off. This does not gel with my experience of high corporate nonsense - nothing is ever that simple. With that in mind, here are a random table of complications when you manage to punch through to the residence of the corporates you are trying to extract.

Roll d12:
1. Target is not where they should be. All residents are to be found at a tournament at a central location. The highest local exec thinks it builds team morale for everyone to participate, whether they like it or not so everyone is there, intoxicated on various recreational substances and the target is unwilling to leave right now because they are finally on a winning streak.
2. Target is not where they should be. An impromptu pool party has been declared in the soon-to-be-equipped hydroponics lab. Most of the personnel are sitting in the tanks, intoxicated on various recreational substances. Atmosphere is mellow but unfinished section has incomplete sensors so they are all currently off the grid and unfindable. Sector appears deserted.
3. Target is home, hosting a party. Rooms are stuffed with entertainment hardware, music is so loud all communication with an audio component is impossible, group skews towards the junior personnel who are not savvy enough not to try and be heroes.
4. Target is home, but a major argument has broken out over a card game. The head of this quarters headline project has bludgeoned the chief financial officer with a flower planter and is being pinned down by the head of human resources while the chief of security and the chief medical officer are trying to staunch the bleeding. Security is already en route.
5. Target is not home, their residence looks like it has been ransacked. The trail of destruction leads to the local childrens creche which has been taken over and converted into a dance club. Music is loud, lighting is non-existent, dancers are under the influence of various recreational intoxicants.
6. Target is not at home. They are currently intoxicated on recreational substances and hunting scorpions with a blacklight along with the rest of their lab group in the nearest park/lab/hydroponics section. As this is a firing offense, they are all daubed with stealth coating and nothing else.
7. Target is home, with their family and four other neighbourhood families at this ungodly hour watching a major sporting even from another timezone. Everyone is wide awake and alert whatever time this is.
8. Target is home, currently in the ceiling splicing in their forbidden entertainment tap onto the main comms spine. Getting caught is a firing offense, so they have left no trace to where they went.
9. Target is not home, they and the rest of their group of friends are recreationally abseiling in a nearby cargo lift shaft that they have sabotaged for this purpose. As this is a firing offense, they have left all traceable electronics at home and are wearing home-built stealth suits.
10. Target is not home. Along with a group of peers they are celebrating an obscure saints day by consuming large amounts of recreational intoxicants and visiting every other resident nearby sequentially.
11. Target is not home. An operational emergency has all hands at their desks. This section is empty, noone has been here for the past 48 hours.
12. Target is home and in the middle of a major conference talk when encountered. Security is immediately alerted when the PC team appears in the background of their talk. There are approximately 6000 witnesses.

The incidents portrayed in this random table are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places and events is intended or should be inferred.

Shiny TTRPG links #59

A short set as this week I travelled. More can be found on the previous list found here. The original inspiration for all of this - weaver.skepti.ch End of Week links. You can find even more links on the weekly blogroll on r/OSR or a roundup of non-blog news on Third Kingdom Games roundup.

The Weird and Wonderful World of AI Art - always helpful for inspiration.

What has the canny odontic farmer sown, and into what will it grow? on HYOPHEXIA

Wolfram’s 4 colour theorem | Relationship mapping? by Goblin's Henchman

Waddling Donkeys - an encumbrance system on Weaver.skepti.ch

Review: Mostly Harmless Meetings

A delightful zine from Dan Sumption that Kickstarted in Dec 2021 - pitched as "A zine full of whimsical random encounters set in the countryside, suitable for most TTRPGs" it turned up today.

I am very pleased with the results, it has a nice heft to it, with ink-splotch designs and public domain art in a surprisingly solid feeling zine. The hand-addressed delivery envelope was a nice touch.

The contents within are a d100 table of countryside encounters that are, as the name says, mostly harmless. Laid out in alphabetical order, running from Ants and Ash trees to Wrens and Writers, each entry is a few lines, sometimes an adventure hook, sometimes a strange bit of lore associated with the creature or plant in question. A nice flavour injection for encounters or low stakes encounters by themselves.

I like it, I reckon it will find place at my table. A short, sweet zine, like this review.

3d10 Mechanus Encounters

tl;dr: things you can run into on the move in Mechanus. Tends more towards chaotic than the sites because they keep on the move.

Inspired by the old Monstrous Compendium II, the 3.5e Manual of the Planes and boosted by a sweep up of creatures that are lawful. Use these as the wandering component between hinter-cog sites described previously.

Roll 3d10