Links of the past week. 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.
This is the last day to do the D&D Research Wizards Tabletop RPG 2021-2022 Survey and get your views included!
Unlawful Games gives us D100+ Goblin Generator
Tabletop Curiosity Cabinet writes Fuck 5 room dungeons. (Or don't, I don't know what you like) - on the structure of adventures.
Decisive Combat on Dreaming Dragonslayer.
Illustrations from: Tales of the Barber Surgeon (Public domain art-share) on CoffeeGremlin's Grotto.
"What does my new Spellbook look like?" d86 table for Knave, Cairn and other 'unique spellbooks as objects' systems by u/EndlessPug
Game Theory and Uncertainty on Knight at the Opera.
Lost Eons is solarpunk sci-fantasy on itch.io.
31 January 2022
29 January 2022
How Many Heroes? Alternate Worldbuilding Demographics
I wanted to build a new 'leveled characters curve' from the D&DBeyond and other datasets of the players we have and see how it compares to other approaches.
Riffing off Grumpy Wizards recent 'how many wizards' post I wanted to talk about how many I ended up calculating - using the 3.5e rules since there is enough in the rulebooks to model from there. My old go-to's were this 'Demographics of Heroism' post from Adventurer, Conqueror, King and this 'How special are you? A guideline for determining character rarity.' on r/DNDBehindTheScreen using ELO levels from chess to estimate progression rates. I suggest we can also use a third approach, taking the data from D&D Beyond, OGANM and AideDND character building tools which give us an indication of level progression among players.
The gameable Joesky tax is the table, the crunch of where it came from is at the bottom if you like. Assuming that 3% of your population has a 'rare' class (from the 3.5e DMG) then the following is your table that drops out for what level is that random adventurer, assuming it maps to player level progression stats:
Given how few are above 15th level our d100 fails us so we get to reroll on the table below for what level exactly this mighty hero is.
Riffing off Grumpy Wizards recent 'how many wizards' post I wanted to talk about how many I ended up calculating - using the 3.5e rules since there is enough in the rulebooks to model from there. My old go-to's were this 'Demographics of Heroism' post from Adventurer, Conqueror, King and this 'How special are you? A guideline for determining character rarity.' on r/DNDBehindTheScreen using ELO levels from chess to estimate progression rates. I suggest we can also use a third approach, taking the data from D&D Beyond, OGANM and AideDND character building tools which give us an indication of level progression among players.
The gameable Joesky tax is the table, the crunch of where it came from is at the bottom if you like. Assuming that 3% of your population has a 'rare' class (from the 3.5e DMG) then the following is your table that drops out for what level is that random adventurer, assuming it maps to player level progression stats:
| Level | d100 |
|---|---|
| 1 | 1-24 |
| 2 | 25-42 |
| 3 | 43-56 |
| 4 | 57-66 |
| 5 | 67-74 |
| 6 | 75-80 |
| 7 | 81-85 |
| 8 | 86-89 |
| 9 | 90-91 |
| 10 | 92-94 |
| 11 | 95-95 |
| 12 | 96-96 |
| 13 | 97-97 |
| 14 | 98-98 |
| 15 | 99-99 |
| 16+ | 100-100 |
Given how few are above 15th level our d100 fails us so we get to reroll on the table below for what level exactly this mighty hero is.
| Level | d100 |
|---|---|
| 16 | 1-32 |
| 17 | 33-56 |
| 18 | 57-75 |
| 19 | 76-89 |
| 20 | 90-100 |
26 January 2022
Review: A Fabled City of Brass
tl:dr; Fabled City of Brass is a beautiful, atmospheric high level site for adventure.
Something I stumbled over trawling Lulu, Anthony Huso's The Fabled City of Brass is an alternative to the fierce city of Efreet commonly portrayed, one that returns to original inspirations like the Thousand and One Nights, to weave a place "of spectral beauty and foreboding. It is a city with a lesson; filled with empty streets, great riches, automatons, illusions and death. Here is a module to hurl characters of 12th level and higher against. You will either break them or turn them into legends on par with the City of Brass."
Pitched for 'high-level first edition play' what we get is something that captures the atmosphere of a quasi-dream abandoned mythic city. Split into two books - the map key and the appendices - first impression is of the gorgeous art. The poster map for the city can be seen here on Huso's Blue Bard blog to give you a sense of it. Together with the polished presentation there is an awareness of playability at the table that is encapsulated by the appendices being a seperate document. This lets you avoid having to flip back and forth from the key to treasures or monsters and serves to illustrate the attention to detail put into this.
Something I stumbled over trawling Lulu, Anthony Huso's The Fabled City of Brass is an alternative to the fierce city of Efreet commonly portrayed, one that returns to original inspirations like the Thousand and One Nights, to weave a place "of spectral beauty and foreboding. It is a city with a lesson; filled with empty streets, great riches, automatons, illusions and death. Here is a module to hurl characters of 12th level and higher against. You will either break them or turn them into legends on par with the City of Brass."
Pitched for 'high-level first edition play' what we get is something that captures the atmosphere of a quasi-dream abandoned mythic city. Split into two books - the map key and the appendices - first impression is of the gorgeous art. The poster map for the city can be seen here on Huso's Blue Bard blog to give you a sense of it. Together with the polished presentation there is an awareness of playability at the table that is encapsulated by the appendices being a seperate document. This lets you avoid having to flip back and forth from the key to treasures or monsters and serves to illustrate the attention to detail put into this.
24 January 2022
Shiny TTRPG links #52
Links of the past week. 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.
The D&D Research Wizards Tabletop RPG 2021-2022 Survey which is open to the end of January.
Lizardman Diaries documents the progress of Empyrean Dynasty - 23 players grand sci fi strategy game!
Great piece on tweaking 5e to give more old-school feel in Setting up Undermountain: Rules and Philosophy from Dreams in the Lich House
Some FLAILSNAILS Observations - The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly on Ravenous Ambience - as someone who missed the original FLAILSNAILS boat this is a great primer to what is good, what is tricky about it all
Review of Real Star Frontiers POD edition on Elfmaids & Octopi with some great 'how would I run this today' thoughts.
Getting practical Spriggans Den writes How to start your personal dynastic war.
Beasts of Burden by weaver.skepti.ch.
The D&D Research Wizards Tabletop RPG 2021-2022 Survey which is open to the end of January.
Lizardman Diaries documents the progress of Empyrean Dynasty - 23 players grand sci fi strategy game!
Great piece on tweaking 5e to give more old-school feel in Setting up Undermountain: Rules and Philosophy from Dreams in the Lich House
Some FLAILSNAILS Observations - The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly on Ravenous Ambience - as someone who missed the original FLAILSNAILS boat this is a great primer to what is good, what is tricky about it all
Review of Real Star Frontiers POD edition on Elfmaids & Octopi with some great 'how would I run this today' thoughts.
Getting practical Spriggans Den writes How to start your personal dynastic war.
Beasts of Burden by weaver.skepti.ch.
22 January 2022
Review of Books 2021
Inspired by Xeno's Ramblings and Throne of Salt's book reviews - I had a bumper year for reading in 2021. Combination of no travel and the need to sit still an be a cushion for a small person gave ample time to crush books.
I will briefly praise GoodReads for allowing me to easily track what the hell I actually read this year because it was a surprisingly long year. The following were all read with an eye for pacy tales that can distract and entertain given the dreadful year that was in it. Below will be a round up of the gamebooks read and reviewed over the year.
The great find this year was The Drawing of the Dark (1979) by Tim Powers - this was my sleeper hit. I was not expecting much and found something great - an historic fantasy novel where in 1529 mercenary Brian Duffy is hired in Venice to go to Vienna and work as a bouncer at an inn and brewery - but from his journey north it turns out that far greater mystic forces are in play and we get a hugely entertaining tale where the siege of Vienna is the stage for Eastern and Western magicians to struggle over the spiritual center of the West, which happens to be that inn and brewery. I like how historical characters and famous myth was worked in, I find it is not normally done well but here it was great.
The big set I read was the sci-fi swashbuckling of the Vorkosigan saga (1986-2016 for the main novels) - tipped off by a friends reviews I started and then ripped through the whole series starting with Falling Free, then Shards of Honour, Barrayar, the Warriors Apprentice, Vor Game, Cetaganda, Ethan of Athos, Brothers in Arms, Mirror Dance, Memory, Komarr, A Civil Campaign, Diplomatic Immunity, Captain Vorpatrils Alliance, and Cryoburn up to Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen. Except for the last, which feels tacked on, they are a great bunch of tales. Most I read in close to single sittings. Shards of Honour & Barrayar are fun tales of sci-fi and intrigue but from Warriors Apprentice onwards we switch to the hyperactive main character who takes the series onwards - following Miles Vorkosigan as he more or less over-runs his troubles with bluff and sheer kinetic energy is a very good time.
I also fished out all the short-stories within the sequence Mountains of Mourning, Weatherman, Labyrinth, Borders of Infinity, Winterfair Gifts, Flowers of Vashnoi of which Weatherman is very good and the rest are a nice time to spend with the characters if you enjoy their company.
I will briefly praise GoodReads for allowing me to easily track what the hell I actually read this year because it was a surprisingly long year. The following were all read with an eye for pacy tales that can distract and entertain given the dreadful year that was in it. Below will be a round up of the gamebooks read and reviewed over the year.
The great find this year was The Drawing of the Dark (1979) by Tim Powers - this was my sleeper hit. I was not expecting much and found something great - an historic fantasy novel where in 1529 mercenary Brian Duffy is hired in Venice to go to Vienna and work as a bouncer at an inn and brewery - but from his journey north it turns out that far greater mystic forces are in play and we get a hugely entertaining tale where the siege of Vienna is the stage for Eastern and Western magicians to struggle over the spiritual center of the West, which happens to be that inn and brewery. I like how historical characters and famous myth was worked in, I find it is not normally done well but here it was great.
The big set I read was the sci-fi swashbuckling of the Vorkosigan saga (1986-2016 for the main novels) - tipped off by a friends reviews I started and then ripped through the whole series starting with Falling Free, then Shards of Honour, Barrayar, the Warriors Apprentice, Vor Game, Cetaganda, Ethan of Athos, Brothers in Arms, Mirror Dance, Memory, Komarr, A Civil Campaign, Diplomatic Immunity, Captain Vorpatrils Alliance, and Cryoburn up to Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen. Except for the last, which feels tacked on, they are a great bunch of tales. Most I read in close to single sittings. Shards of Honour & Barrayar are fun tales of sci-fi and intrigue but from Warriors Apprentice onwards we switch to the hyperactive main character who takes the series onwards - following Miles Vorkosigan as he more or less over-runs his troubles with bluff and sheer kinetic energy is a very good time.
I also fished out all the short-stories within the sequence Mountains of Mourning, Weatherman, Labyrinth, Borders of Infinity, Winterfair Gifts, Flowers of Vashnoi of which Weatherman is very good and the rest are a nice time to spend with the characters if you enjoy their company.
19 January 2022
The Learning Curve or Cutting New DMs Some Slack
tl;dr: campaigns that fail are part of getting good at DM'ing.
My big point here is that folk who joined before the 5e era joined younger and got in a lot more practice before arriving in their 20s (now). Someone starting in their 20s today is being presented with high expectations from Critical Role and other places straight out of the gate. If you are starting today, give yourself room to try things and fail in interesting ways.
In short, if you are setting out as a DM:
- go easy on yourself, less than perfection is still a good time
- be ready for things to go horribly wrong
- brief your players on what they are in for
- flag things you are testing and let decisions on new rules, mechanics, direction be two way doors
I had some thoughts that struck me in the small hours of the night as I pondered what the age up of new-joiners means.
- for the first decades of the game (70s-2000s), people joined as early teens
- a teen gamer, something like I was, has lots of time to pour into their hobbies
- once I found a group to game with, we put 15 hours a week on our TTRPGs alone - mostly in marathon sessions given our transport issues
- by the time I hit 18, I probably had ~2000 hours of table play time done
- once I hit college, I got straight into the games society, got involved in more games and did more, shorter games
- exiting college, I had probably added another ~1500 hours of gaming at least
- taking the ~10,000 hours-to-mastery rule, I was about 1/3 of the way there
Today, according to all these surveys, someone coming to gaming in their 20s:
- is typically getting in a weekly game of around 5.5 hours per session
- this puts them playing ~ 300 hours a year, assuming they play every week
- as a rough estimate they will be 27 by the time they have clocked the same table time as that teen gamer had when they hit 18
You can see the numbers to back this up below, but skipping to the 'so what' for now:
My big point here is that folk who joined before the 5e era joined younger and got in a lot more practice before arriving in their 20s (now). Someone starting in their 20s today is being presented with high expectations from Critical Role and other places straight out of the gate. If you are starting today, give yourself room to try things and fail in interesting ways.
In short, if you are setting out as a DM:
- go easy on yourself, less than perfection is still a good time
- be ready for things to go horribly wrong
- brief your players on what they are in for
- flag things you are testing and let decisions on new rules, mechanics, direction be two way doors
I had some thoughts that struck me in the small hours of the night as I pondered what the age up of new-joiners means.
- for the first decades of the game (70s-2000s), people joined as early teens
- a teen gamer, something like I was, has lots of time to pour into their hobbies
- once I found a group to game with, we put 15 hours a week on our TTRPGs alone - mostly in marathon sessions given our transport issues
- by the time I hit 18, I probably had ~2000 hours of table play time done
- once I hit college, I got straight into the games society, got involved in more games and did more, shorter games
- exiting college, I had probably added another ~1500 hours of gaming at least
- taking the ~10,000 hours-to-mastery rule, I was about 1/3 of the way there
Today, according to all these surveys, someone coming to gaming in their 20s:
- is typically getting in a weekly game of around 5.5 hours per session
- this puts them playing ~ 300 hours a year, assuming they play every week
- as a rough estimate they will be 27 by the time they have clocked the same table time as that teen gamer had when they hit 18
You can see the numbers to back this up below, but skipping to the 'so what' for now:
17 January 2022
Shiny TTRPG links #51
Links from the link mines! 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.
The D&D Research Wizards Tabletop RPG 2021-2022 Survey which is open to the end of January.
Gorbels on Goblinpunch. Wizards bootstrapping interaction with the 4th dimension and its terrible hazards. Always read Goblinpunch.
Knight, or, rehousing the murder hobo on Rise Up Comus.
The Lizard Man Diaries writes up their entertaining FKR game in "Empyrean Dynasty Game 1, Turn 1, 10'000 years of Post Earth History!"
Sum of Misunderstandings on Weaver.skepti.ch - or why the PCs are the heroes, not the NPCs
17th Century Character Starter on The Luminescent Lich - a great set of backgrounds
What are the Peasant Children Doing? (d84) on Chartopia
Tumblr RPG community Recommendations from Lawful Goodness
The Hobbit and how it describes something very like OSR play on Wandering Gamist
The D&D Research Wizards Tabletop RPG 2021-2022 Survey which is open to the end of January.
Gorbels on Goblinpunch. Wizards bootstrapping interaction with the 4th dimension and its terrible hazards. Always read Goblinpunch.
Knight, or, rehousing the murder hobo on Rise Up Comus.
The Lizard Man Diaries writes up their entertaining FKR game in "Empyrean Dynasty Game 1, Turn 1, 10'000 years of Post Earth History!"
Sum of Misunderstandings on Weaver.skepti.ch - or why the PCs are the heroes, not the NPCs
17th Century Character Starter on The Luminescent Lich - a great set of backgrounds
What are the Peasant Children Doing? (d84) on Chartopia
Tumblr RPG community Recommendations from Lawful Goodness
The Hobbit and how it describes something very like OSR play on Wandering Gamist
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