The Other Side blog

Friday, June 21, 2013

Spellcraft & Swordplay Summer Sale!

Elf Lair Games (who also publish The Witch) are holding a summer sale. You can get their core rules product Spellcraft & Swordplay for half price and PDF thrown in!

Spellcraft & Swordplay Core rules

Spellcraft & Swordplay is a "what if" game. It uses the original combat resolution from 0e and the best of the OGL to create a new game with an old school feel. It is one my favorite old-school games to be honest. I own a hard copy and the limited edition boxed set. All you need is this book, some friends and a couple of d6s for everyone.

If you have been curious about this game then this is the time to get it.

TBBYANR: Old School Plus

I enjoy Old-School gaming blogs for a couple of reasons. First is most of them like going over the roots of the hobby, talking about how things were not just out of the dreaded "N-Word" (Nostalgia) but more of an academic foray into games and the applications of those games. Sure the the is a bad signal to noise ratio at times with many blogs covering the exact same ground in the exact same way (and this blog is no exception to that) I am still entertained. Also the authors tend to be from the same gene-pool as me; metaphorically speaking. Not that I always want to listen to a bunch of middle aged white guys, but their interests are the same as mine; so if it veers "off-topic" into family, jobs, kids what have you, I don't mind. In fact most times I am nodding in agreement.

A couple of these Old-School+ blogs are the subject of todays The Best Blog You are Not Reading.

Billy Goes to Mordor
http://billygoes.blogspot.com/

Billy Goes to Mordor has to win some sort of prize for the blog name that always makes me smile. Plus any blog that can put up a still from Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal and not get all maudlin about it is doing something right. Around since 2011 and hitting half a dozen or so posts a month you can read through all his posts in a dedicated afternoon. There are thoughts on D&D, Horror and playing Pirates. Though I think his notes on Game Design are the most interesting. Insight on how another guy does his game.
A lot of thought goes into each post and really I think he is just a few dedicated followers (and regular commenters) away from really growing as a blog. Or maybe it is fine the way it is, but I bet some more followers would be appreciated all the same.

The Disoriented Ranger
http://the-disoriented-ranger.blogspot.com/

Another Old-School blog around since 2011. This is a solidly OSR blog with links to free resources and notes on his RC based game. There are a lot of world building articles with his recent ones exploring "Karik Thel - The Island of the Floating Trees" which could easily be used anywhere so very much worth the read.
What got me into his blog was the day we both posted the same Racial Class within minutes of each other, Feline Humanoids vs. Cat Girls (I think it is easy to tell on name alone which is mine). In truth combining the two would make for a great class!
Like Billy, JD also posts more than just gaming material.

I would encourage you to check both blogs out.

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Do you Remember This?

Do you remember this ad?

Pretty much sums up popular culture's romance with S&S.

So how many of you cut that ad out of ~~Playboy~~ er Popular Science and taped it to a folder?
Better yet, who among you based a character on her.

ETA my contribution:

Made around 85 or 86.

White Dwarf Wednesday #69

White Dwarf for September 1985 takes us to the end of the 60s with issue #69. This one is going to be interesting to try to do because my copy is falling apart. In fact I have it in a bag to hold it all together. When I started this I wanted to see if I could find a new copy and then forgot about it till just recently. I am not even using my own scanned image of the cover. It is in too bad of shape. The cover is an interesting one. It looks like it could be the demon Graz'zt. Or someone similar. The artist is Mark Bromley.

Ian Livingstone discusses Games Day. Here in reality Origins just completed. I had heard from friends that it was great fun but really small this year.

We start of with an article on Golden Heroes. Man, I really should dig this game up sometime.

Part 2 of Beneath the Waves is next. I am missing page 1 of this. I think it was due to the fact that we were gearing up an ocean based game. But I could be wrong, 85 sounds too early for that.

Open Box has some reviews that I can relate to. First are some Marvel titles. MH-4: Lone Wolves, MH-5: Cat's Paw and MHSP1: Secret Wars. I will be honest with you. I didn't like Secret Wars. I thought it was a pale attempt to get at the same epicness of DC Crisis on Infinite Earths. I was even just telling my kids this yesterday morning. I was getting out of Marvel at this point and out of the Marvel game. Marcus Rowland gives them 6, 6 and 7/10 respectively.
Next up is the Conan RPG. Unlike my peers I never liked Conan. It wasn't even till recently that I actually read some. I liked it because yes it is good stuff, but in 85? No way. I was an Elric (the anti-Conan) fan. Pete Tamblyn gives it 7/10.
We get a review of Toon Strikes Again, a completely silly game that I loved. So did Stephen Kyle who gave it 8/10. Lastly we have the Chill-influenced board game Black Morn Manor. I had always wanted to play this game but never could get my hands on a copy. It got an 8/10 from Paul Mason.

Letters and RuneRites are gone according to my table of contents.

The Surrey Egnigma is an adventure for Call of Cthulhu that looks fun.
Followed by an AD&D adventure Plague from the Past that also looks like it could be fun.

Starbase has ship battle damage for Traveller and Travellers has stats for more of its characters.

Fiend Facotry is back this month but the "monsters" are Golden Hero characters. Yeah, it's not as fun anymore.

First page of Table top heroes is gone, but there are pictures.

Treasure chest has some poisons for AD&D. Not quite as good as the article from Best of Dragon Vol. 2, but still worth the read if poisons are your thing.

Gobilidgook, small ads and ads.

The 60s end in a whimper though I do think both adventures are good.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

For those that say Mystara is dead

There is this, http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4news/20130618#87045

Ok, so yeah, it's not the same as having a game world or new product but it does show that Wizards is still interested in the IP and they still use it.

Either way I'll be buying this.

Skills in AD&D 1

I got to play some AD&D 1st ed again this past weekend. The boys are really enjoying it.
But the one thing that now feels awkward are ability checks.

Back in the day if we wanted to do something that would require a "skill check" we would roll a d20 and aim to roll under the ability in question. Easy and it worked for us till the 1st ed Proficiency system came along.

Looking back I remembered something. I hate the 1st Ed Proficiency system.

I think what I want is something more simple. AD&D isn't really about what skills and how many skill points you have. Your skills are defined by your class or race and Ability scores are key.

So I am thinking of taking some ideas from d20, Castles & Crusades and even a little bit of D&D4.

Skill checks will still be Ability checks.
Instead of the roll under mechanic, I am going to use a d20 style Difficulty Classes. Since 3.x d20 and AD&D1 make the similar assumption of 20 levels I think the numbers are good.

Abilities will use their default modifiers. So 0 +1, +2 or +3 (or negatives as the case may be). Additionally characters will add +1 per level. I *might* cap that at 10th level. I have not decided yet.

Borrowing from Castles and Crusades each character will get two Primes. These will be the same as the Prime Attribute for their class. Humans will get one extra. Primes will add +2.

So a skill roll then would be like this.
A 1st level Cleric with an 18 Wisdom is making a Spot check. Wisdom is his prime.
His chances are +3 (wisdom) +1 (level) +2 (prime) for a total of +6.
That might sound like a lot, but a Cleric in 3.x with Spot as a skill would get +4 Wis and +4 for the skill for +8.

I might also give each character a chance at a signature or trained skill. Something very specific that they get and extra +1 on. So my cleric in the above example might have Religion as a signature skill, and get an extra +1.

I think this will work fine to be honest. Course if I wanted that "old school" feel I could put it all in a chart.