DEATH DUGEONS, MEAT GRINDERS and DUNGEONPUNKS

There is a little project that I have been working on. Here is a Hint of what it will be called. 

DEATH DUGEONS, MEAT GRINDERS and DUNGEONPUNKS

In this game the Death Master IS trying to kill your character.

Stripped down. Adult Content. Violent beyond all other games. FUCK Grammar and Spellchecking!

PRIMITIVE ZINE STYLE!!! 

The Death Master is trying to kill you.

3D6 in order 6 times in four columns and your hit points and keep what you roll. Flawed or great by the roll of the dice but all equally doomed! IF you don't like it then FUCK YOU go play something else. THIS RPG gives you NOTHING! You must earn every Fucking XP that you get.

UNLIKE other modern RPGs there is no Min-Maxing and Character Optimization like a bunch of little fucking pussies! 

You get what the dice god MASLIF gives you. 

IF you don't like it, then FUCK YOU and go play something else!

An 18 is going to mean something again.

There is no schedule for when this is going to get completed but one day I will release a print your own fold over ZINE for it. Depending on the response, I will make more content. You bet your ass that when I make an dungeon or setting it will be trying to kill your characters. 

Only the clever and the lucky will survive.

Basic Back to the Dungeon RPG

Basic Back to the Dungeon RPG

Pay What You Want

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/198101/Basic-Back-to-the-Dungeon-RPG-Players-Guide

Major Update on Races and Classes for Back to the Dungeon RPG.

I have reedited Books 1, 4, and 5 that contain the races and classes in the old format. 

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/193185/Back-to-the-Dungeon-Book-1-Races-and-Classes

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/193359/Back-to-the-Dungeon-Book-4-Advanced-races-and-Classes

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/193362/Back-to-the-Dungeon-Book-5-Other-races-and-Classes

Ah but you want to see before you purchase eh? Here is the PWYW version of the Basic Back to the Dungeon RPG.

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/198101/Basic-Back-to-the-Dungeon-RPG-Players-Guide

And of course the Basic Game master's Guide.

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/198102/Basic-Back-to-the-Dungeon-Game-Masters-Guide 

Back to the Dungeon 2nd Edition! Simplified and Stripped!

Plans to simplify Back to the Dungeon RPG are underway!  

The game will still be compatible with the all the modules and such just character creation will be simplified. Many of the long winded modifiers and such will be put either into one word descriptors, or eliminated all together.   

Attribute modifies may be (Have not decided yet) replaced with minimum scores (like an elf needs to have a 16 Dex instead of a +2 to Dex modifier) for certain classes or races. 

The simplicity I was going for was obscured by the "just get it finished" mode I was in. 

After running it for awhile , I noticed that many of the features were not even used so they are going out the door. TOO MUCH CLUNK! This will allow for more customized characters I think.

I also went to make a stack of pregenerated characters for the local CON and said DAMN IT! I did it again! Made it too clunky! It was just too much work!

Here's how it should and is going to be! Roll Attributes, Pick Race, Pick Class, Roll for gold, Buy Stuff, Start playing in less that 10 minutes.   

I am also going to put all the difficulty ratings on the GM. The player will simply roll his D20 plus attribute modifier. On the GM's side will be subtraction of -1 every two levels and if he is skilled then drop the difficulty by 5. The player will not have to deal with any of the math save combat.

A few tweaks on the Armor rules and the price list. 

Monsters are pretty much going to stay the same. 

It will be released as an update on each booklet, so if you already got yours downloaded from DrivThruRPG then you will get this update for free!    

Back to the Dungeon Role Playing Game is for sale! Here is the MASTER BUNDLE! (OR sold separately!)

Back to the Dungeon Role Playing Game is for sale! Here is the MASTER BUNDLE! (OR sold separately!)

Easy to run, Easy to play...

A HUGE BIG OL BUNCH of stuff for one low price.

A printer printing out the PDFs in Zine booklet style and with less than a hundred pages you have complete set of rules!

www.drivethrurpg.com/product/197560/Back-to-the-Dungeon-Master-Bundle-BUNDLE

Easy to run, Easy to play...

Back to the Dungeon Role Playing Game now for sale!

Going to try my luck at selling PDF games. I finally got free time due to being laid off AND I have a massive library of half finished RPGs. Have even more in my head. These are the most updated versions of BttDRPG!
http://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/10088/Eldrad-Wolfsbane

The Black Stairs Megadungeon Level 4!

Here is the 4th Level of the Black Stairs...


To order it, take a look at DriveThruRPG!



So how big are the Black Stairs you ask? Take a look.

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Level 4

Level 5

(Unpublished)

Musings of a Mad Wizard Gamer.

Not going to shelve the game. GM burnout with bouts of creativity THEN bouts of doubt. Version 1.7 is going to stay for awhile longer as I just want to make modules and maps. Not as organized as I would like , but was the original game not a total mess? I fixed and streamlined the problems with magic (see document) on spells per day and such. In earlier version casters could cast so many spells that it made it hard to keep track of. That has been fixed. It is the game that I have always wanted to run. It has that simplicity of rules that allow one just to create with a few of the modern options pegged on. 

Was greatly inspired by stories of how they were first forming Blackmoor and then Greyhawk. Have also been inspired by Ed Greenwood's stories of his forgotten realms. The Ryth Chronicles also has made creative juices flow. Stories of the West Marches of Ars Lundi. The Dark Ages Campaign of Chogowiz. The Watchfires and Thrones campaign of Micheal Curtis in The Archive of the Rotted Moon. Philotomy's Musings of the Mythic Underworld. I want to create really cool worlds. Starting small and then continuing on. My Little Barony, Raven's Keep, and the megadungeon The Black Stairs is going on 7-8 years old now. I have ran it using Swords and Wizardry, OSRIC, LL/AEC, Pathfinder (too much work!), and finally Back to the Dungeon RPG!

The maps and the stories are about to expand! I have decided to flesh out my world a little bit more. 

no plus ones

Back to the Dungeon Version 1.7

Here is V1.7
Not going to do another revamp for many moons and just concentrate on MODULES!

All Vanican type magic.
Corrected some typos throughout all documents.


STILL finding more DAMN!
Druid Typo
Added 0 level offensive spell for Wizard.
Working on Book 7 AND another Monster book


https://drive.google.com/drive/mobile/folders/0BzYaSvmA-OpUQWM1Q0tpVjVldFk

Once upon a time: "The game was centered around the referee, and the idea of the game was to explore the referee's world."

Here is a concept (that HE noticed) Michael Mornard Played in the original Blackmoor, Greyhawk, and EPT Campaigns
"Gronan of Simmerya" aka "Old Geezer" aka "LORD Grumpy"

IS THIS

Inspired by the other thread in this subforum, I've been thinking about the question of how D&D has changed, and I think I've come up with what seems the biggest change to me.
When Dave started "Blackmoor", which I've been told was a team vs team game, it was his invention... he wanted to RUN a game, and got players. When it morphed into more of what we now call an RPG, it was still "Dave's game" about "Dave's world".
Likewise when Gary started running Greyhawk, it was "Gary's got this cool new game called Greyhawk. You're a bunch of guys exploring an old abandoned wizard's castle." Again, Gary created a world, and found players for it... somewhere around 20 players in the early 70s in the cow's anus that was Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.
And that was the first year or so of how the game grew... "Hey, who wants to explore MY dungeon?" The game was centered around the referee, and the idea of the game was to explore the referee's world.
At some point this changed. The mindset became, "We want play being a bunch of heroes, who can we talk into refereeing?" The game became centered on the idea of the players' adventures rather than the referee's world. That's actually a pretty phenomanal paradigmatic shift, and I think it's the core change beneath all the other changes made to the game.

SO Early RPGs were CENTERED around each DM was the artist and maker of a world and players PLAYED in the DMs WORLD!  At some point this changed. The mindset became, "We want play being a bunch of heroes, who can we talk into refereeing?" The game became centered on the idea of the players' adventures rather than the referee's world.

That's actually a pretty phenomanal paradigmatic shift, and I think it's the core change beneath all the other changes made to the game.

AND it has been that way ever since kinda for the most part. VERY profound. PUTS the early DMs into another light...

JDN2006 noticed that: Gary Gygax was designing the sort of game and adventures he liked playing and he seemed to have simple tastes, with a bent towards adventure and "anyone and everyone can play" concepts. I don't know if that is true, but it's the image I get from his work. 

THORSWULF wrote this profound statement: Sadly, so many DM's I know really didn't get into the exploration of creation- they missed the point. I too have been guilty of this. Sometimes the rules seemed to be the master, not the guide. I have to wonder if the very words like handbook, guide, and manual stifle creativity?

Fantastic thread. A few gems of great wisdom and "how we did it back then"! 

HERE is the original thread. 

http://odd74.proboards.com/thread/6104/which-gronan-muses-changed

Is the BlogOSRsphere dying off?

Is the BlogOSRsphere dying off? 

It seems to be waning a bit.  Oh there are people who post quite a few times a week but not like it was just a few years ago. It is kinda nice to be able to keep up with the blog post though.

It is very much alive though! 

Some of the main players have stopped posting or have slowed down to a mere trickle. Some have fallen to scandals or have made scandals.

Still every day there is at least something interestingly posted for the love of the game. 

I know that I am here for the long haul whatever that is even though my blog is one of the least of the OSR blogs. 

It seems that the OSR has not really moved forward at all if you compare the post of Chicago Wiz way back in 2011.

Does something needs to happen publishing wise to get the OSR ball rolling again? I don't think that is ever going to happen (save the release of Adventures Dark and Deep but that's just me getting excited about a product that I have yet to buy) again. 

People are still going to publish Retro Clones (Neo-Clone, Simulacrums, Fantasy Heartbreakers, etc.)  but the chance for glory has passed. 

I hope to be proven wrong on that statement but we shall see...

People seem to be very happy with the RPGs they are playing.


What needs to happen that would re-excite (Like it was a few years ago!) the BlogOSRsphere? I think people getting out there and playing and posting about it. 

Some sort of organized play starting on a local level and then possibly becoming state, regional, and then possibly national and posting about it.

TARGA needs to come back. 

Some really good ground breaking home made modules and house rules! 

New race and class options! 

Wait, that still is going on !  

In my area, RPG Gaming seems dead though rumors of groups existing in secretive insular little clans. Old School Gaming locally has a few small sparks but they never seem to ignite. If there is an OLD campaign that has existed since the late 70s and early 80s in my area I don't know about it.  

What to do? What to do?

Ultimate Open Source Fantasy RPG written by YOU!

I can't seem to find a fantasy game I totally love. Either too complicated or to many restrictions.

The old school has it right in simplicity and the new school has it right is options.

With such a system if a Game Master THEN wants to put back in old school restrictions then he can do so.

The solution would be a simple set of OGL rules very close to Basic/LL with all the class and race options like the OGL Pathfinder SRD without any skills or feats list (Just a story and background) AND it be written by a crack team of gamers AND be open source or OGL.

No character class description can be longer than one page.

Monsters no more complicated that S&W. Keep it simple! You got that!

IF the book were to be printed out it would be at no profit or profits going to charity.

Now with this set of rules you could use to make modules etc. but the rules would be forever free except the cost of printing.

If we got let's say 50-100 bloggers to get together and make this free hobbyist Ultimate Open Source Fantasy RPG it would be the bomb. Would you like to help?

Even if you have published a game you must admit you would love to see and play this.

Would anyone be interested in helping in something like this? No money to be made but a really cool idea and more gaming for everybody.

The races would be classic and modern but have no class restrictions or level limits. As many playable races as we can have.

The classes would be simple yet have some of the new innovations of the new school such as 0 level spells being at will. Mage Schools, Sorcerer Bloodlines, Warlock Pacts, Psionics all in there as many classes as are out there but in an Simple OGL Open Source.

A universal mechanic of the D20 roll + (Very few) modifiers vs. a difficulty number. Keep the modifiers and difficulty numbers simple.

Simple combat that can be spiced up by actions of the players and most of all LOW MODIFIERS and numbers. No need for a +37 to hit an AC of 35.

After about 10th (or 15th)level slowing down of going any farther and the possibility of becoming immortals.

So would anyone be interested in such an project? I will be starting a month long job so I will be mostly out of pocket.

In all projects of this sort there will have to be a final decision on any choices to be made and it will be that person's fault.

I nominate myself for this task of Supreme Fall Guy or the SFG.

OR

We have a council of elders

OR

Everyone involved votes and the majority wins.

Where can we start. Divide and conquer. Start out with base rules and attributes. Combat and movement. A few basic classes FTCW and Races HDEH. Magic list. Monster list.

I am willing to use the Guts of my Back to the Dungeon RPG or if anyone can write it better do so.

If you like the idea then spread the word. If the talent will come it will be made. It will not be made by me our you but by all of us.

SO if you like or dislike this idea POST your opinions.

Back to the Dungeon RPG Feedback

Well what do you think those whom have read it?

Have you played it yet?

Has your barbarian rolled a 20 and slung every goblin ten feet back?

Has you assassin rolled a 20 and sprayed blood on the victims companions causing them to run in fear?

Has your fighter rolled a 20 and done TRIPLE Damage?


Players Guide
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BzYaSvmA-OpURmN5SVJsTDRNcms

Book Of Spells
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BzYaSvmA-OpUVUNob2ZVcW1YWjg

Book of Encounters
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BzYaSvmA-OpUZFVkUzZ5OEdfbFU

INCOMPLETE GM's Guide
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BzYaSvmA-OpUNVA4NjM3VExKZkk

Give me feedback....

Back to the Dungeon RPG Rough Draft Zine Style Release

Rough Draft Zine Style Release!

Here be the unprofessional zine self styled RPG of the OSR.
Let us do it ROUGE STYLE!

Bad editing! Bad Grammar! But a damn fun game!

ALL made to print out in a fold over zine!

Four LITTLE Booklets!

Easy to Run and Easy to Play!

Players Guide
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BzYaSvmA-OpURmN5SVJsTDRNcms

Book Of Spells
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BzYaSvmA-OpUVUNob2ZVcW1YWjg

Book of Encounters
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BzYaSvmA-OpUZFVkUzZ5OEdfbFU

INCOMPLETE GM's Guide
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BzYaSvmA-OpUNVA4NjM3VExKZkk


It will need corrections. Note them and then get back to playing!
Add more classes and races!

Shareware copyleft/middle

Classic Fantasy Role Playing Game: Update

Well I am back to having thoughts of releasing the rest of my CFRPG.

It's like 99% done but after the Word Processor Formatting Demon Possession Problems I had I kinda gave up.

The announcement of D&DNext was kind of a bummer but at the same time I like what I see but I also just am not excited. Maybe it's the few thousands of $$$s they already got from me.

I dunno.

I need to get my Neo-Clone out to the world as a personal quest as there have been a few members of the "community" that have naysayed your good and kind Eldrad.

I stayed classy and did not respond in a FuhQDiK but I should have. I will not say whom but it still bugs me although a long time ago.

BUT I must say the rest of the "community" is the cat's meow! Except for a few that never...Oh never mind.

I am so close but this gamer's block that I have! BUT I must admit every time I look upon an old D&Dish type game from modern to olden I get bugged.

The oldens and the clones the same (some say stupid) restrictions that hamper role play.

The modern the same overcomplicated CLUNK that hampers role play.

"Uh yeah my Half Unicorn Vampire Half-Dragon Were-Bulette Lich with a Shirley Temple Template Fighter Thief Death Wizard Exotic Dancer Uses her or his Damper Jet Plane Feat and does a five foot step and warps back in time using his Alter Time Space power to get an opportunity attack with sneak damage ans critical hit because he is a Quadruple three weapon specialist. That's a uh 4+7+16+93+1d20! I roll a uh 234 yeah! WHadda ya mean you have a reverse megaton feat??" Pages are flipped the rest of the night looking for the rules! LOL!

The solution?

A game as simple as the classics but with SOME of the options of the new BUT without RULES bloat.

Easy to Run and Easy to Play!


My Game! The one that had very little to no response from the OSR Blogger world due to way too many games bloat form the OSR but at least they are mostly all free!


BUT it would be argued by a few that I am wrong! Some in the OSR like the restrictions!

Many if not most of the New School don't even pay attention. LOL!

"We only play 4th Edition"
"We only play Pathfinder"
"That old stuff is OOKIE! Stuff!"

Forgive them Gods of Gaming! They know not what they do! OR maybe it is I that does no know! LOL! I am going to bed.

On the Other SIde of the GM Screen: Playing Pathfinder

Oh I get it!

Now that I have finally played a few times and not ran Pathfinder why my players were kinda ticked when I wanted to convert to LL because I did not have enough prep time.

They flat out did not want to loose their cool characters and all the skills and powers.

I started playing with some old schoolers recently because I just lost the spark to run anything. I wanted to play. GM burnout you know! I was somewhat disappointed that with this old school group Pathfinder was the only game being played. Damn. I made a Wizard who was a Necromancer.

Not the best idea when I discovered that there were two LG Dwarves in the party who hated UNDEAD and Druid! I was not evil just LN and believed that Necromancy could be used as a tool to serve mankind.

But damn all that clunk when playing Pathfinder is really cool. The little extras they added from 3.5 just really rocks from a player's perspective.

Damn!

Here I go with the gamer ADD and insane flip flopping but I have not had that much fun playing in a very long time!

It's also the company as well. These players are a really good group (not that my group was bad we just are stagnant IMHO). They are what you would call nearly professional gamers. Best of all the DM is this multitasking dude who is running us through Temple of Elemental Evil mixed seamlessly with the Pathfinder setting. Awesome...

Except I now Have found out I will be working nights on a turnaround for some ungodly undetermined amount of time making about 80+ hours a week. Thank god I am hourly!

Oh well the GM is going to go all the way through Scourge of the Slave Lords and Against the Giants. I hope I will be done with the turnaround!

ANON

Classic Fantasy RPG Update

Well I decided to cut and paste the S&W treasure table and I shall modify it accordingly.

After making the Back to the Dungeon Zine I really am thinking about getting my CFRPG back on the burner.

IF I can get this sucker is a state that I don't want to tear down and redo I may be happy with it. I can't help but think there are people not satisfied out there and want the style of old with some of the options of new.

BUT anyway switching from nights to days and have to wake up in a few hours after sleeping most of the day.

Back to the Dungeon LL/AEC Zine!

So here it is the first Back to the Dungeon Zine Volume I Issue I. I have been working 7 days a week and up to 12-14 hours a day but finally have a fatigue day so sorry for any incomplete or half finished crap. Hopefully the damn links work but on blogspot it never does, has, or will work.


https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BzYaSvmA-OpUMlVUNDBTcGpTOEtVUTNMUjhoNHE4Zw

I really hope that more amateur publishers with delusions of grandeur start producing more Zines.

Test Copy of CFRPG

This is a test copy. What I am hoping for is one 40 page booklet but it looks like the game will be longer. Charlie and I have decided to split it up into at least 3 books. There is no schedule on this but we are hoping sometime in January to release a no art version beta test. Don't really care if it is perfect it just needs to have good content presented where gamers can understand and play it.

CFRPG Goblin and Dog Man (Kobold)

A few post back I posted the stats for a Goblin and a Kobold for LL and PFRPG. Now I am going to post the stats for CFRPG.

Goblin AC HD1-1 Move2 Damage 1d6 Weapon and Ranged.
Small 4' tall evil stinking humanoids of various bestial looks. They only live to destroy. They are the ancient enemy of the dwarves but the plague all when they come to an area and multiply.

Dog Men AC14+ HD1-3hp Move20 Tricky! Daggers 1d4 or Shortbow 1d6
These are small evil cunning creatures that look like 3' tall men with dog's heads. Also called Kobolds by some! They only exist to breed and kill out mankind and their kin.

That's it. That is all there is to it. If I leave off the description it looks even shorter.

Goblin AC HD1-1 Move2 Damage 1d6 Weapon and Ranged.

Dog Men AC14+ HD1-3hp Move20 Tricky! Daggers 1d4 or Shortbow 1d6

One thing I know when messing with the OSR type rules is simple to write an adventure. Creativity flows with rules-lite that cannot flow as they do with rules heavy.

SO with all the rules out there why the hell am I writing another game? Well I am not writing a Retro Clone per say I am writing a Neo Clone. I was thinking about writing a rules variance for LL/S&W/OSRIC but those are their own game. They have their charm but class race and class race restrictions as well as level limits as well as some of the mechanics just need to be left out and changed. They to me are just not any fun.

My daughter's boyfriend was getting ready to play a Labyrinth Lord/AEC and he wanted to play an Elven Ranger. When I told him of the rules restrictions he just didn't seem interested anymore. Why is that restriction there? For no better reason than to retain the spirit of the old rules and no other. Yes I should have let him just play it but why is the restriction there? It makes no sense. Elves live in the wood and they should be rangers and Druids. The OSR needs to let go of the restrictions and come out with each their own "Unearthed Arcana" rules variations.

At the same time if someone wants to play any old school game restrictions and all I am there!

Rules should be there to facilitate role playing not restrict it. This game I hope will be one of the answers

I have decided that this game will be from the hobbyist approach. This mean the game will be free and I am even going to include instructions on how to print it out and make your own fold over booklets. There are plans to make a version to sell but really it's going to be done for the love of the hobby.