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Holy relics won't fix everything.

Supporting Elon Musk's meme nonsense ... That's not about Gygax. Stop justifying the worst values with appeals to nostalgia. I don't care if someone does it cause they like ugly electric trucks or think Musk is one of the world's best Diablo players. Even three years ago that guy was spouting...

The mid/late 1982 - 1991 angular logo here was introduced at some point in mid-late 1982. It's not on some of the notable module covers and other products (video games, game books, monster cards, modules etc.) published in 1982, but it's on others from later in the year. I'd guess Tomb of the...

I wonder if one of the reasons that the Black Box/1070 is so much less well know these days is that it doesn't scan to PDF well. It's "toyetic" aspect of cards and such seems very cool, but also it's easier to lose bits and piece I suspect. Of course I bet the main reason it's less well known...

Don't much care about the Ennies (even if I have one? Sorta? I think?), but I am very happy to see this change.

The characterization of 90's design, especially the sort of indy design as being heavy on rules bloat and specificity. A trend towards GURPS like systems one might say.

Thanks for finding this thing. I took a look at the three books, and while some of the basic ideas seem interesting enough as a sword & sorcery/pulp fantasy style setting there was also a lot ... and a lot of it seemed pretty mediocre and it has that 2E/3E quality of just being too much...

In 1984 I rolled up a fighter named Charlie. He was grey oozed to death in the Caves of Chaos. RIP Charlie the Level 2 Fighter.

I largely agree with this though I'd add some caveats: 1st Caveat. This is dependent on system and play style. If one is playing a style of game that's largely about tactical combat and character building where non-combat actions need to be pushed through quickly and are a lesser/smaller part...

I'm sure the map will be pretty, Greg hires talented artists. I do wonder if it will be a copy of the Wilderness Survival Map? My understanding is that his past work has all been placed on this 1970's map, a popular conceit in the early and mid OSR. For example I believe Dwimmermount was also...

Yes this is true - many designers seem to focus on creating a game ecosystem around their products. It's a savy business move, a walled garden for your fans who don't then have to use (or buy) anyone else's work ... It's just not something I think is very good or interesting ... it's a business...

So first, designers' politics do matter to me. There are some designers who voice beliefs that want to deny basic human rights to people I care about. I don't want to give those people money and I don't promote them. I think this is good. It's good because platforming these people drives those...

there are a lot of rumors about the guy - I don't know if they are true. Rumors about incentivizing students to give his books high ratings and such as well. My own experience is that I have read Barrowmaze (decent for its era with some really nice bits and pieces) and Dwarrowdeep. Dwarrowdeep...

Which OSR? There were several. Certainly the early Dragonsfoot forum types were often focused on a nostalgic return. It's hard to say the same thing for stuff like Deep Carbon Observatory, Mothership, and Into the Odd. Now we are in a post-OSR period and it's even more varied. Sure there's...

Get some factions in there and don't just randomly place everything, but don't fill it entirely with factions - there still should be some abandoned and vermin infested spaces. Add some actually significant amounts of treasure.

I think this is one of those "OSR" referee questions. No need for hermeneutics - especially from a handbook for a different game (and different from the one OSE is a retro-clone of). What I mean is question seems far more a matter of the fiction then digging through several editions of...

I don't have a recommendation between those two - but I would make the following recommendations about "OSR" play. * Read the adventure you're running at least once through a day or two prior to your session (or reread your design notes once they're finished). * Make a copy of the map and...

In thinking about this topic a bit more I suppose some of it comes down to what you see as the goal of the OSR? Was it primarily about rediscovering and figuring out how to play old games as they were meant to be played .. A revival or even return (RETVRN?) or Was it primarily about playing...

Exactly. Worrying about the impurities of 2E is a certain kind of Post-OSR revisionism. When the 2E "Complete Fighter's Handbook" came out in 1989, my friends and I had already been into D&D for 7 years - which is a lot when you're a kid, but we weren't suddenly concerned about a new...