To my knowledge there wasn't a relationship between Frog God/Necromancer and Goblinoid. They both published independent lines of OSR products, with FGG releasing Swords & Wizardry and Goblinoid making Labyrinth Lord.
OSR What's Going on with Goblinoid Games (Labyrinth Lord)?
Mannahnin
Scion of Murgen (He/Him)
Right. Goblinoid Games is Dan Procter's company, originally to publish Labyrinth Lord (and later other stuff, like Mutant Future), which was one of the earliest retroclones (2007; OSRIC was in 2006), and the first one based primarily on B/X.
It was created early enough in the clone movement that no one was sure yet what the real legal boundaries were, and how exactly WotC might react to folks using the OGL to clone older editions rather than just making materials for 3rd ed. For this reason, Dan included a lot of minor tweaks to tables and rules in Labyrinth Lord to make it NOT an exact clone of B/X. To be able to easily show in court, if needed, that the presentation of the core rules differed from B/X D&D (under US law, you can't trademark game mechanics, but you can trademark as IP the idiosyncratic presentation thereof; a given author's unique phrasing and presentation). The xp tables are different. Levels go to 20 instead of 14 max, and spells go to 9th level. Treasure Types are renamed Hoard Classes and given roman numerals instead of letter codes. Morale/Reaction rolls are flipped. Clerics are given a spell at 1st level (which a lot of folks preferred, from AD&D) instead of waiting until 2nd. More armor and weapon types and spells are included from AD&D. He included alternate versions of monsters WotC had reserved as restricted IP (like Carrion Crawlers and Thouls) and gave them new names, such as Carcass Scavengers and Thoghrin.
Dan also published in physical form, not just PDF, and got copies of the book into game stores. He spent the money to commission art by new artists inspired by the originals, hiring several artists in the OSR scene. Despite the various changes from the original, a lot of folks were hungry for a B/X clone, and Labyrinth Lord became the de-facto standard OSR game for this purpose. Various publishers adopted it and published modules and adventures labeled as compatible with LL, and using those monster names, for example. Both Stonehell and Barrowmaze, for example, two of the biggest, most popular megadungeons put out for the OSR were published with LL listed as the intended system. Dyson Logos used LL as the system for his modules and his free mini-megadungeon (Dyson's Delve) he released on his blog. (In recent years I periodically encounter a DM new to OSR referencing Barrowmaze or Stonehell and asking "What the heck is a Thoghrin?" or "'What does see page xx of LL' mean?" because they're not actually using or familiar with Labyrinth Lord.)
There was always a sub-set of players, however, that ran into some friction playing with LL but wanting "real" B/X. Folks who would prefer to be able to reference their original B/X books at the table, for example, alongside new players using clone rulebooks. Or who just preferred original rules like Clerics not getting a spell until 2nd level. And eventually publishers started experimenting with more direct clones.
As I recall Gavin Norman originally came up with B/X Essentials (in 2018, IIRC) as a direct clone of B/X just with all the rules presented in his own wording, but keeping the same numbers for stuff like XP tables and spell progressions, using the original Treasure Types and Reaction rolls, etc. He still re-named restricted IP monsters (Carcass Crawler instead of Carrion Crawler, for example), but they're easily recognizable and mechanically identical. This was later retitled Old School Essentials, and in the last few years it's basically taken over the place of LL in the OSR publishing ecosystem. Gavin's version has excellent layout, organization and graphic design, adding real value in ease of use and reference at the table. His company Necrotic Gnome has also gone all-out in the art and book design department, publishing really lovely books. And they've offered all the core rules for free online including in a super-convenient SRD format.
Labyrinth Lord remains an excellent game, but the OSR movement in general has shifted to OSE as the current hotness and de-facto standard for B/X style rules and books.
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Dreamscape
Crafter of fine role-playing games
In case anyone hasn't heard yet, it looks like Dan and Goblinoid Games are making a comeback with a second edition of Labyrinth Lord. Quite a pleasant surprise given the likelihood that GG was going to be either sold or shut down completely. He posted the announcement on Facebook:
Looks like the link expired or something. I got a screen capture, which I'll post here.
Attachments
bulletmeat
Adventurer
I'm glad to hear this. C&C & L&L were my first exposures to old-skool play back in that '05-'07 time frame.
With the growth of the hobby I hope it leaves enough room for multiple tastes.
With the growth of the hobby I hope it leaves enough room for multiple tastes.
