u/alexserban02

D&D's OGL crisis from 2023 should be a case study in how corporate greed can destroy the good standing of a brand. Cause, at least from my memory, before this event, there weren't nearly as many hostile voices levied against D&D, nor weekly "D&D is dead" videos. Their share of the market also shrank a little, they are still the biggest in the hobby, but perhaps slightly less so then before. It's been about three and a half years since that whole fiasco, and given how due to my MA thesis I started to look more and more into authorship theory and media studies over the last year, I wanted to play the devil's advocate.

Were at any point WotC and Hasbro in their right with this attempt? Hell no! But it's a bit more complicated then that, cause when you get down to it, this sort of issue and problem could only arise in a medium such as this - TTRPGs. And that stems from who is the author of any particular TTRPG, in this case, Dungeons and Dragons. Who owns it really? And the answer is that, while WotC are the legal authors and owners of D&D, due to their choice to not enforce that role over the last 26 years, that position has become in some sense a communal one. Of course, once again, the medium also is very much at play here, for we are the authors of each campaign we run and not two of them will be 100% alike.

That would be the general gist of this article, if that sounds like something you would be interested to explore, please do give it a read and also please do share your thoughts bellow! I hope you will enjoy it and as always, it has been a pleasure to bring you more of my silly thoughts on the matter!

I always wanted to play Root. The boardgame I mean. I always found it quite alluring, I always loved strategy games and the art and concept always seemed right on my alley. Unfortunately, I did not get the occasion to play it yet. However, I learned that the boardgame also received a TTRPG adaptation, made by none others then Magpie Games. For those who are not aware, Magpie are the reigning kings of PbtA RPGs, with titles such as Masks, Avatar Legends, Cartel and many many others. So when we approached them for a partnership, Root was at the top of my wishlist. They were gracious enough to send a review copy our way and with the occasion of Playcon, an amazing local con which held its first edition back at the end of May I got the chance to run a couple of public sessions there.

Needless to say, I had a blast, I adored the art, the setting and the implementation of PbtA (between us, I actually enjoyed this one way better than Avatar Legends). And it wasn't just me who had a blast with the system, but also my groups of players! So I knew that I had to make a review and explain at large why you might enjoy this little gem. Unfortunately, life is sometimes a bitch and some personal stuff delayed said review, but I am proud to tell you that it is now ready and published!

So if any of you have even the smallest amounts of interest towards lite-political games, fun low fantasy adventure, a nostalgia for series such as Redwall or Guardians of Ga'Hoole I think you should give this game a try! My thoughts at large are found in the review, I hope you will enjoy it and I hope you will give this game a try, I assure you, it will be a fun time!

For the longest time I have been fascinated by the medieval. Looking back, I think the first "gateway drug" for this obsession was the Redwall cartoon, when I was a little kid. Of course, Lord of The Rings followed not too far behind, various video games such as Mount and Blade, Assassin's Creed and of course Oblivion and Skyrim. In 2016, when I first started playing D&D, incidentally also the year I started to watch Game of Thrones (it is such a shame it got canceled after the 6th season), the general quasi-medieval setting of the game was quite a big plus in my books. I continued to play D&D, eventually venturing towards other systems and about 4 years ago I also got to play Vampire: The Masquerade for the first time.

Thus I was introduced to the franchise, or rather I realized it was a franchised, I was somewhat aware of the videogames, I knew some of the clans and I saw some pics and memes with Smiling Jack and Jeanette, but until I started playing, I didn't really delve that much into it. But then I did and I fell in love with both the game and its setting and I was aching to learn more about it and I was imaging how cool it would be to also see a medieval version of the game... and OH MY CAIN, it is a thing! I rejoiced in the fact that it existed, but for about three years, I didn't get around playing a single session of Dark Ages. I read on the lore, I fell in love with the whole Constantinople Saga, but I didn't knew any ST who runs it. Then Yuno met Horia and in turn I met Horia and we became friends with him and at one point he dropped the bombshell that he also runs Dark Ages, but he currently has a full campaign and does not know when he will get to play something with us as well. So it goes...

A couple of weeks ago however, one of my D&D players, who is also quite an experienced ST started a new Dark Ages chronicle and was gracious enough to invite me! So thank you Anca!

I played my first ever session, I am very much looking forward to play some more (in case anyone is wondering, I am playing an Old Clan Tzimisce Koldun and the chronicle is set in 14th century Wallachia + Transylvania), but until then I decided to write this piece on some of the differences I have perceived so far between the two systems and why I think that the assumption I have seen on my side of the internet, that Dark Ages would be less political then its modern nights counterpart is, frankly speaking a bit silly!

I hope you will enjoy this piece, I am going back to read a bit more on the lore and to plan for the next session!

I think I was in 10th or 11th grade when I first stumbled upon the concepts of the Hero's Journey and the Jungian Archetypes. Needless to say, having a new hammer, every problem was a nail, in this particular case, every literature essay I was doing for highschool tied in some way to one or both concepts. Even though I was playing D&D at the time, for some reason I didn't turn the proverbial hammer to my beloved hobby yet. It was actually quite recently when I got this particular idea, after an MA course in which I got to go into more depth with both concepts.

After quite some time with having this one baking nicely in the oven, I think I like it enough to share it with you. I go on to analyze how some of the archetypes map onto the Fighter, Wizard, Cleric and Rogue and also how the campaign can map onto the Hero's Journey as well and tie everything together somewhat. It is also tacitly a piece that maps quite nicely onto my theory that D&D and TTRPGs in general are part of the broader storytelling tradition of humanity.

Also, being an article with a somewhat academic flavor it is also perhaps a bit more pretentious than my usual pieces, I hope you will manage to suffer through it. I am also very much curious to see what you all make of it and if you also harbor similar thoughts. Nonetheless, thank you if you took time to read it and to those who did not, I hope in the future I will improve.

Basically, the reddit algorithm shadowbanned my account a couple of days ago, it was fortunately reinstated, but now my posts are gone. Could you help out with that?

Hii I was shadowbanned for a couple of days, my account was reinstated, however my posts are still gone. How can I get them back?

I have a confession to make. I, sometimes, fudge the dice. As a GM, of course. I await your rotten eggs and tomatoes, let it be my penance. However, my heresy and pride flairs even more, for not only do I stoop this low, but I, like the great deceiver try to hook others into my wicked ways. Ergo, the essay at hand and also a livestreamed discussion/debate with the wonderful folks at Dicesylvania.

Jokes aside, I know, or at least I observed that fudging, as a practice, seems to be quite a hot topic when it is brought up online and I thought it might be interesting to do a deep dive into how and why some people use this (including myself from time to time) and whether there is a, hmmm, I guess righteous way where you may use it. Going into the history, Gygax flip-flopped on the issue, but more often then not he seemed to be on the side of fudging, with what I consider to be a very common sense addendum: fudging should not be done out of a direct desire to harm the players. Or I guess, rather their characters :))

In my opinion whether you should fudge or not will depends on a number of factors. The primary one is multi-faceted, it refers the type of game you are running - first and foremost, the system, for fudging mostly has its place among trad games such as D&D, Pathfinder and their ilk (as well as some OSR titles), the tone tone of your game, whether it puts more emphasis on tactics or narrative, etc.

I went in as much detail as I could and I hope you will find something interesting there. If not, don't worry, I will get right back to the pillory and you are free to resume the egg throwing!

This is something special. Truly. By now you know I love TTRPGs, I have almost 120 in my collection and while I have yet to properly go through them all, I also keep an eye out for new interesting games that might catch my eye. Gloam is one such game, I think I saw it either on the OSR subreddit or on one of the many TTRPG facebook groups I am part of. It was, I believe, right on the day it was released and when I saw pictures of it, when I read the little glimpses I could, I made up my mind that this was something special.

So I reached out to Sam Helms and he graciously agreed to provide a review copy. And my hunch was right, this game was something special, from the two superbly crafted magic systems, to the ingenious mechanics centered around a Tarot deck as a randomizer instead of the usual dice, the sheer flavor oozing through every aspect of the game, from the rules, to its art and overall presentation. But. I also showed it to our friend and colleague, Horia (whose birthday is right around the corner, on the 7th, so early Happy Birthday you wonderful Malk!). And like me, Horia also fell in love with this game and asked me if he could handle the review.

And honestly, seeing him so excited and eager to write the review, how could I say no. So let's see what he delivered. *Opens article* FREAKING 3500 WORDS! God damn, mate, you really like this game!

So yeah, I at least gave you a bit of a sample with this one, but for the full review, I leave you in the capable hands of Horia. He sincerely has lots of love for this game, but he is fair and I believe this to be one of the best reviews we published. I hope you will enjoy it and more so, I hope it will convince you to give Gloam a chance, cause Sam Helms really managed to create something rather special!

I have always been fascinated with how TTRPGs and Video Games influence each other. When I first got into D&D, at 14 it was like a veil lifted from my head and suddenly I saw D&D references and pieces of its design in almost every game (I was mainly playing RPGs). But then as I got more and more into it, as I started to look into older editions and other games, I also saw the reverse, pieces of video game design scattered throughout various TTRPGs. Perhaps the most infamous and poignant example of this would be D&D 4e.

It was this fascination and a course on adaptation theory that convinced me to write my MA on adaptation theory in and from TTRPGs, looking at videogames, at movies, but also at how some pieces of media have themselves been adapted into TTRPGs (Star Wars, Call of Cthulhu, The One Ring and many many others). The more you look into it, the deeper it goes. This present article is a side project I did while writing and researching for my MA thesis. Done more approachable then the stiff academic writing, but still exploring the same thing. In part at least, cause with this one I am only focusing on the bidirectional influence of TTRPGs and Video Games, starting from the very beginning of both mediums and gradually moving towards the present.

I hope you will enjoy it and that you will find the subject at least half as interesting as I did! I am really looking forward to see your thoughts on the matter!

So, inadvertently, I made a trilogy of articles, analyzing the three main political factions presented to us in Vampire the Masquerade. Well, now it's a trilogy, as now, leaving the best for last, I got around talking about the Anarchs. I won't shy away in saying that they are perhaps my favorite faction (unless we are playing Dark Ages, cause there, while smaller in scope, I do love myself some Constantinople Trinity).

Getting back to the subject, when I first posted about the Sabbat, I got many many comments about how they are not really counter culture, cause that is the domain of the Anarchs. And yeah, I totally agree with that. My argument with the Sabbat is that they are a dark parody of counter culture. Anarchs are the real deal. And from some points of view, due to their less monstrous dimension, their more relatable side, also represent a more interesting foil for the Camarilla. An idea with whom the current runner-ups in charge of Vampire seamed to agree, as they are now the main rivals of the Camarilla, with the Sabbat, for better or worse, taking a backseat. But that is a conversation for another article.

This one goes in depth into the Anarchs, what they represent, what are their strong suits and their vulnerabilities and how you can make them truly shine at the table. I hope you will enjoy it, that you will find the info presented interesting and useful! Do share your thoughts on it, as I always take the time to read them with great interest!

I have heard about the Satanic Panic more or less since I have started playing D&D. Mostly through memes, or references in forums or in videos. I think I only started to look more into the actual history of it all when I began working on my BA. But even then, not that much and I always thought it to be such a silly thing. I still do find hard to believe that actual human beings could genuinely believe that this game, or any game for that matter would be a tool used to spread Satanism among the youth.

Nonetheless, perhaps due to how ridiculous it sounded, I wanted to take a deep dive into it, to see what was the sparked that made it, what were the effects on the game and broader gaming culture and what would be some take-aways from it. The story is a bit more complicated then I imagined initially and to be honest, quite a sad thing. One of the sparks that ignited the flame that was the suicide of 16 year old Irving Pulling. His mother, Patricia, in grief and perhaps a higher than usual dose of moral righteousness and zealotry, linked this suicide with a "suicide curse" her son's D&D character was hit wit during a school run game. After failing in multiple attempted lawsuits, both against the school and against TSR, she created "Bothered about Dungeons and Dragons" or BADD and started touring, campaigning and writing materials warning people about the danger of D&D, a game she described as "a fantasy role-playing game which uses demonology, witchcraft, voodoo, murder, rape, blasphemy, suicide, assassination, insanity, sex perversion, homosexuality, prostitution, satanic type rituals, gambling, barbarism, cannibalism, sadism, desecration, demon summoning, necromantics, divination and other teachings".

In the article we go over the whole story and we also offer a quite lengthy list of Further Readings if you want to also take the deep dive! I hope you will find it interesting and I am quite curious what your experiences were during this time, if you played during the heights of the Satanic Panic!

I ran a couple of OSR games and sessions over the years. Usually for people who are only then coming into contact with this particular playstyle. And we start playing, they get into the dungeon and then. A door. A locked one mind you. And things stop for a while, as they frantically look over their character sheets to see which skill they should roll. "GM, is there a Perception or Sleight of Hand equivalent, I can't seem to find it?".

And that is where I realize my mistake. Because it is expected for the GM to built up the expectations for a session, for a game, especially when they present it to a new audience. And I got stuck on the onboarding details, "oh, it's basically like an older version of D&D, you will pick it up in no time, look how quick and easy character creation is" and forgot the important stuff, the fact that ignoring onboarding talk, this game, and OSR games in general, aren't just a stripped down version of D&D. And the transition between modern D&D and the OSR games who emulate, either in mechanics or in feelings, the older editions, more specifically B/X, has to come with a change in mindset as well. Cause suddenly, you won't roll for anything, you won't have an extensive character sheet to fall back onto. And you should make that clear to the players, they should pay attention to your descriptions, ask questions and immerse themselves into the character: you don't roll for perception, rather you take the hand mirror and use it to check corners, you look up and check the ceiling, down under the various pieces of furniture.

In short, this is what this article is about. How to better explain and understand that change of mindset, both as a GM and as a player and how that is the key ingredient in understanding what OSR is truly about! I hope you will enjoy the read!

A while ago I wrote an article talking about how the Sabbat can be viewed as a sort of representation of counter-culture. And by that I mean the sort of caricature your average suburban mom would think about the counter culture during the heights of the Satanic Panic.

With that said however, where does that leave the Camarilla? For it is the opposite and equal force, the alpha to the omega. Given that the two are in total antithesis with each other, the Camarilla could thus be defined as a caricature of conservatism. Or at least what would've been seen as a caricature in back in the 90's. Let's not open the discussion of what's the current state of things.

So I think that would be the sort of thesis for this piece. We're looking at how does the Camarilla mash with conservatism, if they actually even do, what does that entail about the themes of the game and what does that mean for your table.

If that sounds like something you would be interested in, by all means, please do give it a read and voice your thoughts on the matter! I hope you will enjoy it!

I have been on a bit of an OSR acquisition spree lately. Cairn came home with me a couple of months back. More recently I picked up Whitebox, Into the Odd, Beneath the Sunken Catacombs, and the subject of today’s review: Basic Fantasy Roleplaying Game. The plan is to run all of them and eventually write a comparative piece examining what each system brings to the table, with Old School Essentials joining the lineup as well. I have played OSE but never run it, and it deserves a spot in the collection and the conversation.

Before that comparative piece happens, though, each game gets its own review. Hence this one, for a game released in… let me check… 2006. I was four years old in 2006. Four. So yeah, this is a review for a game released 20 years ago, back when I was just starting kindergarten. I bet I made some of you feel old with this particular comment :))).

Like with other reviews I made for older titles, I do not presume that in this review I will necessarily bring something new to the discussion, but rather I simply want to share my thoughts of the game, what I like, what I dislike, where do I come from with these opinions so that you, dear reader, might get something out of it, especially if you did not know about the game.

For those unfamiliar with it, Basic Fantasy is one of the earlier major OSR projects, created by Chris Gonnerman as a reinterpretation of classic early D&D. Mechanically, it takes inspiration from B/X D&D while smoothing out some of the stranger or more cumbersome legacy mechanics. Ascending armor class instead of THAC0, race and class being separated, and a very approachable presentation make it feel surprisingly modern despite its old-school roots.

I hope you enjoy the review and please do tell if you have any experience running or playing it!

Well, some of you might know that I am finishing my MA now and I also want to enroll for a PhD in about a year or so. And that in my process I have discovered that there is a small community of people in academia who do research on TTRPG from a plethora of angles and domains - Psychology, Anthropology, Sociology, Game Studies, etc. So I wanna join this merry bunch, but firstly I went into a rabbit hole in order to see what other wrote and thought so far.

While doing this particular exercise I stumbled upon the GNS theory. For those of you who are not aware, it's a theory developed in the early 2000's by game designer Ron Edwards in an attempt to create a unified understanding of how TTRPGs work. It argues that RPG play tends to prioritize either gamist challenge and victory, narrativist thematic storytelling and character drama, or simulationist immersion in a coherent fictional world.

At the time it gained traction, the GNS theory gathered many supporters and critics alike, and although it has fallen out of fashion, its history and legacy is something that I feel is worth exploring! I hope you will enjoy it and please do share any stories you have if you were already part of the community back in those days!

Another article by Horia? So soon? Well, I guess we are spoiled.

This time something that in retrospective sits somewhat closer to home than I anticipated when he first sent me the draft for editing. Some musings on creating your own system, the challenges and process of doing that.

To be more precise, in Horia's case, we are talking about trying to create a generic version of oWoD's Storyteller system for a cyberpunk game.

And before you say it, we're well aware of The Future World of Darkness, but sometimes Eris hits you with that sweet creative chaos and you have to ride the wave and build your own stuff.

I am genuinely curious to see if you tried anything similar to this, if you tried making your own system and how that whole endeavor went. Till next time, remember, ride that wave!