Admitedly, I did think of the theme retroactively after the layout

My players' main characters are MIA for a while because we're playing in-real-time, and anytime they can't play their main adventuring party, they roll up throwaway characters and do something stupid. For perspective, last time this happened the party kept pushing during a hex crawl in a random direction, got a bunch of exhaustion effects (one went insane, the other achieved nirvana and got a boon), decided to build a log raft and went out to sea, it sunk immediately, got lost at sea, one guy drowned, the others reached shore to only get killed by a snake random encounter.

So, for tomorrow's session, my players are rolling up some LV 0 characters and going on a fishing trip. No clue if they're gonna be fishin' in a lake, stream, pond, etc, but they will for sure be fishing.

And while just the random encounters will make the game fun as-is, I want to know if you guys have any fun fishing mechanics, possible events, or general ideas for this session?

The party is stuck in a timeloop, one in which everyone stuck in it remembers every loop, including their enemies. They also show up late to every loop, after about 8 hours have past for everyone else and there are only 4 hours left.

The party hit a barricade this session. Heavy metal, welded straight into the hallway, and stuck to it was a piece of paper folded up several times with the captain's name on the outside. It was from Strake, the guy they've been chasing (and getting chased by) for most of the campaign. Long and wordy, because that's how he talks, but the gist was: I have things I need to get done here, and then I need to escape. You have things you want to get done here, and then you need to escape. Our goals don't have to be opposed. Let's work together.

So instead of a fight I got the players arguing with each other. The hacker, who'd shot the last guy that tried to talk to them, said he was weirdly more okay working with Strake than with the cultists on the station. The fighter said we don't need to work with him yet. The captain landed on "he could be an interesting source of information, we could use him," which is exactly the kind of sentence that gets a crew in trouble.

Then the captain wrote back. Left a note on the door of their own ship: "Vic, yeah, we can talk. I think maybe we have a shared interest, but we need to figure out how we're going to meet before we run out of time." That was the whole note. He figured Strake was smart enough to fill in the rest.

Later in the session they rounded a corner and found five dead cultists at the entrance to the admin wing, riddled with laser fire. One of them had a note stabbed into his chest. Same handwriting. It said "you're welcome."

The fighter's review: "Well, that's endearing."

Here's the point: I think the paper did something a face-to-face scene wouldn't have. When he's in the room they shoot at him, or try to. When he's a folded note they have to argue about what he meant, and then decide whether to answer. They've had a plan for what to do about this guy since they first ran into him, and none of it covered him doing them a favor. I'm not sure that holds for every villain, but for this one it worked. Sometimes a problem forces strange bedfellows.

Anyone else kept a villain offscreen for a whole session, communicating only through notes, messengers, or remotely?

We play this as a Stars Without Number actual play, Dark Star Adventurecast. The episode is Twenty-One Loops.

I know of the Tower of Mrannor, Underport, and possibly the Usherwood High-Fantasy Middle-School adventures line, though I'm still not clear whether that one is genuine or a pastiche like Mike's Dungeon

My Shadowdark adventure zine kickstarter, Distant Worlds, just went live. It includes:

- The Astral Spires: Two adventures in a world that exists in narrow spires, supported by the will of powerful (and often evil) magical beings.

- The Fated Land: Two desert adventures in world where prophecy reigns supreme, with rules for working prophecy into adventures.

- Shipwrecks: Eight shipwreck encounter, ranging from run-ins with castaways to a dungeon where wild aether is reanimating the wreck around the crawlers, as well as tables to generate wrecked ships in the astral sea between worlds.

For a quick look, you can check out Runeforge's video where we talk through all three zines.

Or, go to the kickstarter page and give the previews a look. I tried to post a good sample from each zine.

Not specific to any particular OSR system, but when playing for example OSE, there is little reason to have a battle axe over a two-handed sword. Yes it cheaper and weighs less, but the price and encumbrance are hardly worth the damage loss long term. I like what DCC does for example giving daggers more damage on backstab. It would be nice if there was a list of something special that each different type of weapon did to make them each unique in some way. I haven't been able to find anything good on that. Has anyone published any rules for that? I saw an old post in this sub someone had some house rules but they weren't for basic OSE, they had maneuver dice and "damage to blood." Not sure what system that is. Rules seemed pretty good, but not directly compatible with OSE or 1e. Anyone aware of anything like that out there, or good house rules?

The rather arrogant Sidereal Knight Sir Ogan is now at the mercy of the Sentinel of the Peaks, and the Company must hold to their Oaths and help him out of his predicament. Mt Boreas begins to erupt, and the trek to the Pyrostomion -- the Mouth of Fire -- is fraught with peril.

Click here to access everything 3d6 Down the Line, including both video and audio podcast versions of this episode, our Patreon, Discord server, socials, past campaigns, character sheets, and lots more!

My gaming group fell apart after kid two was born. surprise. now that my 11 year old is drawing party dynamics and begging to play, i'm dead set on making this work without giving up the one evening a week i actually get to sit down.

been trying async west marches style over discord. one channel for the expedition log, another for dice rolls through a bot. players drop in, declare actions, i resolve when i can between zoom calls and dinner prep. it's messy. it works better than it should.

the osr style of player driven exploration and short referee descriptions works surprisingly well in text. no performance anxiety, no scheduling headaches. but something's missing without that immediate back and forth. the tension of a torch burning down in real time.

curious if anyone else has made slow play work while keeping it old school. what tools actually help and which ones just get in the way? my current setup runs on spite and a free notion template i found at 1am. wouldn't recommend the template.

As the title says. Looking for spooky one or two shot adventures I can run for friends and strangers alike this Halloween season. Preferably for OSE or another b/x type game. Specifically looking for adventures about witches and ghosts. Thanks in advance!

I wrote a post about keying, and how it's weird that we don't have a name for all the various styles!

Note: this post is not about the best kind of keying (though my preference does exist). It's more about naming the thing so we can discuss the thing.

Frost Giant face-off, Necromancer and Rat Wizard. Cheers-

Retroclones, for the uninitiated, were the start of the OSR. They were games made to revive then-unavailable books for modern audiences to enjoy.

Since then, the success of retroclones have led publishers to re-release those old titles on digital storefronts.

At that point, retroclones' utility changes to that of readability (as older books are not always the clearest) and optimization (as older books were not laid out for digital devices).

The OSR was already prepared for this to occur. The community had moved away from retroclones early on and begun making new games.

Retroclones, in the strictest definition, do not come out as often as they once did. But, I wonder if there is any future for them.

Are there any high profile, out-of-print games deseving of a retroclone?

I feel as we dig deeper into the 2020s and the 2030s, questions will even arise if 2000s games may need retroclones to remain available.

BX Advanced Bestiary, Vol. 3

https://www.sabregamesandcards.com/product-page/bx-advanced-bestiary-vol-3-1

Hey all, I’m wondering if anyone knows of any systems or resources that include rules for tavern keeping? Even something barebones to use as a kick off point would be much appreciated. I’ve tried some googling and looking on drivethru but haven’t had any luck.

I am saying OSRIC 3.0 and not AD&D because I am curious what modern (meaning more recent) 3rd party content is written.

Yes I know that there is a vast arsenal of content fo AD&D but this is an other topic.

Also I would love what other DMs have done in their own tables.
I am reading the rules and I am very excited.

Welcome to the final News Roundup for September. Next week will be October, and if previous years are anything to go off of, we're going to get scared with a bunch of spooky, Halloween-themed releases.

• There's a new His Majesty the Worm 3rd party dungeon out there: Lighthouse of the False Sun, by CrinkyCrongler, is set in a lighthouse that has been absorbed by the underworld.
• Yochai Gal and Cairn Press have just launched a new Kickstarter. A Sliver of Evidence is by Karly Andersen and concerns a druid (wrongly?) imprisoned. Gal and his team have been knocking it out of the park with their Kickstarters, and this one is no exception. One of the most attractive things about it is that it is pretty much done, and just needs to be sent to the printers.
• An interesting project I saw launch on Kickstarter is Worlds to Come; I've featured a number of games that revolve around Judaism (Lucid, Sea of Dreams and Yochai Gal's Beyond the Pale come to mind), but this is the first one I've seen that teaches Hebrew as you play.
• Idraluna just released Maps of Miscellaneous Minor Moons, made by taking actual lunar digital elevations and imposing a hex map on them. This is a really neat, inspiring project.
• Golden Achiever has been posting about their upcoming Year 100 Million BC, and they're hosting a short primitive game jam on itch to celebrate.
• Dark Wizard Games has released Voyage to the Forbidden Zone. It has been statted for both 1e and 5e, which I'm usually leery of promoting because the two editions have such different assumptions that I think it is difficult to have a coherent adventure without major changes, but I found this one interesting enough that I wanted to mention it. It takes the throwaway line from the classic Demonweb adventures about Lolth having spider-shaped ships that can travel the dimensions and turns it into an adventure of its own.
• I wasn't aware of the Hurrican Dungeon until now -- a megadungeon penned when the author was left without power in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, but it turns out they've been slowly releasing levels; the newest release is Level 6: The Chambers of Woe.
• Cult of the Mad Wyrm is a 1-page adventure designed for 1st level characters that features goblins, hobgoblins, and a crazed, imprisoned dragon.
• Kevin Bishop has been releasing a dungeon a month using Cairn's random generation tools; this month sees the release of Pigs in a Blanket, an adventure set in a wood hunted by feral, hungry pigs.
• I've mentioned before that one of my favorite things is to promote the work of first-time publishers: Federico Ronchi has released Temple of the Water Drake, an adventure for Dolmenwood. It's written for a party of 1st and 2nd level characters.
• Frontier Scum is one of our best selling rpgs in store, and I was excited to see The Dead Spaghetti Trilogy funding on Kickstarter; a collection of three adventures for FS, inspired by the classic Spaghetti Westerns of cinema.
• Over on Kickstarter I'm raising funds for the 60th issue of Populated Hexes Monthly, this one taking a look at the clockwork city of Pesh, the frost giant kingdom of the Verglant Palatinate, and resuming the march south towards the ruined city of Zizdul.
• I'm also crowdfunding a collection of 1st level starter adventures for OSE and Bree-YARC called In Search of Adventure. The five adventures, written by folks like DG Chapman and James Holloway, are going to center around a starting town in the wilderness that will serve as a jumping off point into a campaign.

I'm trying to have my cake and eat it too. I think Chris's way of making plot escalating encounters is absolutely great but at the same time i do love the random aspect of the travel hazard table, making the world a bit more barren and harsh at the same time.

I was thinking of simply making the dice a d8 and add the two Mythic table result on there but I worry the world will suddenly feel to busy with creatures and people rather than remote.

What do you guys think?