Tenkar's Tavern: Tavern Activity - Zine, Reviews and Assorted Plans for the Summer of 2013

Monday, July 8, 2013

Tavern Activity - Zine, Reviews and Assorted Plans for the Summer of 2013

As the recent heat wave in the North East reminded me, we are knee deep in summer. One always needs to make some summer plans.

The aim is to get the first issue of the Unofficial OSR zine out the first week of September. We have some excellent submissions this far (including a scenario for the original Chainmail rules) but there is always room for more. Remember, we pay in "beer money" ;)

I'd like to average a review a day, but now that I'm back from my week of vacation, it will probably slow to 3 or 4 a week if I'm lucky. I think Sailors of the Starless Sea will get reviewed tonight.

What I'd also like to do is a "DCC RPG Content Post" a day for the month of August (much like I did with Swords & Wizardry back in May) but getting the zine together may preclude me from hitting it daily. Maybe I'll aim for every other day. Crap, maybe I need to start working on that stuff now ;)

Oh, and tentative plans for a Swords & Wizardry Online Con / Gaming Event towards the end of September.

God bless my wife for being a good egg :)

1 comment:

skeetyrbugJuly 8, 2013 at 3:00 PM
The Online Con has my interest
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Why "Swords & Wizardry?"

Believe me when I say I have them all in dead tree format. I have OSRIC in full size, trade paperback and the Player's Guide. I have LL and the AEC (and somewhere OEC, but I can't find it at the moment). Obviously I have Basic Fantasy RPG. Actually, I have the whole available line in print. Way too much Castles & Crusades. We all know my love for the DCC RPG. I even have Dark Dungeons in print, the Delving Deeper boxed set, Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. BOTH editions of LotFP's Weird Fantasy and some dead tree copies of the Greyhawk Grognards Adventures Dark & Deep

I am so deep in the OSR when I come up for breath it's for the OSR's cousin, Tunnels & Trolls

So, out of all that, why Swords & Wizardry? Why, when I have been running a AD&D 1e / OSRIC campaign in Rappan Athuk am I using Swords & Wizardry and it's variant, Crypts & Things, for the second campaign? (Actually, now running a S&W Complete campaign, soon to be with multiple groups)

Because the shit works.

It's easy for lapsed gamers to pick up and feel like they haven't lost a step. I can house rule it and it doesn't break. It plays so close to the AD&D of my youth and college years (S&W Complete especially) that it continually surprises me. Just much less rules hopping than I remember. (my God but I can run it nearly without the book)

I grab and pick and steal from just about all OSR and Original resources. They seem to fit into S&W with little fuss. It may be the same with LL and the rest, but for me the ease of use fit's my expectations with S&W.

Even the single saving throw. That took me longer to adjust to, but even that seems like a natural to me now. Don't ask me why, it just does. Maybe it's the simplicity of it. At 45 52, simplicity and flexibility while remaining true to the feel of the original is an OSR hat trick for me ;)

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Monday, July 8, 2013

Tavern Activity - Zine, Reviews and Assorted Plans for the Summer of 2013

1 comment:

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