OSR blogs of interest
Sea and caravan encounter tables from aeons and augauries (sic) and swordnboard respectively. These blogs don’t seem like fabulous resources in their own right, but reinforce my impression, gleaned from hours of surfing OSR blogs, that even the worst commenter can seem quite affable and interesting on their own ground and topic.
These things make me think of the D&D table as a cognitive mode, a way of understanding the world or modeling data. You know that sometimes certain things happen. Maybe they are genre mainstays. So you arrange them into a random encounter table because that’s a certain scopic take on how the world works: shit happens, specifically this shit here.
Since the first is really a Moby Dick encounter table and the last is really a Conan encounter table, they also make me think of encounter tables for other famous works: what would an encounter table for The Waste Land or Gravity’s Rainbow look like? 1-3: concussed hallucinating infantryman – 50% chance of home made superhero costume antics. 4-6: maudlin Nazi pervert. 7-9: superficially alluring female who is actually experiencing severe trauma that none of the male characters has the emotional intelligence to observe.
Actually interesting OSR blogs: Telecanter, Dungeons and Digressions, Planet Algol, Jeff Rients even though I’m not crazy about his last several posts, Cyclopeatron, which when it’s good is very good indeed (shades of Super Mario Galaxy here), Dreams in the Lich House, Tao of D&D (when Alexis isn’t just grumbling), Pedantry, which is “historical D&D set in Europe in 1618 on the eve of the Thirty Years’ War,” Quickly, Quietly, Carefully, 9 and 30 kingdoms, The Mule Abides, which is currently all about seaborne “saltbox” games, Highly entertaining and just occasionally brilliant: D&D with porn stars, JOESKY, Vaults of Nagoh, Strange Magic for its monster makeovers and minimal Bene Gesserit class. What they all have in common: they write actual usable content and musings that spark ideas in my head. Most OSR blogs (most blogs, actually) make me tired.
Discourse and Dragons is an academic studying OSR. Lands of ARA I’m mostly interested in because they’re hosting the Sea of O’sr, Sickly Purple Death Ray did a nice map I might use as a vertical section some day.
Blogs I wish I had more time for: Delta. I love his sense of organisation, but I’m just not interested in the granularity or passion or simulationism of his rules. Sorry. Trollsmyth I probably could make more time for.
Potentially most interesting development of all: Roger’s Roles, rules and rolls, which contains theory posts on interactive fiction, and Alexis’ Same Universe Wiki. Remember to offer them my findings from Goitein, ibn Jubayr, other sources on medieval Mediterranean trade and travel. UPDATE: on second thought, no. I don’t want to work with this guy, sorry (the real horror starts in the comments). So. There should really be a central clearing house where OSR stuff can be stored. Like a wiki. Only a different one. Maybe I have to set it up.
What I’ve learned from all this: blogrolls are love – they direct readers to other stuff you recommend and work as an RSS for you. Dynamically updating blogrolls are a public service and will drive traffic to your page if it’s lazy like me and doesn’t have its own set up (maybe I should do something about that). Blogrolls also propagate the tools that enable them: it’s easier to get an identity as a commenter, get linked as a blogger, looks like part of the OSR community and get credit from everyone else if you’re on blogger, because everyone’s on blogger. Interesting.
Recent Posts
- Have you tried ANT? A response to Marcia’s “OSR is Dead” post
- The Ritual
- An addendum to the previous post on magic and technology
- On the difference between magic and technology
- Let’s play pirates!
- On the regular hell that is the improved Spanish Prisoner con
- On the special hell that is the Spanish Prisoner con
- Brexotica
- Fallen London: French Vanilla chef kiss
- On tactics and surprise
- Interlude: on cinematography and interior design in Ratched and The New Pope
- On history
- Some Basic Anthropology Texts For DMs
- Maps of some classic dungeons, 3: Ramses’s linear psychopomp
- on the costs of trade
- Interlude: Cheese Guns
- A city is not a dungeon
- Another Interlude – on the dangers of writing skill lists for foreigners, or: IB ToK’s “indigenous knowledge framework”
- Interlude: some thoughts about dancing, wrestling, and performance
- Maps of some classic dungeons, 2: karst cave systems
- Maps of some classic dungeons, 1: The Pantheon, Paris
- An ill-considered paddle in political literary commentary, or: whither the SAT essay?
- Rationalist vs Empiricist Cartographies
- The implicit game in original Traveller’s ship loan rules
- we apologize for the explosion of posts
- “First, eliminate the impossible.”
- A fascinating little biography of the creator of the Theremin
- A “hotspot” is melting the base of the Antarctic Ice Sheet at the South Pole. The area affected is three times that of Greater London. Scientists suspect a combination of unusually radioactive rocks and geothermal springs may be responsible.
- one for Paolo Greco: #itsMageblade!time
- All games are theories about the world
Archives
- June 2022
- February 2022
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- November 2020
- July 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- July 2015
- January 2015
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
Telecanter
- Abiørn's Satchel October 13, 2021This weathered leather satchel is tooled in nautical designs and is full of rose-colored salt. Rubbing the salt on a sea creature will dry it out and shrink it to a tiny size without harming it (an hour of drying for each ton). When placed in water again the creature will revitalize and grow back to original size. It is said this was how the narwhals came […]
Rients
- Encounter Critical news?!? June 15, 2021
Quickly, quietly, carefully
- My new blog: devilghost.com October 17, 2018
Roles, rules and rolls
- 2021 Year End: Not Much Blogging For Me December 31, 2021
Dungeons & Digressions
- The Player's Handbook IPA September 8, 2019
Mule Abides
- 0-Level ACKS Alices January 1, 2015
Algol
- [chapter 2] April 11, 2019
Warriors of the Red Planet
- Sketches August 13, 2021
9&30 Kingdoms
- Drop Wolves Art December 11, 2021
Jovial Priest
- My FIVE favourite house rules January 1, 2014
Lich house
- Favorite DM Advice of the Week March 20, 2022