No, seriously.
I wasn't frozen in carbonite, but I did miss a bunch of neat stuff.
Everyone's top news: D&D 5e. The New York Times even talked about it, because apparently there's nothing better happening. Prediction: D&D will morph 3e with retroclone elements, essentially becoming a pastiche of itself. And then Grant Morrison will get involved, and somehow it will implode in one giant, orgiastic rite.
They've been on this apologist kick for a while, and while I wish them well and appreciate trying to make everyone happy, Wizards would likely be best served by picking a fanbase and sticking with it.
Though, who knows? The OSR blogs do crowdsourcing all the time (Gigacrawler, anyone?), and it doesn't turn into a morass of insanity. Or sometimes it does, but that's part of the charm.
Anyway. That's all I have to say about that (though I might return to 5e when the open playtest starts; I signed up, so maybe I'll be involved and write about stuff).
Here's some other awesome stuff I missed:
Jeff's Gameblog gives us this video about Mazes and Monsters. The video is a funny homage to Office Space and would be worth watching on its own, but Jeff Rients also links to this fan-made Mazes and Monsters ruleset. Amazing.
The Trollish Delver gives us five free RPGs available for download. Right now.
Monsters and Manuals gives us, well, some random manual tables.
D&D With Porn Stars gives us Appendix S, a D&D reference for those with short attention spans. This includes this Adventure Time episode, this Powerpuff Girls episode, and this Home Movies episode.
Role-Player Hater gives us a Lovecraftian spin on the orang minyak. What's that, you say? You've never heard of them? Well, here's one news story, and here's another about these "oily men."
What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse gives us an oD&D writeup on the Dokkaebi, which establishes an adapting-weird-Oriental-monsters theme when combined with the orang minyak adaptation mentioned above. Also, Jeff Rients' idea of doing an Oriental oD&D campaign, which I occasionally consider because that sounds neat. Yes, I'm aware that Rients' campaign would be Japanese and the Dokkaebi is Korean. It still sparked a connection in my head, probably because Lord Gwydion likens Dokkaebi to Oni.
Studio Arkhein suggests that we never, ever let demons read Carcosa, because then they'll get all sorts of ideas about what sorcerers are supposed to do. Then again, what is magic without sacrifice?
Finally, D&D With Porn Stars again, this time talking about skills in D&D.
No comments:
Post a Comment