Back in the O.S.S.R.

Hey everybody, it's been awhile since my last blog post. I've had lots of ideas for new blog posts but my interests have been shifting gears all over the place for the last couple of months and I hadn't been able to focus on the blog. First off, my blog had its one-year birthday back in March and I was going to do a contest give away to celebrate but it slipped past so quickly and never got around to it. So keep an eye out for that because it's coming real soon.

Hang on a sec, I gotta go look through my G+ feed to see everything I was doing 9 weeks ago.

Ok, I'm back. Some of the blog ideas I had in mind are Dark Places & Demogorgons from Bloat Games, The Fall of Delta Green from Pelgrane Press, White Box Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game by Seattle Hill Games, Leagues of Gothic Horror by Triple Ace Games, Saga of the Goblin Horde: Countdown deck from Zadmar Games, White Star: Galaxy Edition and The Hero's Journey Fantasy Roleplaying from Barrel Rider Games, Wrath and Glory from Ulisses Spiele, Cartoon Action Hour from Spectrum Games, For Coin & Blood from Gallant Knight Games, Astonishing Swordsmen And Sorcerers Of Hyperborea from North Wind Adventures, The Pirates Guide to Freeport from Green Ronin, I was a guest on the Finding the Narrative podcast, I also worked with Pete Spahn on a GM aide for WWII: Operation Whitebox, and I did some cartography for the Undead Island module from Cyclops Games.

Whew, as you can see I was all over the place the last two months. If you couldn't tell from the blog title, I've been looking at OSR games more frequently over the past couple of months (if that title doesn't make you think of the Beatles then you're lame brah!) For those that don't know, OSR stands for Old School Renaissance, Old School Revival, or Old School Roleplaying depending on who you talk to. This is an idea of going back to the roots of fantasy role playing. As I delved deeper into OSR I learned that I've played some of these games not realizing they were categorized as OSR. Particularly a game I ran for close to a year falls into this category. Castles & Crusades, which I've blogged about in the past uses the SIEGE Engine mechanic. Another OSR game I've wanted to play but never did was Swords & Wizardry (S&W). Instead I "borrowed" lots of S&W content to use in my C&C game. The great thing about OSR is that most if not all of the modules and creatures are cross compatible.

Hmmm. I think this is going to be a rather lengthy post.

As I was looking more into these OSR games I started wondering what is so different from one to the next. Do I need OSRIC (Old School Reference and Index Compilation), Labyrinth Lord, S&W, C&C, White Box, AD&D, or any of the other retro-clones out there? For those that haven't looked into it, there is a big list of games out there. So, what’s the difference between them? Basically, what it comes down to is which one suits you best. Each one is attempting to clone the best parts of some version of D&D and insert their own "house rules".

In order to figure out what the retro-clones are trying to emulate, we must first look at the progression of the D&D books. First there was Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. They wrote the original 3 Dungeons & Dragons volumes (OD&D) or white box as it is commonly referred to. Then that was followed up with 5 supplements. These OD&D supplements are Greyhawk, Blackmoor, Eldritch Wizardry, Gods Demi-Gods and Heroes, and Swords & Spells.

Next up is the Basic Set. This particular set gets a little confusing as there were multiple versions released. The first version of Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set is written by John Holmes, a few years later Tom Moldvay writes one. Around the same time as Moldvay, David Cook comes along and authors the Expert Set. This is commonly called B/X (Moldvay Basic/Cook Expert). A couple of years later Frank Mentzer comes out and writes a whole slew of stuff. First, he writes the Basic Set (commonly called the Red Box), then he writes the Expert Set, the Companion Set, the Master Rules, and the Immortal Rules. These 5 items from Frank Mentzer are commonly referred to as BECMI.

At the same time the Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set was released, TSR also carried a second line of D&D. This was called Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D). AD&D had many books and supplements from 1977 on through to 1988. In 1989 Advance Dungeons & Dragons Second Edition is released. Then in 2000, the 3rd edition comes out closely followed by v3.5 which lasted until the 4th edition is released in 2008. That finally brings us to the current 5th edition released in 2013.

I know, it’s all very confusing when talking about the early versions of D&D but hopefully this has helped someone figure out what the folks in the OSR community are talking about.

Now we can start looking at some of the books in question. I don't own OSRIC or Labyrinth Lord so I can't really comment on them but from what I understand, OSRIC is most like AD&D (1st edition for the lay folk) and Labyrinth Lord is considered a B/X clone. Let's start with the one I know fairly well. C&C is modeled after 3rd edition but has an AD&D feel to it. I haven't quite figured out why it feels this way but it does and I like it. I don't know if I ever mentioned this before but I cut my RPG teeth on AD&D. My older brother Rob, DM'd for my friend Brian and myself around the age of 8 or 9. Several years ago I attended GaryCon with some friends and I was hooked on C&C ever since. During that same convention I also played in a game of AD&D run by Weird Dave. That was a great game but it reminded me of some of the shortcomings of AD&D. Namely the armor class system. First of all, let me say that I don't like the descending armor class system. THAC0 never made much sense to me whatsoever. I was very excited to see 3rd edition removed it in favor of the ascending armor class. Thank you, Skip Williams, Monte Cook, and Jonathan Tweet.

Shortly after purchasing tons of Troll Lord Games supplements, I was running out of published modules to use and quite frankly, I was learning that published modules weren't always very well written or even very useful for me and my group. What was I to do? I started looking around and realized that all of the OD&D, AD&D, and S&W stuff could easily be converted to C&C. In some cases, I didn't even need to do any conversion at all. So, the next year at GaryCon I was looking around the dealer hall and I came across a booth that said Frog God Games. While perusing the S&W products I talked to the sales man, who sold me on Rappan Athuk and boy did I buy into it. This is one hell of a mega dungeon let me tell you. Anyway, I'm digressing. Back to the conundrum at hand.

All of this was several years ago and then I recently came across WWII: Operation Whitebox from Small Niche Games. You can read about that in my previous post. This game made me realize how simple it is to adapt this so called White Box game. So, I did some digging around and found the White Box Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game written by Charlie Mason which is based on the Swords & Wizardry White Box. Say what? I knew all about S&W but I never heard of a S&W White Box. Well, Charlie did a damn good job with his interpretation. So much so that I went and bought a hardcover from Lulu. This really breaks down the game and I don't think I would want anything simpler than this in my library. I highly recommend you check out Mr. Mason's White Box game.

This brings up another interesting topic, how simple of a rule system is too simple? This will be a good topic for another post so I'll leave it at that.

So now that I'm looking around at other OSR rule books, the question comes in. What makes them so different that I should get multiple books and play them all? I don't honestly think I can answer that question. Some people are trying to over simplify the games to the point where when I read the first 20 pages I'm like UGHH. It's wayyyy too simple for my tastes, I need more. Fortunately, lots of these books are free pdf downloads, so you can read them yourself and decide if you want to spend money on a printed copy.

Whilst I was perusing the OSR Google communities I also came across a post about someone finally getting the last signature needed in his DCC book. In the picture he posted were two hats alongside the book. I thought wow, those are cool. Now this isn't the first time I've seen those patches but I had no idea where anyone is getting them. I did a little digging around and finally found a blog post that talked about Thaddeus Moore's patches. Tenkar's Tavern did a great write up about it so I'm not going to re-write it. Check it out here. 

The person who posted that picture also got me thinking about DCC. I guess I never really thought about DCC as an OSR game. I've had the pdf for some time now and only looked at it for the artwork thus far. It makes perfect sense now though. The art is definitely reminiscent of the black and white line art style we all know and love. Crap, more OSR stuff to start thinking about.

Ooh yeah, I also found these bad boys over on Etsy. Check it out here.

At this rate, I don't think this blog post is ever going to end so I'm gonna call it quits here. I think I've got at least two more posts on this subject coming because I didn't even come close to answering the original question I had and it is such a broad topic. Another question I have is what defines a game as OSR? I don't think this is an easy and straight forward question either. Damn, this post is FUBAR. Well, at least I'm sticking to the moniker of my blog title. These are absolutely random thoughts.

Be sure to head over to the Nerds-International Google + community and don't forget about NIV Con on September 15th and 16th. You don't need to be a member to sign up to run or play in games. So head on over to the sign up page here. I look forward to hearing some new voices or even seeing new faces during the online convention.

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WWII: Operation Whitebox

Recently I came across this fun OSR based World War II game. Operation Whitebox (OWB)is a 186 page RPG published by Small Niche Games and written by Peter C. Spahn. It utilizes rules from WhiteBox which makes for a wonderfully simple game and adds in some crunch to get the game to work for your Normandy invasion. That's right, you can recreate the Normandy invasion with this little gem or any other part of the great war. You could even create your own version of the war. Maybe the Nazis took over Great Britain or perhaps Russia joined the Axis powers.

In OWB, the player play the role of special operations forces in WWII. They may be formally trained allied military or members of the resistance of occupied Germany. They could even be covert agents working to undermine the German war effort. Which ever way you want to play it your characters are considered special forces operatives for the purpose of this book. This gives some added benefits to the player, namely increased Armor Class. Another added benefit is that you are the best of the best which means you can accomplish things most others couldn't. When in doubt as to whether a player can attempt a task, the GM should have the player roll a d20 to see if they fail on a 1 in 20 chance. 

Speaking of Armor Class, this book provides two methods, Ascending and Descending. I prefer the Ascending Armor Class so that will be used here on out. As stated earlier special operatives recieve bonuses to armor class and after a brief conversation with Pete Spahn, it appears this is an often overlooked aspect. Page 36 tells us that the natural AC of a special forces operative starts at 12, otherwise it would be 10 for NPC's.

So far I've only read through the book and created 8 pregenerated characters to use for a game I'm running in a couple of weeks, but right now I'm loving it. I've also created a form fillable character sheet from the one included in the book for anyone interested in that as well.

The simplicity of the game comes from the fact that players only need a d20 and a d6 to play the game. All weapon damage is some form of d6. For example a grenade does 2d6+2, a thrown knife does 1d6-2, and the standard M1 Garand does 1d6+1. There are a few other variations of weapon damage but for the most part it all comes down to trappings. The M1 Garand will do the same as a Lee Enfield which will do the same as a Mauser 98.

I should talk about range modifiers as well since this confused me a bit. Apparently this is also an often misunderstood issue. I'll be honest and say that I just skimmed this section and didn't take the time to fully understand ranges when I posed a question over at the OWB Google+ community page. So I look at it as a kind of stacking multiplier. Short range = the range listed on the weapon stat. Medium range = 2 times short range, Long range = 3 times Medium range, and Extreme range = 4 times Long range. Each of the increases in range modifies the to hit roll with 0, -2, -4, and -6 respectively. 

All other rolls are d20 based. Saving throws and to hit rolls are modified d20. The attribute modifiers are very simple as well, 3-6 = -1, 7-14 = 0, and 15-18 = +1. There is an alternate to the simplified modifiers if one chooses but I think simple is better. This game is also capped out at level 5 which means no real discernible power creep.

Character creation is simple, roll 3d6 six times and go right down the line and plug them into the attributes, then pick your class. Your character class gives you specific class abilities and tells you the rest of your character's stats. Now roll on a few tables to find out your characters life before the war and their current rank in the military. 

As I said before, this game caps out at level 5 which means you can level up to increase Hit Points and improve modifiers but for the most part I would say this game is geared toward a one shot or even a mini campaign. On page 25 the author even tells us that this game "is designed for one-shot play so characters top our at 5th level, reflecting the brief nature of the actual war."

There are a few more rules that I'll only briefly mention but make the game so cool. Suppressive fire, Ambushes, Mass Combat, Vehicle Combat, Impact, Timed, and Static explosives. He also includes mini settings. These are basically weird spin-offs of the war. Nazi Superscience, Nazi Occult, and Galaxy War - Space Operations. 

I'm really stoked to play this game and can't wait. Now I just need to set it up in Fantasy Grounds and figure out how to add some sound effects. I'll also probably run this game at the next Nerds-International Virtual Con (NIV Con) on September 15-16, 2018. If you haven't checked it out yet, I suggest you go on over to the Nerds-International Google+ community and chat with some of the folks there. Its a community of gamers with thick skin. We like to razz each other so if you get offended easily then you may want to think twice about it but there are also so many content creators there that you may just enjoy it anyway. 

I'd like to take a moment to thank the guys from Finding the Narrative and Imaginary Ramblings for giving me and my blog a shout out on their podcasts. Thanks guys!

Nerds-International Google+ community page

Gettin' Crafty With RPG Maps

Some time ago I was asked how I made my maps and I told them in a short one paragraph social media post. Today I’d like to expand on that a bit more and add in some photographs of the process I use. It’s really simple when you think about it. Print the pictures, glue them down, and cut them out. The most important thing to keep in mind is the paper quality is what makes the maps look great. I used to be in the camp that paper is paper. There’s no need to waste money on expensive paper. But then I was never happy with the quality of the images. It took me well over a year to finally understand that the finish and quality of paper does matter. For this project I’m using Office Depot’s premium brochure & flyer paper.

The first step is to print out the tiles and I’m making a 24”x36” map out of 6” tiles which will give me a total of 24 tiles. Then loosely cut out the images with a pair of scissors leaving around 1/8” to 1/4” of white around the edge of the picture. Finding the tiles can be a challenge if you're as picky about as I am. DriveThruRPG is a great source. Conversely, if you can't find tiles then you could also take your own map and cut it up in Photoshop.

With all 24 images cut out we can move on to cutting up the 3/16” foam board. You did buy foam board right? No, well then go to Walmart and buy some. This project will require two sheets. I prefer the black foam board because the texture of the paper feels rougher to my hand which means the glue will have more tooth to hold onto. Don’t fret if you can’t find the black one. Just go ahead and get the white, it will work just as well.

While you’re there go ahead and buy some glue. I prefer the Scotch brand glue as it allows me enough time to readjust any misalignment and dries fairly quickly. I’ve used glue sticks in the past and would continue using them if I couldn’t find the Scotch glue anymore. One of these Scotch glue applicators let me adhere 37 of the 6” tiles.

Now that we have our craft supplies we can start cutting stuff. I like to start by cutting the foam board into smaller more manageable sizes. Lets cut them into 7” strips. Start by laying out the board so that the long side is going left to right. Then measure from the end 7” and make a mark at the top, middle, and bottom of the board.

Now line up a ruler and cut along the marks you just made. I didn’t have a ruler long enough to cut it in one pass so I started my cut in the middle and cut the side closest to me.

After a few passes, the bottom section can be lifted enough so that the ruler can butt up to it and be slid up to the top. The cut edge acts as a guide for the ruler. Now finish the cut.

Continue cutting the rest of both foam boards the same way and you’ll end up with 8 sections of 7” x 20” and a couple of scrap pieces.

The next step is to turn the foam board so that the 20” length is facing left to right and cut them into 6 ½” sections. You’ll end up with two 6 ½” x 7” pieces and one 7” x 7” piece.

Finish cutting the remaining 7 sections of 7” x 20” in the same manner and you’ll end up with 24 rough tiles.

Let’s start gluing. Because I’m right handed, I started at the lower right corner, went around the perimeter to the lower left corner then made a bunch of squiggly’s and end up back at the lower right corner. In order to keep glue off of my hands I made the squiggly’s far enough apart to allow me to place a finger to hold down the paper. The paper will curl up afterward so you can reach under it to pick it up.

Now place it on a piece of foam board. I use the bottom of my fist to hopefully spread the glue by starting in the middle and sliding out toward the edges.

Then I flip it over and place a heavy object on top until the glue dries. Here you can see me using a Variac and a fire extinguisher to weigh down the foam board.

After 30 minutes or so I remove the weights and finish cutting the tiles. Flip the tiles over and line up a ruler along the edge. Cut the tile while angling the knife so that an undercut is made. Make several passes and let the knife do the work. If it’s too hard to cut or you find yourself pressing hard then the knife is dull and you need a new blade. The first cut should be made slowly so that you get a clean cut of the picture. Then make more passes until the scrap piece falls away.

When everything is all done you’ll have 24 tiles and a box full of scrap foam board. Easy Peasy.

I should also mention that it will not turn out perfect no matter what you do. There will be blemishes and it doesn’t matter. It will still look great. You may see some slight bubbles in the tiles or some of your cuts might wander a little. The tiles will not be perfect 6” squares. Once you get past your OCD you can enjoy the fruits of your labor. Have fun with the project and don’t get bogged down by small details.

Nerds-International Google+ community page