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Spore and XP I am currently designing my heroic OSR game. One big touchstone for my heroic OSR game is Spore, a game developed by Maxis. In it, you gain DNA points to grow from a cell, to a creature, to a tribe, to a civilization and ending at galactic force. I intend to focus on the creature stage as you stop evolving after the creature stage.  You can gain DNA points from eating plant matter and other creatures to later, befriending and killing other species. I thought I could just replace gold with DNA and call it a day. That felt lazy and did some further thinking. Why do these creatures want treasure? They aren't even fully sentient. So I created a XP checklist inspired by games like Dungeon World and Vagabond. Since I don't use XP for gold, the only reason I had it was for shopping. Shopping is the bane of my existence in ttrpgs so I just decided than and there that there was no gold and shopping, instead treasure can be more ordinary items like rope and 10 ft poles.  ...

Heroic OSR All the talk recently about reducing lethality in OSR games got me thinking about "A Quick Primer For Old School Gaming". One of the Zen moments mentioned in the primer is Heroic, not Superheroic. I find a lot of OSR games focus on mud farmers growing over time to be monarchs and sorcerers. I personally don't like this as free time is becoming more and more scarce. I won't be able to run enough sessions to get players to the end goal of monarch, sorcerer or homeowner. I like ruling not rules, I like that problem solving outside the sheet is important, I like the avoidance of game balance but I don't want to play mud farmers all the time. This looks like a job for me.   From Land of The Blind A game that has what I am going for is FIST by Claymore. The only issue is it is more modern and I want to run fantasy. Break!! by Grey Wizard and Madrinan, from what reviews I have read, gets closer but it is unclear about how I am supposed to play the game. All ot...

How did we get here? I read up on the Pendragon ttrpg and I thought about having a legacy by playing your characters next of kin. I also found out about legacy games that change based on the events of previous games. I was bored one night and decided to combine these, finding as many resolution mechanics as I can and adding them to the possible ways that your next of kin will resolve dice. I asked my players and one of them said and I quote "No child of mine rolls a d100 for anything, we are a family with standards!" From findmypast.ie Generations  First you roll for siblings which varies by species but for humans they roll 1d6-1 for siblings. At this point, you choose a resolution mechanic like 1d20 roll under. This is what you roll to resolve checks.  Then roll 1d6 for each sibling and any children you have (be it born, adopted, built or otherwise). On a 1-3 on a d6 the person will use the same resolution mechanic as you. On a 4-6 they roll on the Master List.. I am current...

 So my Lands of legend campaign is ending soon, one more session. They got the artifacts and are almost ready to fight Olwin, The Cunning. The game is going great everyone is happy, everything has a nice bit of closure and one of my players asked, "what's next?". This question send shivers down my spine. Truth is, I have no idea about ending a campaign in a good way and starting something new. A lot of times campaigns fizzle, bang or poof but this has not. The campaign can't be extended as myself and my players are going to be a lot more busy. I asked my players and some want to do a New Game+ of sorts, same world different angle. Some (like myself) are wanting to play a campaign under a different GM. Some are busy and will be the end of rolling dice, for the next while at least. A lot of folks talk about how to start a campaign or great campaign starters but never great campaign climaxes. There are hundreds of resources for GMing the first session, but not the last. ...

Magic is something that is mysterious yet close by. It is important to some and barely a thought for others. Magic is something the gods don't touch and is how they distribute their miracles. It all depends on who you ask and what they do with magic.  Magic has been documented being a small creature that flies around, curious. The form of magic is different based on who casts it and their relationship with it. Those that respect magic and cast it correctly say it is a creature they find cute and friendly. Those that don't respect magic say it is a creature that is scary and carnivorous. It follows you but only listens and springs into sight if you have an offer. Offers are the core of spellcasting. First you make an offering. This offering will be eaten by the creature. The favourite food of magic and the most reliable offering is a promise. You make a promise like "For the next hour I shall not speak. In return I ask to help me find my sheep". Then, each word spoken ...