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Good Thinkings
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OSR Redo & Recon Converting Adapting EX2: The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror to Adventurer Conqueror King System II (ACKS II) - Adapting EX2: The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror to Adventurer Conqueror King System II (ACKS II) works remarkably well because ACKS II is built to support ...
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I Dunno, Mike; Or, the Nerd Superiority Complex - You may have heard that M. John Harrison, author of the *Viriconium* books among others, has recently won the Booker Prize (the UK's premier general 'pos...20 hours ago
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Soldiers of Misfortune: The Drawings of Urs Graf the Elder - A mercenary and miscreant, the Swiss Renaissance artist Urs Graf lived the violence and vice he summoned on his drafting table. Miya Tokumitsu introduces u...1 day ago
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The Hobgoblin Warlord - By Karla AdderKarla Adder PressOSRICLevels 1-3 For years, the southeast border of the Domain of Grauheim was silent, the thunder of marching footsteps and ...1 day ago
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What I learned from The Three Musketeers (1973) - I recently watched *The Devils *Director's Cut (1971) and was instantly obsessed. It felt so moving and awesome to me. In *The Devils, *Oliver Reed is t...
1 day ago -
A God Of Galline Supremacy - As a writer and designer I am always trying to do less exposition, less lore-dumping. My new tabletop roleplaying game + adventure, MACE OF THE MONKEY KI...2 days ago
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Brimstone Prologue - Bodies. Bodies up and down the road. Naked. Nailed up. The girl clasped her baby to her chest. Too young to have been witness to death. Too young, just...2 days ago
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Games Provide Safe-To-Fail Environments - *“**You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing that we call ‘failure’ is not the falling down, but the staying down.”* *— **Mary P...
2 days ago -
OSR: Sky Islands and The Curse of Count Zeppelin - Biplanes cross the skies. Spies, journalists, and detectives haunt the smoke-shrouded streets of floating cites. Expeditions to distant lands, fistfights...
2 days ago -
OSR: Sky Islands and The Curse of Count Zeppelin - Biplanes cross the skies. Spies, journalists, and detectives haunt the smoke-shrouded streets of floating cites. Expeditions to distant lands, fistfights...
2 days ago
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Welcome to The Con - [I was a player in a Cities Without Number campaign recently and it was great fun. This is the opening blurb to the game. Full play reports and my though...
3 days ago -
d20 Power Shifts - As factions butt heads in ongoing campaigns, it can be tempting to treat their conflicts as something that never resolves, or that resolves like a slidi...3 days ago
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Skumwad Village For Goat Quest - This is a simple village ive used in 4 con games. It was made on the fly as a doodle and used multiple times. This village has regular threats from chaos...
4 days ago -
d100 - Total Party “Keepers” for Less Lethality - On Occasion, an unlucky run on the Dice might result in a particular Conflict going incredibly poorly for the Party. It happens to the best of us, and wh...
4 days ago -
Notes on The Pool - Found this pic of one of my old journal pages from c. 2000 where I was working out the details for The Pool. My memory is of writing the game in one even...
4 days ago -
Doors (B/X + Old School minimalist) - Another brief pause in our series, because I think this deserves a post of its own. Moldvay's rules about doors are so terse that they are almost cryptic...
5 days ago -
WHAT TO KNOW: Advice for Players - *In the spirit of the Prismatic Wasteland blogwagon here are a few suggestions for players, that in my experience, avoid slowing down the game.* Nothing ...
5 days ago -
Kingdoms of Ink crowdfunding - Kingdoms Of Ink - Forge Your Fantasy In today’s post I will present you a crowdfunding at Kickstarter I think you may find interesting: Kingdoms of Ink. In...
5 days ago -
October Miscellany 2026: Windy Scrolls of the Morrow - *Omios Ures*: a forthcoming RPG setting; samples of which may be found here. The world presented is young enough to be vital, settled enough to be resist...1 week ago
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Updates from Patreon - Patreon is forcing some big changes to the Alexandrian. I started using Patreon all the way back in 2014. Since then, all of my patrons have transformed th...1 week ago
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Minute Might: A Wargame Review... - Roleplaying has wargaming blood. This goes without saying. It doesn't tell the whole story given Wesely's non-wargaming contributions to the hobby, but B...
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1 week ago -
Minute Might: A Wargame Review... - Roleplaying has wargaming blood. This goes without saying. It doesn't tell the whole story given Wesely's non-wargaming contributions to the hobby, but B...
1 week ago
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Tabletop Tips from the Reacherverse - Have you talked to your dad about Reacher? I haven't, but I have been talking to my mom. Mama Magnolia and I have spent the past two months or so wa...
1 week ago -
Hot-Sea-3 map (Changed Stars) - I drew a map for my Changed Stars campaign, the light blue sea areas are so shallow that they are sometime walkable with CCU exo suits.I plan to run a camp...
1 week ago -
On Suspense And Random Encounters - This is an alternative way to handle rolling for encounters that focuses on building suspense. Throughout most of my GMing career I have used the tried ...
1 week ago -
The giant mole Deinotherium of Paris avant les hommes - This translation of the Deinotherium segment of Paris avant les hommes (by Pierre Boitard, 1861) was requested by glarnboudin on tumblr. The book, which ca...2 weeks ago
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Post-It Dungeon for October TWO !!! - WE'RE DOIN' IT AGAIN!!! This dungeon can be either standalone (in which case there is an area for a potential entrance marked with a large E on the map...
3 weeks ago -
[SUPPLEMENT] Gamemaster’s Guidelines Beyond Fomalhaut (NOW AVAILABLE!) - *A Tome of Mastery“Heavy is the head that wears the crown! In role-playing games, the position of the gamemaster carries the most responsibility, as it is...
4 weeks ago -
Next Stop: Castle Ravenloft - For this year's Halloween game I'm doing something a little different with the original I6: Ravenloft. I've run it many times, and what I like most is ho...
4 weeks ago -
D100+ Border Reiver Eke-Names - Click the button below to get your very own border reiver's eke-name: Eke It Out Show tables Special thanks to Spwack for the generator generator here: h...4 weeks ago
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Summerween Horror Marathon 2026 - For some reason, this year I got into the Halloween spirit extra early. Beginning in early August, my wife and I began watching horror “classics” in the ...5 weeks ago
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Money in Mutants & Wizards - Money and wealth is always an issue in Post-apoc gaming. Mutants & Wizards uses precious metals with the expectation of bartering occurring where that's ...
5 weeks ago -
The Waves Rule Britannia (Some Notes on the UK of Invisible Hands) - *RUN LIKE HELL RUN LIKE HELL RUN LIKE HELL RUN LIKE HELL RUN LIKE HELL RUN LIKE HELL* In the UK, the god who rules is *Flood*, much like the *Economy...1 month ago
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Liquidation - *Liquidation *is a creature-capture corpo-crawl for Mothership, published by Spicy Tuna RPG, edited by Chris Airiau, and written by me. Players explore...2 months ago
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Back from the Void: "Where ya been, Gundobad?" - redux! - Well: hello again. It's been a year and a half since my last post, from February 2025. Meanwhile, any reports of my demise have been exaggerated (and hop...
2 months ago -
One Year before the Comms Array - I just realized that it's been almost a month since the one-year anniversary of running Operation Lamplighter. I think this is the longest I've been runnin...
2 months ago -
The Common Store of Monsters - I am slowly grinding my way through the re-writes for Veins of the Earth. As part of the re-write I have re-organised the ‘Pariahs of the Earth’ monsters ...3 months ago
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"Jaquays Your Dungeon" - Another OSR Maxim - Be Cautious of Maxims As I've written before, the "OSR" loved its maxims, short phrases that try to describe shared principles and act as a way of mutual...
3 months ago -
Doing a comprehensive survey of Appendix N - I’ve been chipping away at Appendix N since 2012 (although I’d read a number of Appendix N works prior to that, just not as Appendix N works), and my think...3 months ago
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Dragonlance: Law vs Chaos - Been thinking of Dragonlance again lately. And one thing that strikes me is that the setting works so much better on a classic Moorcockian axis of Law vs...4 months ago
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My 2025 in Review - Continuing my annual tradition, here are some of my favorite things from the last year. I think this is the first year where I've had to decide not to shou...
5 months ago -
al-Alam al-Wasat Classes - The classes detailed below represent a series of editorial choices. Some options are unused (or to be precise, sometimes shunted to the "foreign classes"...
5 months ago -
The OD&Dyssey - Fantastic Homeric AdventureConcept A sandbox campaign set in a fictionalized analogue of the Archaic period ( *circa* 800–500 BCE) of ancient Greece, using...
5 months ago -
The Norwood Reaper Random Table - If your D&D guy is over 20, it’s already over for him: THE NORWOOD REAPER COMETH To determine how over it is, roll on the Norwood Table at character creati...7 months ago
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Thoughts on Autocrats of Night & AD&D Dungeon Guidelines - My Autocrats of Night campaign, wherein the players were to delve the enemy megadungion and steal a Dragon Orb to break the power of the nasty dragon-ri...7 months ago
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Contextual Collapse - In an otherwise unpromisingly-titled article—“Could the US really release more of its strategic oil reserves?”—the Financial Times points out a surprising ...7 months ago
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Referee Sabotage - It is an old saw that players are bad at executing their plans. Imagine this common scene: the party have some big job that requires planning; perhaps robb...7 months ago
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D6 State of Orc & Goblin Clan Relations - Roll every day, keep if higher, resetting on a 1. 1. Orcs kill Goblins on sight because one looked at the clan chief wrong, Goblins fled into warr...7 months ago
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Mapping the pre D&D Dungeon Adventure From May 25 1972, Part 1 - Earlier (Here) we looked at the oldest dungeon dive preserved in Arneson's write up as found in *Blackmoor Foundations*. Turning now to the second dunge...
8 months ago -
Underkeep: a new game reminiscent of Dungeon master - *Underkeep* is a game which is currently in development, it is reminiscent of the old "Dungeon Master" which many of us used to play on Amiga 500 back i...9 months ago
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The Sacrament of the Minotaur - This is the first of a small series of posts which will be about how I am running Luke Gearing’s *Gradient Descent *in my Mothership home campaign. This ...
9 months ago -
The Reassembulation Will Be Messy - I’m reassembulating wizardthieffighter.com on a different platform, in a different format and style. This reassembulation will be messy. Most links will di...10 months ago
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2025 Gaming Summary and 2026 Plans - I didn't blog at all in 2025 because I was too busy gaming. I was playing in two weekly 5e (2014) campaigns and running a weekly Imperium Maledictum camp...10 months ago
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On a Happy New Year - We are about to experience the most social upheaval since industrialization. What will that look like in sixty years? Sinless is starting it's third yea...
10 months ago -
D&D: Inexpensive Miniatures options - Whether you are new to Dungeons & Dragons or coming back into the hobby after many, many years, you will probably want to add various play aids and acces...
10 months ago -
Postcards from the 2025 BIPOC Game Studies Conference - This collaborative essay brings together seven participants to reflect on their observations and experiences at the 2025 BIPOC Game Studies Conference at T...11 months ago
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The Earwight - The sinister little insects known as earwights are thought to have once been earwigs who fed on the decaying flesh of revenants or other matter suffused wi...1 year ago
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A Wraithblade to Bind a Murderer’s Soul - Wraiths are the restless souls of brutal murderers. They cannot find rest in death, and keep on tormenting the living, leaving behind a long trail of pain....1 year ago
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Deep Space & Derelicts: Basic/Xenotech version, an idea for a game - here's a little idea for a game that's been floating around my head for a while. what if early D&D had been based around classic scifi rather than cl...1 year ago
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tricks taught: risk, thought, and the Marxist (un)truth of myth in Sukumaland - *a matched pair of mabindas (Sukuma articulated dance figures) on a performance cord* “*For revolutionary consciousness is subjective consciousness...
1 year ago -
Why Did Natural 20's Become Automatic Hits? - Here's an observation I just made, that came up from a friend's question about the 1E AD&D rules for a big project they're working on. Ultimately this hi...
1 year ago -
Old school conversion notes #2 – Armor Class - After the first installation in this series (about different movement rate systems in OSR games) the turn has come to the differing armor class systems tha...1 year ago
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Alternative Experience Awards and Advancement - Alternative Experience Awards and Advancement (I started thinking about this as a way to make XP awards in 5e come from all three “Pillars of Adventure” r...1 year ago
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Pirates and Necromancers, a Play Report - Over the Thanksgiving weekend we did a lot of gaming ranging from “off-table” domain level stuff to some solo adventures to spell and magic item rese...1 year ago
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Knave 2e Alternate Attributes - Sometimes, I'm exactly in the mood for the classic simplicity of defining characters entirely by D&D's six attributes, as Knave does. But sometimes, I want...
2 years ago -
Indulge Me - I miss magazines. There was a time when you could walk into any shop and you’d find a plethora of gaming magazines in the used bins and on the new shelves....2 years ago
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Folie à Trois: Trophy Gold - Below is a shared review of *Trophy Gold (2022)*, a fantasy adventure game designed by Jesse Ross and published by The Gauntlet. Although it is informed ...3 years ago
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Another test - Now I’m testing the WP app. Drafting from my phone or tablet would be a useful way to blog more. Possibly. Does purple text show in my template? Quotey q...3 years ago
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Osamu Tezuka (1928 - 1989) - [image: Osamu Tezuka - Shonen Magazine Cover, 1970]Shonen Magazine Cover, 1970 [image: Osamu Tezuka - Shonen Magazine Cover Illustration 1970]Shonen Maga...4 years ago
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Notes on a semi-successful skill system - When I finished my Team Tsathogga campaign back in 2019, one of the things that I noted afterwards was the extent to which fighters had struggled to keep...4 years ago
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Behind the Screen #5: Old Men Rolling Dice - Welcome once again to Behind the Screen! This week take a stroll down memory lane alongside the gang at “Old Men Rolling Dice.” Jeremy and Jason are the go...4 years ago
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My FREE RPG 12v12 Is Out Now!!!! - I hope everyone is well. I am very excited to be able to share a little game I have been working on for a while. 12v12 is a D12-based multi-genre RPG, an...
5 years ago -
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CCLII. AoS28: Sunhold Deadwalkers and Netopyr - *A*t last found a bit of time for my personal projects, so I made a few figures real quick. Sunhold Deadwalkers I'm trying to settle for a definitive ...
6 years ago -
Spoils of the Gorgon Coast: The Degenerate Heir - As the kickstarter for the Zinequest Quartet winds down, I find myself in awe of the amount of folks who seem interested in my project; especially given t...
6 years ago -
The Plane of Lightning & Thoughts - Fulmens - Spells of the Storm-Wracked Noosphere - In conjunction with a good friend of mine I'm helping start the Planescape challenge. For those too lazy to click the link just now, its essentially a re-i...6 years ago
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The Metaminds of Vor - The Metaminds of Vor dream only of doomsday, calculating the odds of humanity’s demise. Synthroid agents tend to the needs of the massive brain-tanks, ...7 years ago
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Indefinite Hiatus - Due to intermittent technical problems on a dying computer and life-changing personal problems, I can't see myself gathering up the motivation to even keep...7 years ago
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Roomless, Mapless, Distanceless - a micro-ruleset for dungeoneering - I am currently running a heavily homebrewed game of Ultraviolet Grasslands with heavily homebrewed rules. Ultraviolet Grasslands, for those not in the k...7 years ago
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Profane and Profound Prep Part 2 - This is part 2 of my work to edit my magic items for a DMsGuild release, along with adding cursed items along the way. Here is part 1. Bone of a Saint 8000...7 years ago
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2018 Was a Hell of a Year - 2018 Was a Hell of a Year It was the greatest year to-date for Darker Hue Studios (DHS). So many things happened that it is a bit of a blur and the fee...7 years ago
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Save Versus All Wands Contest: What is the Value of the Coin Hoard? - Treasure Type H Announcing the third annual (well, not quite) Save Versus All Wands contest! You can read about and see the results of the first two - *...
8 years ago -
The Mystery of Dave Arneson's Engine - *(This article was written as part of Murkhill's Week-long celebration of Dave Arneson. Click the link to find more great articles!)* Like many other Dunge...
8 years ago -
spooky scary skeletons - Skeletons are my favorite D&D enemy. My players know this fact very well. It's become a running joke. Plug: Matt Bailey does amazing illustrations of skelet...
8 years ago -
On Chaos - *This post will have very little in terms of gameable mechanics. I'm wary of posting too much that borders on "game themed prose fiction" but I intend to r...
8 years ago -
DUNGEON#3:TOTALT JAVLA MORKER - PDF here It's a simple 13 room dungeon I've ran for new players to figure out how OSR is played. The dungeon can be easily adapted for your purposes b...
8 years ago -
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- Roger G-S
- Researcher in social science and appreciator of hexy wargames, role playing games, interactive fiction, board games, and CCGs. I've learned a lot doing design and rules editing work on the side for the Legend of the Five Rings CCG. But this blog is mostly about other things.
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No German terrorists?
ReplyDeleteMerry Chrimble!
Good stuff! Merry Christmas, Roger.
ReplyDeleteWell done
ReplyDeleteGreat! Merry Christmas.
ReplyDelete@ KG see #9-right hand column
ReplyDeleteSeriously, it's one barefoot guy!
123, so what you're saying is that Home Alone is Die Hard for kids?
ReplyDeleteCue epiphany!
I love the _look_ of these - what do you use to format the tables, Roger?
ReplyDeleteJust Powerpoint, Erik. Thanks!
ReplyDelete