Category Archives: Uncategorized

On the Dearth of Posts

No, I haven’t abandoned this site! The high rate of quiet is due to an exciting new project I’m working on – a free FATE campaign world inspired by the Legends of Anglerre RPG from Cubicle 7. While it’s already public and not secret, I’m not quite ready to start pushing it. Soon, though…

Maintenance Fail

One of these days I will be able to self-host my blog. Until then I will have to put up with occasional fails when it comes to publishing articles. It seems neither wordpress nor blogger handles html tables very well; and, of course, most of Tékumel: Tales of the Five Empires is tabled. So until a better solution presents itself that portion of the blog will be put on hold.

Major Construction Underway

This weekend I’ll be working on the site architecture, namely Campaigns and the new House Rules & Conventions. Both departments are pretty much self-explanatory, and the goal is to have the structure in place by the end of Monday and allow the content to evolve. So please bear with me. Thanx.

Old School Renaissance

Some of you may have noticed that I added the OSR graphic to the site. I’m torn in my feelings (though not ambivalent) about this so-called ‘Old School Renaissance.’

Firstly, there’s the ambiguity about what it represents. Is it only Dungeons & Dragons, possibly to include its advanced cousin? Does it encompass all such role-playing products of the late 1970s and early ’80s – the ‘First Wave’ -  as these all shared in that excitement of discovery and imagination. To be honest, though AD&D was a constant presence in my life until 2e, after I discovered there were other games pretty much like it it ceased to be my favorite. In the early years  I worked my way through the catalog of Fantasy Games Unlimited, Inc. -  Space Opera, Villains & Vigilantes, Bushido and Daredevils, and others. All those games share many characteristics, having come out of the same tradition of wargaming. Many could be considered tactical simulations. Is that ‘Old School?’

Secondly, I never stopped playing those games. Oh, sure, I took an extended hiatus from gaming in general, but even after the ‘Second Wave’ of Warhammer FRP (which actually replaced AD&D as my go-to for fantasy RP), The Morrow Project, Twilight 2000, Judge Dredd (loooooooooved JD), and, uh… GURPS and the like I longed for the patient, character up-building of the elder generation. You don’t build castles and dole out titles in Warhammer (nor do you have the life-expectancy necessary to win land for a castle).

Thirdly, ‘Renaissance’ is a bit snide, isn’t it? It implies there was a dark ages of gaming. It’s true that the ’90s, after Rein-dot-Hagen showed us that storytelling could in fact be woven into the fabric of the rules – well the ’90s sucked. Chaosium almost killed themselves off when every RPG had to have a collectible card game spin-off. And then Wizards decided they could buy the industry (and I mean the entire industry). There were a few bright spots (imma huge fan of Over the Edge – my last gen-con ever I wore an al-Amarjan necktie over my Clapton Tweet is God t-shirt, but I digress), but mostly it paved the way for the ‘Third Wave’: Blue Planet, Serenity (hey, isn’t serenity just the old Earthdawn system and why is it Earthdawn sucked but Serenity works?), and the last Tékumel game.

So why adopt the OSR logo? I’d like to think it’s not just so I can hang with the cool kids. I’d like to think it’s because I embrace the spirit of those early ideals. I’d like to to think the ‘Renaissance’ means a rebirth of the industry as an open market for new directions.

Joyous Erastide

Merry Christmas

Happy Chanukah

Sweet Solstice

May to whichever God or Nature you appeal smile down upon you and bring to you much joy.

(Bonus points if you got the reference in the title.)