The Original Dungeons & Dragons published in the Three Little Brown Books is a delightful and frustrating game. It’s good simple fun, with some real virtues that had already been diluted or lost by the time of Holmes, Moldvay, and the Advanced edition of the game. OD&D was my introduction to the OSR, through Brendan’s Pahvelorn campaign, and I’ve retained an abiding love for it. But it’s clunky, inconsistently written, requires the players to reference entirely different games for combat and wilderness travel rules. It has desperately needed an update since the day it was published, and the only problem is that every heretofore existing update has made OD&D worse in some way.
My friend Marcia, of Traverse Fantasy, has spent over a year studying OD&D. She’s been working to unpack its mysteries for nearly as long as I’ve known her. Applying her mathematical skills to teasing out all the hidden implications of its mechanics. She has weighed each oddity to identify whether it’s suggestive of interesting worldbuilding, or if it’s simply a mistake. She has collected the external material from Chainmail and Outdoor Survival and performed the same rigorous examination there. She’s worked to clarify the game from top to bottom.
And because she’s dedicated to engaging with this hobby as a hobby, she doesn’t even want any of your money for it. This invaluable work of love and sweat is yours to play for free.
It’s happening right now!26 episodes! 8 hours of RPG thoughts, theories, and flavor for your listening enjoyment!
Back up, what is this about?
Blogs on Tape is a podcast with a very simple purpose: we find good blog posts from the OSR and adjacent RPG scenes, and we perform readings of them. Each episode is just one post. Our aim is to make the scene easier for people to dip their toe into. Listen to D&D blogs on your commute, or while you do the dishes, or while you exercise.
When do new episodes come out?
Every weekday (Monday-Friday) a new episode will drop at 8AM (PST). This will continue until all Season 5 episodes have aired. (Last episode will be on November 24th). After that, Blogs on Tape will go back into hibernation until some point in 2023.
Where can I find these episodes?
The Blogs on Tape website is where they will first appear. After that, sandestins carry the episodes off to add them to Apple Podcasts, Podbay, and Spotify. (Though, as anyone who deals with sandestins can tell you, these creatures are sometimes lazy and may not do their job as quickly as you’d like.)
I’ve also got a thread on twitter that I’m updating each morning as new episodes get added. If you’re on twitter, that thread is worth following.
How can I help?
A Ko-Fi donation to help pay our hosting costs would be a big help. As Blogs on Tape grows (134 episodes at the end of this season! A total of 26 hours of audio!) hosting fees may become a greater concern. Getting some or all of it covered by community support would be a load off.
Aside from that, I really appreciate suggestions for which blog posts are worth reading. I also accept recordings from guest readers. In either event please contact me directly at my business email address.
Lastly, you can do all the same sorts of algorithm-feeding stuff that helps any creative project: retweet that thread I linked above. Post about episodes you enjoyed on your social media of choice. Tell a friend. Rate and review the podcast on Apple/Podbay/Spotify.
Honestly though, you don’t owe me anything. I do this because I care about this scene and enjoy feeling like I’m contributing to it. More than anything I’m just happy to have found a project that folks enjoy.
Organizing campaign notes is frustrating. My preference would be to keep all my hobby material in an analog format, but it’s not practical. A campaign is a constantly evolving mesh of interconnected ideas. A referee can never know which parts of their notes will need to be removed, or expanded wildly beyond their original scope. I’ve tried a bunch of methods: binders, notebooks, recipe boxes full of index cards, stacks of paper with bespoke organizational symbols in the upper corner. In the end, all of them required too much paper shuffling in order to find anything. Digital tools are too useful not to take advantage of here.
But my experience with digital tools has been fraught. In part that’s due to my own general Ludditism: I don’t own a smartphone, and I refuse to even consider relying on web based tools. “Sorry guys, we can’t play today, the website is down.” is an absolutely unacceptable possibility for me. Then there’s all the effort that will be involved to extract my game’s data when the web tool inevitably goes belly up, or gets bought out by some VC firm who makes it unusable. I have a strong preference for software that can be run locally, with a minimum of bloat.
I’ll say it again: organizing campaign notes is frustrating. But I did recently find an option that I’m reasonably happy with, and would like to share.
(Sorry I couldn’t unfold any of the interesting text. My players might be spying on this blog even as we speak >.>)
Libre Office is an open source suite of office software. It replaced the old OpenOffice project, and is currently the primary Free Software alternative to Microsoft Office. It’s a nice piece of software that I recommend in general, but is specifically useful for this hidden feature demonstrated in the video. The ability to to treat header text as a folder for all the body text written beneath, which can then be revealed or hidden with a click of the mouse.
To enable this feature you’ll need a reasonably recent version of LibreOffice. Navigate to Tools ▸ Options ▸ LibreOffice ▸ Advanced. On that tab, under “Optional Features,” check the box next to “Enable experimental features.” This will require restarting the application. Now you can navigate to Tools ▸ Options ▸ LibreOfficeWriter ▸ View, and check the box next to “Show outline-folding buttons.” Optionally, I also recommend navigating to View ▸ Web for the best effect. Page breaks are an unnecessary complication when your text is going to be expanding and contracting.
Once that’s done you’re good to go. To set text as a foldable heading, use the dropdown menu in the upper left to make it a heading. A little button should appear beside the text (you may need to hover to see it). If you click this, all the text beneath the heading (down to the next heading) will disappear. Clicking it again will cause the text to reappear. Fill the spaces beneath headings with all the tables, keys, and background information you like! I should point out that I’ve had the best luck using “Default Paragraph Text” here. For whatever reason, selecting “Body Text” has sometimes caused the folding function to stop working properly. I’m not sure why, except that this is an experimental feature and not yet fully developed.
There’s a lot I love about this method. It keeps my notes tidy, no matter how voluminous they get. It’s easy to use at the table since all the headings fit on about two digital pages. The fact that it’s built into a word processor means there’s a minimum of barrier between USING the tool (folding and unfolding it) and MAKING the tool (adding new text, removing old text.) No need to interrupt my writing process to reference special syntax any time I want to add a new header.
No solution is perfect, of course. The way you need to carefully select the way your body text is tagged is irritatingly fiddly. The feature also doesn’t seem to be well optimized. Scrolling through a large document causes the application to chug, and there’s often quite a bit of lag when folding and unfolding text. (Both issues visible in the video above). Some of that’s just down to word processors being kinda bloated pieces of software, which is why I usually write in text editors. None the less, I haven’t found any quicker or easier alternatives yet.
I should note that Microsoft Office does have a similar tool, which presumably works just as well (or better) than LibreOffice’s unfinished feature. My friend Chris H. also swears by a piece of software called Scrivener. From the looks of it, I think Scrivener would be an ideal solution to my campaign note organization needs. I’d happily pay their $50 fee to use the software. Sadly they have no linux compatible version, so I must do without. Thus I can only pass on a second-hand recommendation from Chris H.
BTW, while I’ve got you here: my friend Ava is a SuperCoolLady™ and needs some help funding her transition. If you’ve got a few dollars to spare, that’d be a very SuperCoolLady™ thing for you to spend them on.
I got together with Arnold K. (of Goblin Punch) to play some D&D recently. I ran him through an accelerated version of CM8 – The Endless Stair, an Ed Greenwood module from 1987. Once we’d played through the whole thing we talked about it for about an hour. By the time we were done the adventure was pretty thoroughly juiced, I’d say.
We also recorded ourselves while doing these things. If that sounds like it would amuse you, you’ll find the videos below. The first is our play session, and the second is our discussion.
Today my review of Mother’s Malady went live on Bones of Contention. As this is my first contribution to that site, it seems as good a time as any to direct my readership towards it.
Bones of Contention is a multi-user blog dedicated to providing substantive reviews of TTRPGs and their associated works. It’s a slick little project with a great little crew of skeleton reviewers. The blog’s introductory post goes into more detail about what our overall goals are, and who we are individually.
I must admit I’ve been having fun. I promised myself long ago that I wouldn’t become a reviewer, but now that I’ve let myself off the leash I’ve got 3 reviews fully written and a 4th nearly so. My series on the site is called “Flying Dice,” and it’ll run periodically as we cycle through everyone at a rate of one post per week. Everyone has their own goals and style and preferences, but the hope is that we’re similar enough in our likes and dislikes that similarly inclined people will find our thoughts useful.
For those who use the dread birbsite, there is an account that’ll post links to each review as it goes up: @BonesOfContention.
I hope everyone is having a pleasant summer. Stay cool, stay safe, get vaxx’d!
Before anything else, I want to apologize for writing two posts in a row which prompt you to spend money. Its been my entire 2021 output so far. Hopefully I’ll have something more substantive to offer before too long.
My callow justification for this behavior is that Ava from Permanent Cranial Damage has written a game that I think is really quite special. Now, I’m not an authority on the vast breadth of TTRPG systems. I’ve even been known to brag—only partially facetiously—that I’ve ascended beyond the need for written rules. If I were to write a system, it would be more of a collection of philosophical essays and modular tools than a coherent game.
Errant’s “rules light, procedure heavy” approach is a sort of middle ground between the real needs of players at the table, and my own heady desires. In that sense, it is much closer to the sort of system I think I would write than probably any other book I’ve encountered. I’ve been participating in the playtest for several months now, and having a delightful time. I’ve been playing a family of nihilists who are each searching for The Good Death. So far Dire, Pyre, and Byre have all met the grisly ends they sought, and the latest member of the family, Unyr, will likely not be too long in joining them.
Full disclosure: Ava is a friend, so my judgement is somewhat colored by my desire to see my friend succeed. I also have some stake in the project as a volunteer working on layout and helping to round out a few d100 tables.
All of that being said, I really do think Errant is worth a look if you’re at all interested in TTRPG systems.
Good morning! Health and happiness to everyone this fine Friday, and an extra Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate it. It is time once again for me to fulfill my part of the Faustian pact I made with The Red Beast of the North. In exchange for the occasional magical nudge to my die rolls, I must annually humiliate myself by writing and performing a song about D&D, sung to the tune of some Christmas carol or other.
If you’re new to reading Papers & Pencils, be advised that this particular tradition is now in its seventh year. There’s a whole playlist of these for you to mock, each one with even worse singing than the next!
This year I wanted to give the Magic User some attention. I love Magic Users. I love how few spells they get, how fragile they are, and how little control they have over their mystic repertoire. I particularly love calling them “Magic Users,” which is so much more appropriate than the grandiose sounding “Wizard” or “Sorcerer” favored by later iterations of the rules. It is the first class I ever played in an OSR-style game, and one which helped me better understand what I want out of play.
If anyone needed more evidence of how slipshod this whole operation is, by the by, know that I didn’t realize how short Away in a Manger is before I had fully committed myself both to that melody and the song’s narrative thread. I really wanted to fit a denouement in there, but that would have required a modicum of planning, which is against the rules of my previously mentioned Faustian bargain.
Away in a Dungeon – Lyrics
Away in a dungeon, amid a pell mell, a young magic user has only one spell. Now lost to her comrades, she clings to torchlight, while searching for help in the dark dungeon night.
What good is ‘Hold Portal’ to a fledgling mage? Why must she roll for spells in this day and age? Her grumbling and grousing alerted a Graw, who offered her “safety” within its sharp maw.
Praying for a refuge, through dungeon she fled. To dart through a doorway–plans sparked in her head! One spell released deftly with Graw on her heel, knocked low by a door held with mystical zeal.
The Financier is a phenomenal little class recently posted over on Basic Red. The idea is that you’re the wastrel offspring of some far off nobility. Too pampered to be any use on an adventure. Your main ability is to spend money on the rest of the party, and to gather a cabal of attaches which grows as you level. The usefulness of these varies, which is perfect. The class seems designed to be halfway between help and handicap for the rest of the party. I’m itching to play one.
I’m curious how the resources of the class would play at the table. 1000 money is certainly way more than most parties have to start with, but it’s also not enough to fully equip the party in the best mundane gear. Depending on where you get your gear prices from a set of plate mail might cost 450 (LL), 1,000 (LotFP), 1,200 (DCC). You’ll definitely need to make intelligent choices. I like that, but I also feel like this is something I’d want to tinker with after playtesting it a bit. Striking the balance between rich enough to open up interesting new possibilities, but poor enough to force intelligent choices is going to be a tricky balance to strike. One that will be particular to each campaign’s economy.
I really like the idea that the Financier allows the party to bring siege weapons to bear against dungeon problems. “If you think a catapult would help, I can buy us a catapult.” That sorta thing. Not in the first adventure, but once they’ve got a few treasure hauls and had their wealth doubled that would be a fun way to take things.
John Salway & Jesse Cox on g+ have already suggested the addition of a Lawyer attache. Someone who could whip up contracts and help smooth over legal troubles. I’d like to further suggest:
Tame Philosopher: Educated enough to make any nonsense sound deep. Their primary role is to have conversations with the financier that make their employer feel smart. Once per level the Financier may roll an intelligence check as if they had 18 in that ability. The Tame Philosopher may be deployed to distract any faux-intellectuals the party comes across.
Groom: Tends to any animals the party has brought with them. Keeps them properly fed, trained, and presentable. Any rolls that would normally be made to direct these creatures gain a bonus of 1. Creatures may learn 1 more trick than normally allowed.
Priest: A spiritual advisor to the Financier, whose primary job is to theologically justify their actions. Their presence makes the Financier immune to guilt.
I’d also explicitly note that these attendants can’t be left behind. They go wherever the Financier goes, making all sorts of racket.
Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it! I hope you’ve had a lovely morning because it’s time for my annual humiliation. I think the lyrics came together real well this year. I’m either getting the hang of this, or I’m hitting that first Dunning Kruger peak. You be the judge.
The video is also somewhat competently put together this year. I don’t edit video frequently enough to justify pricey editing software, and in the past I’ve really struggled to figure out even a marginally consistent workflow with free software. This year I started using Lightworks, which is a messy pain in the ass piece of software, but is reasonably usable and consistent compared to every other free video editor I’ve used.
Of course, I still blow the levels on the audio a bit. Also the Nikon D300S that I use for my day job as a professional-ass photographer is remarkably shitty at capturing video. Let’s call it part of the charm. Yeah. My videos have an intentional “bad video” aesthetic. That’s it. If you don’t like it, it’s just because you don’t get it.
Here comes an owl bear, here comes an owl bear Right down the dungeon lane Two claw attacks n’ a nasty beak That’ll leave you feelin’ maimed Hooting Horrors howl with hunger It’s a terrible plight Draw your sword and say your prayers ‘Cause the owl bear wants a bite
Here comes a b’holder, here comes a b’holder Right down the dungeon lane Stalks of Eyes with evil surprise Like an anti magic ray! Round and floaty greedy tyrant braggadocios bore Hurry up and stab that thing Oops it was a Gas Spore
Here comes a pudding, here comes a pudding right down the dungeon lane Goopy, drippy, thick and sticky Boy they are such a pain Can’t be chopped or stabbed or kicked That would only make more Better wake the wizard up ‘Cause we need a spell or four
Here comes a dragon, here comes a dragon Right down the dungeon lane Color-coded treasure hoarder famously too vain Make a save vers. dragon’s breath Hope your dice roll high Best prep well if you want that gold and you do not want to die
For those who don’t know, every Christmas I make a fool of myself by writing and performing a D&D Christmas Carol. It all started back in 2012 with “Dark Lord Wenceslaus,” which I followed up in 2015 with “Damage Dice the Ref Rolled High.” That’s when I decided to make a tradition of it, so in 2016 there was “Searching for Silver and Gold,” (ironically, not to the tune of “Silver and Gold.”) and now, this year, there is “Silent Thief, Greedy Thief.”
Now, if you’ve listened to any of these, you know full well that I am not a singer. (Nor am I much of a songwriter, but that’s neither here nor there). This year, though, I developed a terribly persistent, phlegmy cough on November 30th, and as I type this on December 19th, I’m still coughing. That’s why there haven’t been many episodes of Blogs on Tape lately, and its’ also why I’m struggling to get through this song.
But this exercise has never been about producing high quality music. It’s just a fun little thing I do to get myself into the Christmas spirit, and exercise some creative muscles that I don’t normally get to play with.
So enjoy the song, and from all of me to all of you: I wish you well. Whether Christmas is your jam or not, I hope you find some joy today.
Lyrics
Silent Thief, Greedy Thief. All is yours, in your sight. Cleric’s potions, Fighter’s coin, Wizard’s wands your fav’rite toy. Picking pockets is easy, when your friends are sleeping.
Silent Thief, Greedy Thief. Dungeon halls in torchlight. Check for traps; one. Nothing’s here. From the ceiling poison darts appear. Make your saving throw. Pray you don’t roll low.
Silent Thief, Greedy Thief. You can climb any wall. Stupid players think others can’t, just because the rules say you can. Handholds are for weaklings, that is all this rule means.
Silent Thief, Greedy Thief. Afterthought of a class. Genre staple for many years, not ’til Greyhawk did you appear. Since then always in vogue. These days they call you a rogue.
Silent Thief, Greedy Thief. Skirting fights is your right. Foes are there for fighters to face. Help from you would be a disgrace. Just get in one backstab, to justify your loot bag.
