Halberts is a super short set of rules for a Fantasy Traveller game. It's 16 pages including the title page.
Rules:
https://alexschroeder.ch/pdfs/Halberts.pdf
Example starting valley:
https://alexschroeder.ch/pdfs/Altenstein.pdf
Halberds & Helmets is set of house rules for classic D&D. It started as a super short Labyrinth Lord extract for my players, with house rules, got its own monsters and spell, and so on. The player facing rules are just 18 pages.
For players:
https://alexschroeder.ch/pdfs/Halberds-and-Helmets.pdf
To run the game, incl. monsters:
https://alexschroeder.ch/pdfs/Halberds-and-Helmets-Ref-Guide.pdf
Spells:
https://alexschroeder.ch/pdfs/spellcasters/Spellcasters.pdf
Podcast, if you're into podcasts:
https://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/Halberds_and_Helmets_Podcast
Character generator:
https://campaignwiki.org/character-sheet-generator/random/en
Setting:
https://campaignwiki.org/hex-describe/describe/random/alpine
One of my German multi-referee campaign also accepts English speaking players and referees. For the moment it's mostly players in UTC+1 and we mostly play on weekday evenings. Doesn't mean this can't change, though. 😄 Many of our pages are bilingual. Check it out, if you're interested.
https://campaignwiki.org/wiki/MontagInZ%c3%bcrich/HomePage
#RPG related apps I host:
https://campaignwiki.org/wiki/Apps
turning of the wheel
In the Late Bronze Age, the dominant form of shield in Europe was small and round with a wooden boss over the handgrip, carved from one piece of wood. From about 500 BCE to 200 CE, long shields with a central ridge were popular in northern Europe (Iberians and Hellenes still liked round shields). Then back to bigger round shields assembled from glued planks with an iron boss from the year 200 to the year 1000. #shields
Something from a recent Dan Carlin's Hardcore History episode: a mail shirt (the simplest kind) takes 4 people 18 months (6 person years) and is the equivalent of 2 helmets (each taking 3 person years) which is the equivalent of 2 sets of spears+shield+sword (so each of these could be seen as a person year?). So weird.
@slyflourish My son wanted to play all weekend for his 18th birthday. So much fun was had (and empty calories consumed).
@enfors's #TTRPGDiscussion questions are often interesting. It led to me wondering: How would you describe the joy that you get from playing the game?
If I were to describe my joy it would be something like "the exploration of and interaction with an existing, imaginary and independent world where I can be a different person" with one of the big consequences being that the world cannot be improvised by myself or a GM at the table. It have to believe that it "exists" somehow.
Now that the core of D&D is under Creative Commons, we look forward to an era of standardized RPG terminology. Let's look at some classic terms that have been with the hobby since the very early days, and how every game can benefit.
http://blog.trilemma.com/2023/01/an-era-of-standard-rpg-terminology.html
@rdonoghue @PlaneSailingGames in addition to the very real social issues around slavery and slavery narratives, its risky from a game design level too.
If your setting has slavery, and you're not thinking of it as a (or the) primary focus, then you're in a situation where the game can go full sideways really easily. Slavery is one of those issues that the entire game can become about in a second, and if that's not what you want you gotta ask why its there.
There are so many fantasy ttrpg that after some times, it seems easier to write one's own than to read endlessly in search for the best fitting one.
(so close to adapting https://xkcd.com/927/ )
So, next step, every referee runs the game they want to run, record it, and provide that RPG transcript analysis… 🙈 It's a of work, but it would perhaps be more relevant than those GM and player badges. Remember those?
A long time ago I picked some for myself as a referee:
https://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/My_GM_Badges
(I wonder if my players would agree with those assessments?)
And as a player:
https://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/My_Player_Badges
(Rereading those player badges they seem a bit … light on useful information.)
This sort of breakdown also explains how some people are unhappy… when I play with people that are a lot into first character in-game dialogue, I'm confused. When some players end up in my games and there's a lot of inquiry and feasibility discussion, a lot of actions, they might say it has a boardgame energy…
This transcription analysis that @fuseboy has been doing on this blog is amazing. So much legwork! There's an old school RPG session break down. Compare this the post I just boosted. So weird!
https://blog.trilemma.com/2023/01/update-some-analysis-with-whole.html
Over on my blog, I've been writing up the results of an analysis of RPG statements made at the table. A few years ago I got curious about differences in play style, but rather than in terms of the agendas of the participants, in terms of what kinds of things were being said.
Here's the ebb and flow of about 110 minutes of Critical Role, a style akin to a radio play: tons of in-character dialogue, and next to no discussion of fictional positioning or mechanics.
If you haven't taken ever taken a look at @kensanata 's Hex Describe -- I had forgotten how cool these were until he showed me what he generates for druid related hexes. Seriously cool stuff!
(Druid link in comment below)
A blog post about keeping a notebook with all your Advanced Squad Leader games so that you'll learn the rules better.
https://jekl.com/2022/03/26/getting-better-at-asl-one-mans-approach/
Wow! What a surprising turn of events.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1439-ogl-1-0a-creative-commons
Regarding that previous post about my gaming history, I find it hilarious that some problems seem to be eternal: «We played some classic modules until it fell apart. Scheduling problems? I can’t remember.» 😆
Just found some old blog posts where I talk about how I got to playing role-playing games as a kid.
«Back when I was about 12 we lived in Portugal and anything from Germany was “hot” and passed around in the community. My mother brought a boxed set of something she had gotten from friends: Das Schwarze Auge first edition aka. The Dark Eye. I was supposed to run it for her, the couple she had gotten it from, and their older foster children, if I remember this correctly.»
https://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2010-06-27_Gaming_History
Three more pages for Knives about having fun at the table and sources of adventure: community building, the built environment, raising a family.
https://alexschroeder.ch/wiki/2023-01-27_Adventures_and_Children
StuffI like bout Crack!: "Languages … Tinykin (gnomes, cooks, pranksters)" 😆 https://www.themerrymushmen.com/ressources-tmm/
I play older versions of D&D, variant retro clones, some indie games, some wargames; I write software to support my gaming.