erisred.bsky.social

🧵 🧵A little about my current Shadowdark game: Standing at the Job Board in the Guild Hall, the party split! One coalesced around a job entailing guard duty for a short trip to a neighboring town while another group decided to deal with a "rat's in the basement" problem reported by a local baker.

5/ Once in Jesselton they met a new character and had a night of carousing where they gained some XP and as luck would have it a couple of magic items. The next day the new PC joined them on an herb gathering expedition. They made it to the valley easily.

6/ There they have come across the entrance to some place deep and dark and long buried underground. Will they explore, or save it for another day?

3/ Now The Rats Group have been hired by the Town, itself, to clean out the rest of these tunnels. They know there's more down there than rats. I hope they haven't bitten off more than the monsters can chew!

4/ The other group, let's call them the Guards, made their way from Slateholm to Jesselton. On the way, they paid a bribe to some Barklings to let them pass, fought a bear, and completely wreaked an ambush set by Kobolds!

2/ The Rats Group found a hole in the basement floor and descended by rope into old, forgotten, tunnels under the town and fought a rat swarm. Injured, but triumphant they climbed back up, covered the hole and took their pay.

Shadowdark has become my fantasy RPG of choice over the last year. The Free Player's and GM Guides are enough for anyone to get started and the full book with Player, GM, and Monsters included is 1/3 the price of the Big Kahuna.

The feel of Shadowdark is decidedly old-school were rulings often trump rules. Anything can be tried, at any time, it's just a matter to be worked out between player and guide. Streamlined and accessible rules, inexpensive costs, lots of fun that's Shadowdark!

As for role playing in the far future, though, Traveller is still my game! Classic Traveller with many enhancements like the 68AC task system and bits and pieces from the many versions that have appeared over the years.

I hear folks say that Shadowdark is only good for dungeon crawls, not so! Yes, it is great for crawls...hex or dungeon, but it works fine for every sort of role play I've thrown at it.

Characters can be as complex, or as simple, as the player wants them to be and they all still work with each other. Options are limited only by the player and guide's imagination. New classes are easy to create and although it's not in the book, multi-classing is perfectly possible.

15 Dec 2024

And why I became a history major in College.

15 Dec 2024

Churchill's History of the English-Speaking Peoples occupied a several months of my reading. I found it worth the time!

14 Dec 2024

This was my first introduction to Lord Peter Wimsey, and what an introduction it was! Anyone who enjoys a good mystery should check out all of Dorothy Sayers' Wimsey books, and Harriet Vane, the "tainted" woman he falls for, saves from the noose, and finally wears down until she says yes.

13 Dec 2024

For those who roleplay, but can't find a face-to-face group, playing in forums is an alternative. Unseen Servant is a good site to find games and gamers and offers an eclectic selection of role playing games.

12 Dec 2024

At 14 it was my first foray into Detective Mystery stories and started a life long interest. BTW, I can no more envision Holmes without seeing Jeremy Brett than I can envision Poirot without seeing David Suchet.

11 Dec 2024

The silliness of Wodehouse can't help but make you laugh. Someone needs to create a role playing game where there are two Classes: Gentlemen and Gentlemen's Gentlemen and all the plots are Wodehousian nonsense!

11 Dec 2024

Maybe one more Class, certain young Ladies of marriageable age? Yes, they might qualify as PC's rather than NPC's, but very one else is a Monster. :)

10 Dec 2024

I never knew this existed until I was grown and happened upon an animated version on TV. I had to go search out the book immediately.

9 Dec 2024

I didn't start reading this series until I was in my 20's. I should have started in my early teens.

8 Dec 2024

I first read Asimov's youth science books, mostly sitting in the library while in Junior High school. I then moved on to "I Robot" and the "Foundation" trilogy. I had to go back and reread years later to really get everything Asimov was writing.

7 Dec 2024

First book I ever read! My Mom read me this countless times, and then sat and acted excited and interested when I read it back to her countless more times.

7 Dec 2024

And after she was born, I held my sister on my lap while I read this to her countless times more. It's certainly not a "classic", but for me it was the gateway drug to reading.

I was 23 when I first got D&D. Frankly, I didn't fully understand the rules, but I did understand the intent...or my intent anyway. Just enough rules to prevent the "I shot you!", "No you didn't!" of children's imagination games. Cooperative Story-telling for the win!

I was 26 when Traveller came out. It quickly became my favorite game pushing D&D to the side.