Darlene the artist who created the original Greyhawk map is selling her shrink wrapped Holmes boxed set. #dnd #osr #ttrpg #holmes #basicdnd https://www.ebay.com/itm/134723419940?pb=0&action=BID&autorefresh=true

Episode 61 - OD&D and Holmes Basic

This episode, I take a look at how I’ve used Holmes Basic with my OD&D (and AD&D) games, and a quick comparison of differences between the influential Basic set and the original game.

https://chgowiz.substack.com/p/episode-61-od-and-d-and-holmes-basic

#ttrpg #dnd #odnd #holmes #BasicDnD

The next day as they explored a new area the random encounter dice kicked up two identical rolls of Horse Nomads coming into the city to camp. So the PCs spent the day and night with 30+ plains nomads and nearly decided to ride off with them and change the campaign utterly.

The dice were having a day….

#TTRPG #basicDnD

The next day they headed back to the ruined city that is their primary dungeon and that night had an encounter with a single fire beetle (rare event) which then attacked a prepared person (nigh impossible) then fled only to return 3 hours later to repeat. They kill it and find it had a damaged head carapace that healed back but apparently left it aberrant rather than the random encounter dice being weird.

#ttrpg #BasicDnD

Lots of OSR fun today as the PC got right to the threshold of something too tough for them and then realized it and backed off. Then a potentially deadly nighttime encounter with dire wolves while the magic-user was on watch was defused by my milieu specific version of the _Friends_ spell that calls on old compacts to smooth negotiations giving the exact Gandalf moment I wanted when I wrote the spell description.

#TTRPG #BasicDnD

#RPGaDay2023 Game you WISH you owned
I don't need or want a lot these days, but having a copy of the UK Edition of Holmes Basic would be nice.
#basicdnd #ttrpg #dnd
https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2023/08/rpgaday2023-game-you-wish-you-owned.html

#RPGaDAY2023 Day 5: Oldest game you've played - Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (first edition - not that it was called that until the second edition appeared!) I'd started with #BasicDnD, but found from #WhiteDwarf (back when it did RPGs) that #ADnD seemed seemed more popular, so I made the leap after a couple of years. Those battered hardbacks are still on my shelf, but now only occasionally opened for curiosity/nostalgia - I don't expect to be playing a game in that style again myself...

#RPGaDAY2023 #ttrpg First game ever played - Moldvay #BasicDnD way back in the early 80s. First game this year - @TheTweedmeister’s #OutOfTheAshes, GMed by @Jwmuk

All of these dice are over 40+ yrs old, collected in the ‘80’s from various ttrpgs and games. In fact, the small white 6-sided dice are the oldest - over 60 yrs (originally bought by my mum). I’m so glad I kept all of these. Each is like a little history lesson in my hand.
Do you recognise the games some of these came from? (I still have most of them)

#p2e #ttrpg #dice #polyhedral #d20 #DungeonsAndDragons
#pathfinder #DM
#DnD5e #FifthEdition #wotc #ADnD #BasicDnD #osr #oldschool

#BasicDnD & #ExpertDnD were my first #ttrpgs in ‘81. I still have my earliest hand written adventures, including the first homebrew dungeon I #TPK ‘d my friends in 😂👍

#dnd #5e #osr #ttrpg #maps #map #oldschool #cartography #gaming #DnD5e #tabletopRolePlayingGame #tabletop #fantasy #handdrawn #RolePlayingGame #RPG #DungeonMaster #OldSchoolEssentials #ose #DungeonsAndDragons #ADnD #AdvancedDungeonsAndDragons

Review: Blue Flame, Tiny Stars
A memoir of one man's first experiences with Dungeons & Dragons that lets you relive your own experiences too. A must-have for anyone that grew up on Basic D&D.
#dnd #basicdnd @stephenwendell https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2023/03/review-blue-flame-tiny-stars.html

@Yora @artikid the whole second arc of my run-for-the-kids #13thAge game was Quagmire because I refuse to die without at least trying all the modules I own. I had to redo a lot - there was a political mystery bit in Quagmire proper to get the refugees behind them, the main villains became Sahaugin, there were Dunwater-esque Lizard Men for the PCs ally with, Thanatos was a pirate haven they needed to clear out - but the bones of the adventure worked and the kids had a blast.

#BX #BasicDnD

@Yora it’s hard for people to get away from the enticements of “here is your PCs list of powers to use in combat” and “the fight is the reward”.

People enjoy the power fantasy of combat that feels dangerous but is weighted for them to win to show off their badassosity. And in some games that’s great. But don’t also expect that game to do a lot of other things - such fights suck up mechanical space and table time.

#BasicDnD doesn’t do that so there’s so much energy for other stuff.

A day late but not a dollar short as I present the first of four blog posts on Under the Giants Shadow session 1, in which our neophyte adventurers collect and share rumors about the giant destroyed city of Lost Galmagia.

http://subplotkudzu.blogspot.com/2023/03/lost-galmagia-game-write-up-session-11.html?m=1

#Dungeon23 #BasicDnD #TTRPg

And they absolutely don't know that around the corner is a group of Goblin Warriors (one of whom speaks Common). If the Goblins see how beat up they are, they'll attack; otherwise they fall back to block the path into their territory, hoping the PCs will just leave. But any future relations with the goblins will be tainted by watching them hack up fire beetles for their light glands...

The world feels dynamic already. (3/3)

#WanderingMonsters #BasicDnD #Dungeon23

I quickly decided the traditional Goblins had shown up and found their holy rooms sealed off, and went back to tell the tribe something was up. The next time the dice called for a wandering monster it was the end of the session and the PCs had just escaped being consumed by fire beetles by getting through a concealed door and spiking it shut. They don't know where they are, and they certainly don't know this corridor loops back to the goblin entrance

#WanderingMonsters #Dungeon23 #BasicDnD

On wandering monsters: last session the PCs wisely spiked doors closed around them while they explored what is, unbeknownst to them, the rooms where the Goblins drop off their honored dead to be symbolically carried into the underworld by fire beetles (who bury the bodies in mud to feed their eggs). When the wandering monsters turned up Goblins but there was no logical way for the goblins to get in (they never use the entrance the PCs used...) 1/x

#Dungeon23 #WanderingMonsters #BasicDnD

Finishing out the first level of Lost Galmagia in my Under the Giants Shadow game with the inevitable dungeon cult, magic snakes, and a strangely shaped building.

http://subplotkudzu.blogspot.com/2023/02/lost-galmagia-under-moon-ward.html?m=1

#Dungeon23 #BasicDnD #TTRPg

As a DM I enjoy moments where the players contemplate good ideas before abandoning them for lazy ideas (we don’t need to light our torches yet, these fire beetles are benign and give off plenty of light!).

The PCs have just escaped an overwhelming fire beetle attack via excellent in the moment ideas. Alas two members of the party are at 1 HP, no one is unscathed and they just spiked a secret door behind them with no idea how to get back to the surface.

#Dungeon23 #BasicDnD

One more update before the first game day; expect next week to be the next 7 rooms Monday, a write up of play Wednesday and more rules mods Friday as the new pattern.

http://subplotkudzu.blogspot.com/2023/02/lost-galmagia-clerical-spells-and_02025453601.html

#Dungeon23 #TTRPG #BasicDnD