Tomb of Horrors Rocks!

Grendelwulf has started up a new blog devoted exclusively to discussion of the classic AD&D module "The Tomb of Horrors"

AD&D Reprints Rock!

I know this blog is supposed to highlight the little guys, but this is too awesome to not mention.

WotC is offering a special, limited-edition reprinting of the original Advanced Dungeons and Dragons core rulebooks, to benefit the Gygax Memorial Foundation.

I'll be stopping by the Fantasy Shop to reserve my set today!

Preservation Rocks!

In honor of the Blackout today, I'm highlighting exactly the kind of site that could unnecessarily be a target of the SOPA legislation: the OSR Conservation Project.

From the site:

OSR Conservation Process

We are here to keep your free games freely available. Forever.

The intent and purpose of the OSR Conservation Process is to keep free valuable gaming artefacts permanently available. Gamers worldwide can ill afford losing legal access to useful game material: the so-called "OSR movement" was born out of retroclones written by enthusiastic people putting in a stupid amount of effort using the Open Gaming Licence.

This material, unless properly licenced, would be lost if right holders stopped distributing it, for example due to data loss or untraceable copyrights. One of the main reasons is the virality of the Open Gaming Licence, which prevents cross-licencing of products with other, more open, licences.

Using really simple words, you give us permission to distribute your free games, and we'll take care of it.

Forever

Well, at least we'll try to: the submitted files are immediately backed-up offsite and, after a period of grace (mostly to give time to users to catch improper uploads) the files will be bundled and distributed as both torrents and downloadable archives. We also plan to make available a virtual machine image of the OCP so, in case both our volunteers and servers die in a fire or something and the cleric didn't show up for the session, the next party of adventurers will be able to continue with the quest to keep free games freely available.

Jeff Rients Rocks! (so does Grognardling!)

Jeff's open letter to WotC concerning Fifth Edition rocks!

Like the Grognardling says, let's get WotC to take notice on this.

That's all I got for now; my open letter will be over A Pack of Gnolls soon.

On a day where everyone and their sister was having a come-apart over WotC finally announcing the new edition of D&D was coming, even though we all already knew it, this was easily the most Rock thing I saw.

Hot Naked Rakshasa Chick

New Features Rock!

One thing about the OSR that continues to impress me is the sheer quantity of quality material being produced on a regular basis to help people run their old-school D&D game. It's actually overwhelming a bit, because I keep finding more and more resources that I want to print out and have on hand for use at the table.

So, I'm taking this opportunity to showcase two new features of Your Dungeon is Rock, both over on the sidebar, which specifically links ro downloadable free PDFs of old-school gaming supplements. Not full RPG systems, mind you, but documents that are useful, at the table, to any old-school RPG.

Below that, is a list of links to every goddamn random chart I come across in my web travels that might remotely be of use. There are a lot out there, both charts and PDFs, and these both will be constantly updating projects here at Your Dungeon is Rock!

So, as I begin this, I'll need your help. If there are free PDF files out there not already listed in the sidebar, or really excellent random charts somewhere that really ought to get noticed, drop me a line at sully33 at gmail dot com, or make a comment here. Simple as that. Keep on rockin it old school!

Random Mapping Rocks!

Okay, so, three posts up today that grabbed my attention and made me say "Very Interesting" because they were all kind of connected. 

First, Telecanter is talking about giving players a map of the dungeon before they start hacking their way through it. Great, now the DM has to listen to the players plot and plan for hours and hours before any dice are rolled. Actually, I really like the idea. All of 'em. 

Next, we've got some random encounter thoughts from Father Dave at Blood of Prokopius, which offers a certain spin on random encounters that had never occurred to me, and I like it very much. 

Last but certainly not least, Jarvis at Aeons and Auguries has an interesting concept for mapping out a megadungeon: do it one little bit at a time. This I think is brilliant. I may be a little too OCD to just run with it like that, but I'm getting ready to send my kids into the Underdark, so we may have the perfect little laboratory here... 

Anyways, all you guys F'n rock!