Part of a dungeon map drawn by Dysonlogos, with notes on the side describing what's in each room.

Working on a small dungeon for my open table. As always, the scope has escaped me.

LORE - A Lord of the Rings Adventure Game Retroclone "I would draw some of the great tales in fullness, and leave many only placed in the scheme, and sketched. The cycles should be linked to a ...

Every year, I reread the LotR trilogy. This last year's reread amped me up and I started keying Middle-earth 12 miles at a time

Concurrently, without meaning to, I wrote a game to run the hexcrawl

I call it Lore - a Lord of the Rings Adventure Game retroclone

Here's what I think is fun about it🧵

Exciting!!

This looks neat! An expansion and adaptation of my Middle-earth Hexcrawl crafting rules - now, for YOUR dungeon fantasy game.

This one also comes with a part 2 – Materials and Ingredients!

Mithril, Tiersal, Cold Iron; magical herbs and MONSTER PARTS! This is why you played a monster hunter...

hardboiledfantasyland.blogspot.com/2026/04/mate...

I blogged again!

A crafting system with all the fun and none of the work...because I've done the work for you!

Enchantments! New items! One easy roll a week! Perfect for any table, especially open ones.

Check it out, give me feedback and share!

hardboiledfantasyland.blogspot.com/2026/04/craf...

Tad, and Tad's father, Dad.

(Belongs to one of my players in my OSE open table, Caelfall.)

Where did you buy it? I can't find them easily

Foraging tends to focus on rations, but this post explores what if crafting was the focus? These homebrew rules & some new & modified items for OSE got me thinking more about foraging & the purpose it serves in game world and at the table. Consider giving it a read, esp. if you forage in OSE.

I blogged!

Been writing a fair number of house rules for my OSE open table, and figured I could throw some of them online.

Here are my Foraging rules! Something different to what I've seen elsewhere... perhaps they interest you? No more rations!

hardboiledfantasyland.blogspot.com/2026/04/fora...

I’m looking for folks in the NSR scene who’s like to collaborate on a cooperative newsletter. Please DM me here or on Discord (dododecahedron) if you might be interested, and I’ll share some details! #osr #nsr #ttrpg
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These are incredible. Where did you source the original images from God's Man?

Two players down! The dragon is bloodied but not yet done... so the party have pulled the trigger and are now attempting to get out! Its a race against time as the lava threatens to engulf their unconscious forms.

The party can't miss! They can't help but Crit! The dragon on the other hand has rolled nothing but 1s and 2s...

The party have chugged Potions of Flight (one laced with an Enlarge spell!) and are duking it out in midair over the rising magma of the volcano shaft! For this fight I have drawn five elevation levels of the volcano's shaft and are dodging between them in Owlbear.

A tornado of flame fills the air!

The party have decided to take on CORTIRAVONAX, OF THE CONFLAGRANT WINGS OF TIAMAT, summoned to protect the Red Dragon Mask. There was much talk of fleeing, the cowards!

Los Angeles Wildfire Relief Sale by Gem Room Games A bundle by Gem Room Games, $76.50 for 19 games

Gem Room Games was founded in Los Angeles. We love it deeply.

So we're putting our whole @itch.io catalog on sale, 25% off for the rest of January, to raise some funds to support relief efforts from these horrific fires.

Whether as a bundle or individual games, 100% of every $ spent goes to help.

Immediately upon publishing this post I was directed to this fantastic piece from Josh at Rise Up Comus. Alas, nothing is original. I've decided to leave mine up cause while his raises the same question as mine, I feel I contribute a little to the discussion

riseupcomus.blogspot.com/2023/12/reas...

Do we need to play games to review them? I have been reading a fair number of reviews lately and it's sparked some thoughts. Do we need to play the games we review?

I've been reading a fair number of reviews recently, and it's prompted some thoughts... do we need to play the games we review? I'm undecided.

hardboiledfantasyland.blogspot.com/2025/01/do-w...

As I said (and was shunned for)... give me a Traveller game where I have to compute my ship's trajectory myself using PHYSICS.

Glad to read someone else shares my love for CRUNCH! Bring on the tactical shenanigans!

This is fun. The more ways there are to slay dragons, the better. Or befriend/seduce them depending on who you ask. However you choose to hit the dragon, there are options.

2500 HP Dragons This post is in conversation with two spectacular blog posts discussing boss monsters, number crunching and making truly memorable encounter...

Blog Post Time!

Here I defend horrific HP bloating as Actually A Good Thing Sometimes™️ ~ Enter the 2500 HP Dragon: www.failforward.moe/2025/01/2500...

Dynamic Blogroll for Bearblog (and other sites) Jealous of Blogger's blogroll feature? Learn how to create a similar dynamic blogroll for your site with this guide—perfect for DIY web enthusiasts!

I may have spent way too much time on this, but if you've ever wanted your own dynamic blogroll, I've got you covered.

Fair warning: it does take a bit of effort to set up!

elmc.at/dynamic-blog...

God. I'm exhausted.

Swingy fights are not just restricted to hit points... some fights are super fun and satisfying, 5E working at its tactical best. Others are grindy, slow, save-or-suck fests.

Two and a half hours into a 15th level 5E boss fight. Keeping track of such a complex system for so long... things I didn't want to miss have slipped through the cracks, which was probably inevitable, but frustrating because I know this combat could have been better.

Thank you for voting. This is the last round—The 1 HP Dragon v. In Praise of Legwork. You can't go wrong with either, all of these blog posts were great.

Earlier today I shared how much I wish I had done more legwork writing The 1 HP Dragon, so it's only fitting I face my anxieties.

Voting 🗳️⤵️

What module did you run?

I wonder if perhaps the reason it's done so well has something to do with its "mostly-vibes" vibe? Not that you should refrain from improving it!