EldritchRusk

So you want to start with role-playing games, but not sure where to begin? This post will hopefully help you get started, and make an initial adventure.      Tiers of Investment - Money and time First up, you should invest some time in deciding what rules to use. Dungeons and Dragons is not the only game in town, and there are a lot of fun games out there! Some of the biggest games can be expensive to jump into, and some of them have multiple books you need to buy. This section will hopefully help you think about what sort of money and time investment you want to commit to. I have created this small table to illustrate some options. When I write [big game], I am talking about the most popular games. For example Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder, Cyberpunk, Shadowrun, etc. Tiers of investment Open to other things Only [big game] Save money Tier 1 Tier 2 Spend money Tier 3 Tier 4 ...

What is this?   This is a hack that will work for most OSR games. It takes the spell system from Wonders & Wickedness , but removes spell slots (or character level) and uses Hit Dice instead. I love the magic system from W&W , but I found its progression to be a bit too linear and rigid. Therefore me and Sigve from Revenant's Quill got together and created this little thing. Why use this? This system is applicable if you want a spell system that allows the caster to have greater control of how powerful each of their spells are going to be. Heads up! Using this system with a normal spell list, like the one found in OSE or Lamentation, will require a lot of tweaking of those spells   The HD Magic System No slots: Instead of spell slots, use hit dice (HD). This means that a level 1 Magic-User can cast one spell. A level 2 Magic-User can cast two spells, or one more powerful one.  Casting a spell: When casting a spell, roll at least one hit die. You may roll a numbe...

This is a small list of creatures - either inspired by, or taken from, norse mythology or Scandinavian folklore.     Most of these creatures are sentient and not designed to be fought. The statblocks are created for Old School Essensials , and therefore compatible with other OSR products. I prefer ascending AC, and have not included the treasure statline.   All of the artwork in this post is done by the famous Norwegian artist Theodor Kittelsen .   Bearmen  Bearmen is my take on Bugbears, with a folklore flavor. Infants left in the woods are sometimes found by creatures of the dar k (1) . The child will change into a new type of creature. They will grow thick pelt, long horns and claws, and a bear-like snout. These creatures are often dubbed ‘Bearmen’ by ignorant villagers. Bearmen often live in forests, and keep to themselves. They seldom interact with humans, but when they do so with great skepticism. They remember their past and the tales from their fost...

Adam is fully immersed      What is Immersive Sims? First, some clarifications! What is immersive sims? Immersive simulations is a term used about a certain category of video games. Games like Deus Ex, Dishonoured, Prey, System Shock and Thief all fall under this category. This Game Maker's Toolkit video gives an excellent overview of the genre, and its connection to rpgs. Immersive sims and roleplaying games have a lot in common. Most immersive sims are based on the same principles found in rpgs: Give the player(s) options and tools to explore and solve problems. Don’t force them down a single path, but give them a wide array of options and see what happens. This is a pretty common way of DMing (at least for the DM’s I know). However, what I really want to focus on in this post is the level design of immersive sims, because I think that DM's can learn a lot from them. Why are immersive sim level design so interesting? Well, mainly because it has to facilitate a lot of d...