There is a fundraiser going on for a Gygax memorial in Lake Geneva. Here’s your chance to be part of history.
I’m backing in for a paver but a worthy cause whatever you can contribute. The organizer, Paul Stormburg ran a game for me at Lake Geneva in the old Gygax house. Pretty special for me. Encourage you all to make the pilgrimage if and when you can.
Some snaps of my 2024 GaryCon visit for the 50th Anniversary.
I’d also encourage you to check out the “When We Were Wizards” podcast. A great oral history of the dawn of D&D, link follows: https://pods.to/whenwewerewizards
Still from “Return of the Living Dead” – Prisma Gothic filter
…2022
I stumbled on miniature game County Road Z being played in 15mm at Pacificon. I quickly sourced the rules and set them aside for a someday project.
…2023
Again at Pacificon, flea market delivered a large zombie wargaming collection in 15mm and I committed to hosting a game soonest.
…2024
I studied the rules, prepared a quick reference, and hosted a game for friends at Kublacon.
…today
The following are on offer in a workbook that collects:
a quick reference
an X / Y sheet
a random survivor generator
a 3×5 character card
Some thoughts
County Road Z (CRZ) is a fine little game from a first time indie publisher, Jordan Heckman – Earthbound Games. Looking forward to seeing what comes next.
CRZ at its heart is a solo or co-op miniatures wargame; but I can see room here for multiple players participating in something closer to an RPG.
Game play is nicely segmented into a tactical game of fighting off the living dead and a strategic game of resource management.
There is a virtual tabletop version! No miniatures, no space, no time – no problem – play online when you can.
My copy of the rules and supporting assets are based on v1 and should be compatible with the latest Modipus version, v2.
v2 is described as being a new layout for the same core rules, but with new settings – equipment – monsters – and so on.
I’m unlikely to pick-up the latest version of CRZ, but feel free to get in touch and request any edits that are linked to v2.
Today I’m celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons. I’m 53 myself this year and my experience with the game goes back over forty years. It’s strange to consider how this one game of imagination has impacted me on the whole, and I’ve written some about that here:
My fascination with The Lichway adventure continues and today I’m happy to release a new copy edit of the adventure. Tomorrow I’ll run this adventure for a friend’s birthday celbration.
The last of the print copies were distributed at North Texas RPG Con ‘25. There is a small chance that there are still a few copies still at Black Blade Publishing. That means there are 99 copies in circulation + my own personal copy. There are no plans for another print run.
Acknowledgement
My own copy edit of The Lichway is not the first, there is a very fine effort from 2023 which you can find here. Please let me know if there are other such efforts so they can be linked here.
In 2019 I started running Basic D&D using the Holmes Blue Box, I’ve written about that here. During that time my games were heavily house ruled with ideas that addressed how I wanted the game to work at my table. As new players joined in my open table games I committed to convert these house rules to something that more resembled a traditional rulebook.
It was an interesting, if not difficult, project producing a complete rpg rulebook. Even when this project was informed by concepts that are now familiar within our hobby. My guiding principle in this work was to produce an accessible reference to my interpretation of the game; simplifying concepts and to perhaps offer something new.
2020 and the quiet years that followed allowed me to run more games using these rules, all the while shaping and refining the presentation. What exists now is something that matches my original vision and these rules have been tested in well over a hundred sessions with dozens of players.
This work which I’ve termed “Holmes & Clark” is offered here without charge. Print on demand copies are made available at cost. My hope is that others will pick up these rules and attempt a game like D&D that is not overly complicated with expense or minutia, and rather; enjoy a fantasy adventure that can propel the imagination and excite the mind.
Hardcover – no longer available, sadly Lulu cannot produce an acceptable full-bleed color cover.
We now have a Discord server! Please get in touch if you would be interested in joining the conversation there, or find the link in the rule book.
Preview Pages
Update Nov 10
Jason Conerly of the Nerds RPG Variety Podcast has be on as a guest recently to talk about ol’ school games and the Holmes & Clark rules in particular. You check out that episode here.
The You Tuber “Hex Pressed” has done a read through (flip through?) of the Holmes & Clark rulebook. Check that out here.
Last week I read a blog post from an author who was pushing on ChatGPT-DM to run a game of D&D with little success. I didn’t exactly agree with how this author was interacting with the bot so I attempted a similar exercise. You can read a log of this exchange here.
While I had great fun engaging with the bot in the end I concluded that the bot itself has limited memory capacity and no logical decisioning needed for a game of D&D.
I had hoped to be able to teach the bot to do basic DM functions like make a reaction check and apply those results to the evolution of an encounter. It was not to be.
Finally I asked the bot to create a short blog post on our experience along with the challenges we faced:
Recently, I had the pleasure of playing Classic D&D with ChatGPT, a language model trained by OpenAI. We decided to create three characters: Neria, an Elf Lord, and her two bodyguards, Farman and Vaseline, who were also sea elf fighters.
Despite the challenges, we had a lot of fun playing Classic D&D with ChatGPT. The language model was quick to respond and provided us with interesting scenarios and challenges. We enjoyed the interactive nature of the game, and it was exciting to see how our characters’ actions influenced the game’s outcome.
Overall, our experience playing Classic D&D with ChatGPT was both fun and challenging. We encountered some difficulties with different rule sets, but we were able to overcome them and continue with our adventure. We look forward to playing more games with ChatGPT in the future.
Ever wonder what treasures are hidden away in the hoard of the Halfling Master? Dig into this blog for news, ideas, reviews, and other in depth information about anything surrounding the OSR, TTRPGs, and Miniatures hobbies. No piece of loot is too small or insignificant to be explored.
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